Casseldale resident Magda Pretorius (36) says in the past she was informed by the call centre operator to phone the water department directly.
“The operator refused to assist me and without a reference number I had to call the relevant department directly.
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“Needless to say, the phones were just ringing and I gave up hope of being helped,” she says.
Pretorius says she doesn’t understand why there is a call centre at all if customers have to phone the relevant departments directly to report municipal complaints.
“When this happens we don’t have a reference number to follow up on,” she says.
Metro spokesman Themba Gadebe says their centre operates 24/7.
The purpose of the call centre is to assist the community in logging their complaints, he says.
Every customer who calls into the centre is entitled to a reference number and needs to insist on it, he adds.
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“If it happens that a customer is given a telephone number of any department, we would appreciate being made aware of it so that we can investigate,” he says.
The metro apologised for the inconvenience caused.
