Nobody mentions that despite the 13-month vignette for 2009 will be followed by 11-month vignette for 2010.

Just think about it - when you buy the next vignette in Feb. 2010 for the whole 2010, it will cost you exactly as 12-month one, but will serve you from Feb until Dec 2010, i.e. 11 months!!!

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DISCOUNT!

Thank you very much .. this is very berave and considerate to do .. there are more people observing those kind of things but do nothing about that ..

I had a simmilar experience with the border police ... they took my passport and just asked me for money .. many Romanian people take this for normal .. and pay everythig .. this is not normal .. when I said for what are you asking me money .. passing taxes they said .. so .. I said what kind of taxes are that? because there is [...]

Read the full comment no country doing that .. the person then said Ok. wait here outside .. gave me my passport back and one other came and said to go on because I am done.. so did not charged me any more ..

This is very sad .. indeed ..
This must stop ..

Thanks again ..
Gabriel C.

Something similar did happen to me too, last year. They tried to charge the double price at Ruse boarder crossing for the road tax without giving a receipt. That time I refused to pay.
Another time, exiting the country, I was offered to pay half of the bridge tax if I do not need a receipt.

Thanks for informing about this practice. I hope your claim at the EU will lead to some success.

Christian

I recently drove into Bulgaria from Romania through the border at Giurgiu / Ruse. One of the first things I needed to purchase was a Vignette for the car. At the official point at the border where you purchase them, I was told to go to the first "Petrol" service station, I thought this was a little strange but carried on.

When I arrived, there were two other Romanian's in front of me when they asked how much they were, they were told 100 RON (25 EUR), which is Romanian currency and not Euro, or Bulgarian [...]

Read the full comment Leva. They both handed the money over for the one-month Vignette and so did I (they thought I was Romanian) 200 RON (50 EUR) for the two company cars I had with me. When I asked for a receipt, I was told the Vignette was the receipt.

When I reached Shuman, I met an Army Officer friend for a cup of coffee and I said I think we were over charged. He confirmed we had all paid double the price and when he asked about the receipt, I said we only have the Vignette, he said that is common practice so the Police can extort money from you as you must have a separate receipt with you.

With all this in mind I thought being British I don't accept things as easy as many Romanian's and I would certainly go back there in 2 weeks when I was leaving Bulgaria.

On my return, I stopped at the "Petrol" service station took photographs outside and then went in. To the staff I said do you understand English and they said yes so I told them to listen very carefully. As you double charged me 2 weeks ago and did not provide a receipt, I am going to do the following:

1. Contact "Petrol" and inform them that border service station is corrupt and stealing from Romanians.

2. Submit a report to the EU anti-corruption department in Brussels.

3. Publish their activity all over the internet, which if Romanians and Romanian companies boycott "Petrol" service station it could cost "Petrol" thousand of euros.

They panicked tried to make phone calls and from a box under the cash register returned my 200 RON (Romanian currency) to keep me quiet.

I suspect they are all in on this fraud at the "Petrol" service station as well with the officials at the border who should issue the Vignettes as well as the Police.

This type of activity is very sad.