The owners of a business property at 29 Grosvenor Road, Bryanston, is angered by City Power‘s lack of response to their pleas to receive an electricity bill for their business for the last three years.
Peter and Travis van Crombrugge say they have been running from pillar to post to sort out their electrical billing problems at their business since it relocated to its current location late in 2014.
Travis explained that when they moved to the property, the City installed three phase prepaid electricity for their business. “We were forced to run a big generator for two to three weeks before they installed the prepaid electricity and soon after, we experienced connectivity issues between the meters inside and outside the property. Eventually, we couldn’t load the tokens anymore and requested that a technician come and pair up the devices again,” said Van Crombrugge.
According to Van Crombrugge, they soon ran out of electricity because the devices were not properly connected, despite the technician’s attempts. In October 2015, Van Crombrugge spoke with another technician who said that they would temporarily bypass the prepaid meter and soon send some else, more experienced with prepaid meters, to resolve the issue.
“We contacted the City of Joburg multiple times, asking them to come and sort out the issue, but nothing happened. We had no way of metering the electricity and no bills during this time.”
In May 2016, Van Crombrugge made an application to convert to post-paid electricity. After receiving no quotation from City Power, Van Crombrugge made numerous attempts to contact the City. Travis and Peter then ventured to the Randburg office of the City of Joburg to make their payment on the spot in October 2016, but to no avail.
“We hoped that visiting their offices would do it, but now we sit in 2018 [still] waiting to receive a bill.”
In March 2017, Van Crombrugge said another technician arrived at the property – this time accompanied by police – to disconnect the electricity and issue the business with a termination letter, saying that the prepaid meter was still bridged and that they should re-visit the Randburg office. After several attempts to visit offices in Randburg and Booysens and numerous phone calls, the business has yet to receive an electricity bill.
“Nothing has happened from the side of the City of Joburg to make this happen. It is frustrating because I fear that they will suddenly backdate our bills for three years on an estimated amount and we will be liable for hundreds of thousands.
“We keep going back to their branch, getting reference numbers and being told something will happen, but nothing ever does.”
Spokesperson for City Power Virgil James said, “We will investigate the matter. It is not normal for a business to be functioning with electricity that [has been] bypassed for so long. All attempts will be made to connect the power legally and make contact with the business owner.”
