1 reviews | Active since Sept 2021
IMPACT SUCKS!!
Impact Meter Services is the worst!! They do not care or support their customers and e-mails do not even get a response. Charges are just added to the account at random,and without explanation, without even informing you that these charges will be added. Staff at Impact Meter Services are *********** and rude. See the e-mail below sent the general manager. The response received from him, only after i had to borrow money to pay the account, was that he forwarded the e-mail to the credit controller in charge of the building. This is the same credit controller who did not even acknowledged my previous e-mail. I will be bringing this under the attention of the ombudsman, as Impact Meter Services are taking away your constitutional rights to basic services. Good Morning, Please see the e-mails attached hereto. I have been trying for a while now to sort out this mess. There was a deposit increase on my account in the amount of R640.00 – for what exactly this is I am not sure. When I enquired about this I was told that this is because my account is blocked regularly and that it is the right of Impact Meters to increase my deposit as seen fit. I have not been notified of this increase to allow me to budget for this, and there is no way that I can be expected to remember the wording of a supplier contract I signed three years ago. My account has not been blocked or in arrears for the past year, and I feel that for the one time it was blocked it is unfair to charge me a penalty of almost 4 times my usual water usage – R640.00 increased deposit as well as an R185 reconnection charge – this comes to R825, and my usual water account is in the region of R220-R230. I tried to arrange that the deposit is paid at R100.00 per month since this is all I can afford. I am a single woman earning only one income, and unfortunately have two children to support. Yesterday (20 August 2021) I received a notification that the meter is blocked. This is despite the R300.00 payment I did earlier this month. I sent an e-mail to the general queries e-mail account and was issued with a support ticket. The ticket was not attended to. I then sent an e-mail to Daisy this morning and received a ticket number again. This ticket was also not attended to. I feel that it is unfair to punish me for an account that is kept up to date and has only been blocked once in the past year. What is more unfair is that no one notified me of this in advance, and to demand payment immediately and then suspend the service is just cruel. I now have an account that is overdue with R776.00 (if I remember correctly) and will have to be without any services for two months, since I am unable to settle the account in full immediately as I am expected to do. I also cannot understand how I am expected to pay the R185 penalty since the account was paid for – maybe not the whole R1100.00 that was expected, but the usage was covered in full. Is this really how Impact Meter Services is treating and responding to their clients? Without having any knowledge of the clients’ circumstances? Or even caring? Just a cut-throat “pay me or suffer” attitude? Please can you investigate the matter and advise on how I am to proceed?
Good Morning Tony, Thank you for forwarding the e-mail. Just as a point of interest: I have e-mailed and spoken to so many of your staff, and even e-mailed Daisy, from whom I had no response yet, and still, the issue was not resolved. Yesterday afternoon, I was told to either “pay the account in full or suffer”, because the last e-mail that I sent to Jevonne, contained the phrase “the arrangement of three months is acceptable” instead of “I accept the arrangement” – I still cannot see what the difference is – so according to your staff I did not accept any arrangement and the account remains payable in full. The only response I received from you, was that you forwarded the e-mail, and I only received the response after I paid the outstanding amount – only after you received the payment, you saw fit to answer or help by forwarding the e-mail. Please know that I understand that you are busy, we all are, but it takes a few minutes to respond to an e-mail. I also want to know this: I have spent hours on the phone with your staff, none of them was interested in helping, but only demanded immediate payment of the full amount due. One of these calls lasted about 47 minutes. The airtime that I spent on this amounts to about R150.00 – who should I hold responsible for this as it is now decreased my available funds until the end of the month and placed me in a situation where I have to borrow money to survive, and pay interest on the funds that I was forced to borrow. I also had to borrow the funds to settle the account in full. I have small children in my house who cannot be without warm water to bath or electricity to prepare a meal. On these funds, I also have to pay interest. All of these fees have to be paid back and leaves a gap In my monthly budget, and my children at the shortest end of the stick because now I have even less available to supply their needs. Who do I hold responsible for this? Every time I asked to speak to either you or Daisy I was given the run-around and placed on hold, just to be told that neither you, Daisy, nor the credit controller who handles the account – Sandra – are available. I will be submitting a complaint at the ombudsman and hello peter forum as I feel that you are taking away your clients’ constitutional right to water and sanitation. You are running a business for essential services and increasing fees at random and without warning, and the cutthroat “pay me or suffer” attitude you employ, place your clients in a position of despair, and some cases, in debt as the monies to pay your exorbitant fees have to be borrowed and interest paid. If you look at my account, you will see that the account is paid up in full every month, except for June 2021 when the meter was blocked because of late payment – I was 3 days late in paying the account. And then suddenly there was a deposit increase because my meter was “blocked” regularly. I feel that Impact Meter Services are inhumane. In today’s world surely a person can expect some level of understanding and be treated with a little bit of grace and respect instead of being made out to be this delinquent ******** by your staff because you are unable to settle a water account of R1000.00 and upward in one single payment. And all this because you impose fees and levies at will and do not allow your clients to feel as if they have an avenue for assistance available to them. The only choice, as I mentioned, is “pay or suffer”. I don’t think that is fair. Thank you for the time you took (or didn’t) to read this e-mail. I hope it makes a difference
Good Morning Tony, Thank you for forwarding the e-mail. Just as a point of interest: I have e-mailed and spoken to so many of your staff, and even e-mailed Daisy, from whom I had no response yet, and still, the issue was not resolved. Yesterday afternoon, I was told to either “pay the account in full or suffer”, because the last e-mail that I sent to Jevonne, contained the phrase “the arrangement of three months is acceptable” instead of “I accept the arrangement” – I still cannot see what the difference is – so according to your staff I did not accept any arrangement and the account remains payable in full. The only response I received from you, was that you forwarded the e-mail, and I only received the response after I paid the outstanding amount – only after you received the payment, you saw fit to answer or help by forwarding the e-mail. Please know that I understand that you are busy, we all are, but it takes a few minutes to respond to an e-mail. I also want to know this: I have spent hours on the phone with your staff, none of them was interested in helping, but only demanded immediate payment of the full amount due. One of these calls lasted about 47 minutes. The airtime that I spent on this amounts to about R150.00 – who should I hold responsible for this as it is now decreased my available funds until the end of the month and placed me in a situation where I have to borrow money to survive, and pay interest on the funds that I was forced to borrow. I also had to borrow the funds to settle the account in full. I have small children in my house who cannot be without warm water to bath or electricity to prepare a meal. On these funds, I also have to pay interest. All of these fees have to be paid back and leaves a gap In my monthly budget, and my children at the shortest end of the stick because now I have even less available to supply their needs. Who do I hold responsible for this? Every time I asked to speak to either you or Daisy I was given the run-around and placed on hold, just to be told that neither you, Daisy, nor the credit controller who handles the account – Sandra – are available. I will be submitting a complaint at the ombudsman and hello peter forum as I feel that you are taking away your clients’ constitutional right to water and sanitation. You are running a business for essential services and increasing fees at random and without warning, and the cutthroat “pay me or suffer” attitude you employ, place your clients in a position of despair, and some cases, in debt as the monies to pay your exorbitant fees have to be borrowed and interest paid. If you look at my account, you will see that the account is paid up in full every month, except for June 2021 when the meter was blocked because of late payment – I was 3 days late in paying the account. And then suddenly there was a deposit increase because my meter was “blocked” regularly. I feel that Impact Meter Services are inhumane. In today’s world surely a person can expect some level of understanding and be treated with a little bit of grace and respect instead of being made out to be this delinquent ******** by your staff because you are unable to settle a water account of R1000.00 and upward in one single payment. And all this because you impose fees and levies at will and do not allow your clients to feel as if they have an avenue for assistance available to them. The only choice, as I mentioned, is “pay or suffer”. I don’t think that is fair. Thank you for the time you took (or didn’t) to read this e-mail. I hope it makes a difference
Best regards,
Best regards,