IS
Itumeleng S

1 reviews | Active since Jan 2020

09 Apr 2020, 12:53

Bad Service: People not doing their job

Last year I was falsely accused of bridging my electricity and a huge penalty fee was added onto my account. I went to the municipality and I was told that I haven't been buying electricity so it means I have bridged according to their systems. No investigations were made, they didn't check whether the house was occupied or not; they just charged me based on the fact that they don't see any prepaid electricity purchases.. This is for a house that I bought a while ago but I haven't stayed in it and I haven't rented it out to anyone - I have been trying to sell it with no success so I only go to the house when I have to clean the yard and do some renovations and therefore buy minimal electricity.. I have a solar geyser, meaning even if someone was staying there, there was not gonna be a need to purchase too much electricity.. Last year October 2019, I went to the municipality and explained all this (I spoke to Linda and Tumisho and the offices on Van Der Walt street), and they said they will send a request for a reversal for these false charges; because these penalties blocks my account and blocks me from purchasing electricity. This year January the municipality blocked my account again because they said I owe for bridging, meaning the person that was supposed to reverse never did so; I went there and the lady that was supposed to help us had an attitude and said they block because I don't pay my municipality rates; mind you my account is up to date and there were times where I was in advance for a good 3 months.. When she realized that she was wrong, she never apologized and just changed her story and said it means someone didn't do their job she will send an email.. She unblocked my account and before the end of that week my account was blocked again meaning I had to go back to the municipality again.. The frustrations these people are causing us are unbearable; and last year 2019, when this issue started the Akasia offices sent us to Centurion and there we met a lady that was trying to help us get to the person that we were referred to to get this issue resolved; the person that we were supposed to see refused to see us and sent a message via the lady that we must go to Pretoria Tramshed offices, Tramshed offices said they couldn't assist and referred us to the municipal offices in Van der Walt. All these ups and downs since October 2019 and its now April 2020 and the issue is still not resolved and the municipality is still adding charges to this penalty that was supposed to be reversed in 2019.. The lady we spoke to in Centurion was even telling us that the municipality targets and cut off Electricity and Water for people that stays in specific areas and suburbs especially Centurion because the municipality expects to purchase a specific amount of units per month - they don't care whether they have solars installed or they are using a gas stove; if the municipality doesn't feel like they are purchasing enough electricity they charge them for BRIDGING of electricity.. Trust me the charges are not small, they start at R15000 and they add charges every month of about R2000 and for as long as the issue is not resolved they keep on adding charges; eventually when they feel like reversing the cost, they tell you they can only reverse the principal amount and not the miscellaneous charges because that's for the customer to cover. These people are using us to make money and need to be exposed..

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