No answers for billing query
Allens Nek residents question the drastic increase in their water and electricity bills
Allen’s Nek residents Tirosh and Simon Gardner are concerned about their October water and electricity bills, both of which amounted to three times more than what they usually pay. “From February to September, we were paying between R 1 500 to R1 750 for our electricity but shockingly our October bill was R5000,” explained Tirosh. Their water bill usually costs R600 and in October it was R1 200.
Tirosh understands there was a tariff increase recently, but said it can’t be the reason for the huge increase in their bills. “There is something wrong here; I suspect our meters are faulty.”
The City of Joburg’s call centre was not helpful. Tirosh said the call centre agents showed a lack of interest in resolving the matter. On three occasions she has taken time off work to go to Roodepoort’s service centre, but this has also proved fruitless. “The consultants there are very rude, they just take one look at the statement and say ‘sorry, we can’t help you, these are actual readings’, then call the next person in the queue while I’m still asking questions.”
Tirosh said the official at the service centre explained that there is nothing wrong or unusual with her bill as the readings on her meter are actual readings, meaning that someone physically read the meter. However, the Gardner’s meter is covered with sand and is thus inaccessible. Despite this, Council is adamant the reading are correct.
According to the Gardner’s statement, their average daily consumption of electricity is 92 000kWh, but the family recently purchased a device that monitors their daily electricity consumption, which shows their daily consumption as 34.726kWh.
In order to avoid further drama, the family purchased a prepaid metre, which they have been told will take a minimum of 21 days to be approved. On top of this, it will take another three weeks before the metre is installed.
At the time of going to print, the City’s Revenue Customer Relations Department had not responded to questions sent to them.
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