Smart metre is an oxymoron
City's supposed smart metres are a complete joke.
Lionel Smith of Weltevreden Park writes:
Shoot on sight! Okay, I jest, but if anyone from the electricity department comes to change your metre for a new electronic one, chase them away with the biggest stick you can find.
Not to be confused with a pre-paid metre, this smart metre is supposed to allow the council to read your metre remotely via the MTN cellular network.
The only problem is that if the cellular part does not work (or gets stolen), council employees do not know how to read this new metre, so you get “estimated”.
Our metre was changed in May. Every account since then has been an estimate and we now owe the council R 65 000. We have also been issued with a cut-off notice even though the account clearly states that the reading is an estimate.
Every time I visit the council and show them the picture of the reading on the metre, all one gets is a blank stare and a promise that it will be resolved, but five months down the line, nothing has happened.
Be warned. If you existing metre is working DO NOT LET THEM CHANGE IT.
