connecting to electricity/water/cable tv/internet

[PalmBeachDreamer]

The one place i find all my questions answered is this community forum!
I have a very simple question for those who are living in aruba, and that is...how do i go about connecting where i live to electricity/water/cable tv and internet and how long does the process take?
I am not an arubian, so will it be more hassle?

Thank you once again for your time!
Palmbeachdreamer

[purestone2004]

we just stood in line for all these services....alot of lines. But with patience you will get through them. Once we went through the line ups the service and hook ups were relatively quick. Our house was "used" though so the services already exsisted. My recommendation is to get the phone first then you can get the phone calls from the other services as to when they will be coming. Make sure to have proof of the house ownership (documents from the notary) and your ID. We spent about 10 days of a 2 week trip taking care of alot of this. Luckily now we have a good property manager that does all the work

[PalmBeachDreamer]

We already have the electricity in the building, but i need to go somewhere to connect it.
Where is the electricity dept?
And what cable tv and internet companies do you all recommend?
Hopefully we can connected before we move in!

[Tom and Karen]

As purestone said, take your notary paper. We also had our bank account set up, so the water and elect. are automatically deducted.

There is a Setar office west of the Tanki Flip round-a-bout. If I remember correctly, the water is down by the Balashi Plant.

We have cable TV. It cost ahout 50AFL (I think) per month & the charge to turn it on/off is only 30.00 AFL total. We only leave it on 6 months a year. There is direct tv also, but they were quite expensive when I priced them (over 3 years ago). Cable TV - if coming out of the airport, go straight. At the end of the road (Texas Furniture is on your right & Codemsa is straight ahead. Turn left and Cable TV Of Aruba will be on your left a ways down.

Both cable TV & Setar have internet service & require a min. 1 year contract. The cost is up to 100 AFL/month. We do not have internet service at our house. If you should find something cheaper, please let me know.

[purestone2004]

My husband just told me that yes the phone/highspeed internet through Setar is about 118AFL per month and cable is about 60AFL per month. We are a bit of internet/cable tv junkies so maybe you can get things cheaper than that. For Elmar/Web (electricity/water) we just changed the names on the bills as everything was still running to the house. Also for the gas we just changed the name on the bills.

[PalmBeachDreamer]

Ok, thanks.....now things are clearer!

[purestone2004]

it may seem that way now, but you know how it goes things never seem to go as smoothly as they should in my experience just be patient, very very patient. My poor husband spent quite a few days sitting in a lawn chair (pre-furniture) waiting for all the deliveries as we had no phone so we could get calls, thus the get the phone first idea. Good luck. We are happy to answer any and all questions you have, although I am sure their are many more folks on this boards with alot more knowledge.

[SanNic44]

Adding a few things...

get a cell phone from Setar and plenty of cards to add minutes. Then you'll have the ability to communicate.

Also, get marker of some kind, like an orange traffic cone or a bright red chair, and use this to "mark" your house for the delivery people. Since Aruba has yet (and might never) label all the streets and sequentially number properties, this mark helps the delivery trucks and service people find your place. Seems silly but very effective.

44

PS: I'm putting up street signs of my own as a hint.

[purestone2004]

very good point about the markers to locate your house. We do have a # on our house but my husband got REALLY good at drawing a map. Just because it is a small island doesn't mean they know every neighbourhood. We still get around using grocery stores and restaurants as landmarks. For example, "just go to that grocery store where we found the eggs over New years last year then go right at the, the big yellow one".........you get the picture. The cell phone thing of course is a great idea, we were trying to stand our ground and not get one just to make a point, not necessarily a good point.

[MTHOMP1224]

just boought a home who do you use for property manager?