No access to properties hinder 100% meter readings target, says metro

Tshwane’s target to reach 100% meter readings and to reduce billing estimations is set back by no access at properties due to locked gates and intimidation of meter readers in some areas.

According to the metro, these issues are affecting the city’s ability to manage its water and electricity services, and to provide accurate and reliable meter readings.

The metro said this is not only crucial for the management of the city’s finances but also for ensuring that residents are billed correctly for their consumption.

Currently, the metro is reading 89% of the meters and 78% of that is billed with actual readings, according to metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.

“A 100% achievement in meter reading is important and the metro is working on achieving that.”

Previously, several residents around Tshwane complained about inaccurate billing and being billed on estimations.

However, Mashigo said currently the city doesn’t have a major billing crisis.

Mashigo said the city acknowledged that few customers would have billing complaints now and then.

“Therefore, the city increased capacity in attending to customer queries. As such, we had to repurpose our internal resources to address customer queries.”

He said the city’s long-term solution in addressing the issue of billing inaccuracies is to achieve a 100% meter reading.

Mashigo said the city is also moving towards replacing electricity meters that cannot be read due to no access to prepaid meters to reduce billing estimations.

He said the metro’s additional resources to deal with billing issues is the increased capacity in dealing with customer queries.

“It is important to note that customer queries are dealt with at the customer care level. Therefore – within our SAP Customer Relationship Management System, we have escalation layers, which respective supervisors can view and attend to customer queries.

“More so, we have a dedicated team within our revenue section responsible for dealing with customer disputes and queries. This includes layers in place for disputes escalations and appeals.”

Mashigo said the customer relations management system has a built-in layer for escalations so that respective supervisors can work on escalated queries.

“Furthermore, there is an escalation process to respective departments such as utilities. They are expected to finalise the respective queries within set time frames.”

ALSO READ: Metro addresses billing problems

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