Incorrect billing at City of Johannesburg.

Greetings, I'm writing this review with full of disappointments, the matter started after I mistakenly transferred R5000 to my water account. I have more than 6 years paying water account and never experience issues up until May 2019. The problem started after I deposited R5000 into my water account on 25 May 2019 by mistake. I then received the statement for June (Reading period = 2019/04/14 to 2019/05/15 = 32 days) and the current charges were R3,013.74. Also, note that we have never paid such amount before, please refer to the previous statements as an example (statement for April and May: I’ve never paid more than R1800 before and we are still using the water the same way). The matter got worse in July, the current charges increase to R5,215.28 for Reading period = 2019/05/16 to 2019/06/15 = 31 days. For August the current charges is R 5,812.21 for Reading period = 2019/05/16 to 2019/06/15 = 31 days. Something is not right, because we are still using water the same way we used to and there’s no way we can use water for that amount more especially for a standard normal house. I was always receiving statements every month by email, so after I deposited R5000 I then never received the statement up until July. I sent an email to *** and asking for statements. They sent both statements for June and July and the calculations were confusing to compare to the previous statements. I also asked them to investigate because the amounts were too high. I did not get help from Joburgconnect, I only received an email requesting by bank statement and that was it. I tried to call and seek help but failed. My husband went to the City of Johannesburg office in Midrand and they advised him to check if the meter is running ok, meaning there is no leakage happening, he checked the meter and there was no sign for leakage. I also went to the office to tell them that there was no leakage hoping to get help but still, I was referred to City of Joburg in Ebony and I felt that the running around is too much because I do all of these things during my working hours and is impacting my work too.

To my surprised now, the charges went back to normal. We raised the issue with city of Johannesburg and they logged a query for us. Now the query is closed and I am not happy with the resolution reason, the reason is “Water consumption was billed based on actual reading”. I really need to know how they calculate the actual reading they are talking about; there is no way we can use water that costs R5000 per month. I also took the matter to COJ Ombudsman and still didn't get any help, they gave the same feedback i got from City of Johannesburg.

What I need from the City of Johannesburg is, I want them to refund me the money that I mistakenly transferred to the water account on 25 May 2019(R5000). I also need them to recalculate the charges from 1 June 2019 up until now. My problem is we now owe the water account because of the high charges they created on the account. I did a very big mistake by transferring the money to the water account by mistake, the problem started immediately after that. The problem is, our account is now owing because of those unfair charges. I didn’t stop paying the water charges, I still pay every month.

City of Johannesburg needs to recalculate and fix the statements for June, July and August 2019. These statements calculated differently from other statements.