City Power adds too many zeros to accounts
SHARONLEA - City power promises to correct residents' billing problems.
City Power has been accused of incorrectly billing the residents of Sharon Place in the past year and failing to correct to it – this according to resident Ursela Wiese.
She said the cause of the problem could either be with the meter reading company contracted to City Power, Africa Meter Readers or within the City Power accounts department itself.
All three Alstom meters at their complex have four black digits and thereafter the hyphen, two red digits, [example would be 0111-00].
“In 2009 we had a similar problem with City Power’s accounts department when extra zeros were added. When the three new meters were installed in 2009 we were told by the City Power technician that only the black digits must be read,” said Wiese.
“Three meters then read 0000-00 and once they read 9999-99 they return to 0000-00. For some unknown reason the meters’ readings are read and recorded incorrectly and the incorrect information is invoiced. All of our invoices since then indicate that our three meters now suddenly have more digits than what they actually have.”
In response to the matter, City Power Retail Services director Tshidiso Nkgoedi said a four-dial meter is captured on the billing system as five dials. “We requested City of Joburg to change the dials to four on the billing system and rebill the account. I will follow up and give an update soon,” explained Nkgoedi.
Details: City of Johannesburg 011 357 5555.
