Billing woes continue

While some residents insist they are being overcharged, others are frustrated with the apparent lack of service from officials; being disconnected when they are not supposed to be disconnected and being charged interest on a zero balance.
Mr Robert Rundell said his parents, who live in Cyrildene, had no electricity for three days.
Their power was disconnected despite them being given time to make a payment.
In March Mr Rundell’s parents received a bill of R5 757. He said this was incorrect as it had not reflected the previous payment made. The following month the amount had still not been reflected on the statement correctly. The May account reflected R6 187 to be paid, which was incorrect. It also showed an amount in arrears which was also not correct, according to Mr Rundell.
On June 12, a termination notice reflecting the correct amount still owing, was sent to Mr Rundell’s parents. “It stated that the outstanding amount must be paid in 14 days from the date on the termination letter. That would have made the due date June 26. City of Johannesburg (CoJ) disconnected the electricity on June 20,” said Mr Rundell.
The disconnection letter provided to Mr Rundell’s parents showed an incorrect amount still owing.
Mr Rundell said his parents’ lack of electricity affected them terribly.

“The fridges had defrosted and security was an issue as the alarm was obviously not operational.  I cannot believe that they were so quick to cut off my parents’ power and even to the extent that they shortened the deadline on the cut-off. Yet there are other people abusing the system by not paying and connecting illegally. They do not bother with those people. I still do not know if they would have rectified the errors on my parents billing,” he said.

His mother, Mrs Lucy Rundell, said she could understand if she had not paid council for months. “This was not even a month. I have no history of non-payment. I was waiting for money to come through before I made the last payment but that did not matter because the electricity was still disconnected before it was supposed to be.
“Now I am being charged for the disconnection letter as well,” she said.
Ms Andrea Heyes, a Kensington resident, is also experiencing problems.
She had two accounts. One was closed last year and had a zero balance 90 days ago. There is now interest on arrears on this account.
“I am being billed interest on an account with a zero balance. I am being billed R154,86 for 60 days, R188,53 for 30 days and another R188,53, totalling R532,” said Ms Heyes.
Her second account was not supposed to be in arrears. Ms Heyes queried it and it was supposed to be resolved in 30 working days.
She has tried for six months to resolve her billing problems by phoning and going to the Sandton and Midrand offices.
She said she called the call centre and spoke to someone who gave her another phone number to call because she could not log a reference number. The woman apparently said she could not log a reference number because the account she was referring to was closed last year.
When Ms Heyes called the number she was asked why she called because the staff does not speak to customers. The EXPRESS called the number and was told that it was the CoJ clearance department.
Ms Heyes was transferred from one person to the next and the person she was left to deal with was not helpful.
She said he had a bad attitude and refused to assist her in any way.
“There was really no reason for things to turn out like this. I am a customer who would just like an issue resolved. It seems that following the procedures correctly and visiting the centres does not help. So what are we actually supposed to do? We are still stuck with this mess,” said Ms Heyes.