ethekwini pre paid meters

[murdock]

one of my customers put in a pile of application forms for pre paid meters in january 2012...on the 10 july 2012...it is faster to drive to their offices...than to sit on the phone waiting for them to answer the phone...so i took a drive to the office to find out why these application forms had not been processed yet...you sit in long ques waiting to see a person at the counter...then when you finally get there...i am told the there are no records of the applications...and their system is off line...so they cant help me...i am then told i must wait for a couple of days call them and find out if they are online before i go to the offices....i am not gona say what i think of ethekwini and their absolutely pathetic services they offer...

i put in applications forms for meters to be relocated 500mm to the left of their present location...due to a modification to the building...i go into their offices to discuss the plan etc...before i put in the application...i am told to communicate with their customer services "technical staff" who instruct advise me on how to go about the relocation etc...we make provision in the new location...fit new meter boxes etc...run all the new cables to this location...a couple of months later their planning department sends out a person to do the costing...they send a letter instructing us that we cannot move the meters to the new location and instead have to move the meters to the boundry...fit kiosks etc etc...at a cost of around R35000...when i explained to the planning department that i had discussed the entire layout with one of their customer services "technical" people...i was told that their "technical" people in customer services dont have any authority to discuss these type of technical issues as they dont have the skills required like the planning department and that the planning department have the authority to over rule any decision made by customer services "technical" staff....eeeeeish so the next time you need to make changes to an exsisitng or new installtion make sure you go to their planning department first...so who is always the sucker who has to pay...yes "YOU" the customer...

this electrical industry must have the biggest bunch of confused wankers working in it...considering the state of the industry...the DOl cant handle thier job so they are trying to palm off their responsibility onto anyone wanting to take it on...the ecb dont quite know who is registering who through which organisation...the eca are just trying to cling onto anything they can to make a buc...the bargaining council...well nobody quite knows if they still exsist or not or if they actually have a palce in the industry....seta has collapsed causing many training facilities to go bankrupt and close down...if you feel i am out of line with these statements...please feel free to enlighten me of the progress in the right direction.

[Dave A]

You certainly aren't wrong, Murdock.

You know the new policy on electricity bills - we've had our first taste of the real-life consequences already.

The client is putting in a tenant, and needs a municipal prepaid meter now!
Apparently the waiting list backlog for prepaid meters is currently 6 months in Durban.

Given the change in policy, the demand is about to increase dramatically - and there's no sign that the obvious consequences of this new policy have been planned for.

[Blurock]

The client is putting in a tenant, and needs a nubicipal prepaid meter now!
Apparently the waiting list backlog for prepaid meters is currently 6 months in Durban.

Given the change in policy, the demand is about to increase dramatically - and there's no sign that the obvious consequences of this new policy have been planned for.

Opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur!

Any one for manufacturing prepaid meters?

[Dave A]

Opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur!

Any one for manufacturing prepaid meters?

Well, that's why we were there - to install a (non-municipal) prepaid meter in the distribution board. The brown stuff hit the fan when he asked us why we weren't removing the municipal meter. We had to explain that he'd be collecting the money off the tenant (via the prepaid meter system), and he would have to pay the municipality.

What he wanted was to have any payments going directly to the municipality, which from his point of view is much simpler. And I agree. Just not an option given his time line.

He's now going to apply to the municipality to convert to prepaid - not sure when it'll happen though.

[murdock]

there are private companies like conlog who already make pre paid meter...but to get tokens you have to deal with a private company and pay "a little extra" for your electricity...i do believe landis and gry also make pre apid meters...its not the pre paid mete rmanufactures who ar ethe problem...it the extremely efficient ethekwini municipality who dont have skilled staff to handle the current issues never mind the additional demand...if anyone thinks i am speaking out my muncipality...try call the customer service centre and ask a " technical question"...or take a drive and join the que...then argue with one of the highly inteligent staff...because they cant answer the question...what they do is walk away from the counter and just leave you standing there like a fool and hope you will go away...while they sit and chat behind the screen...if absolutley pathetic...but it doesnt help complaining because if the mangement are employed on certain criteria and connot perform to a standerd required in a large structure like a miunicipality...how can you expect the staff below management to be competent at their job.

[murdock]

Well, that's why we were there, to install a (non-municipal) prepaid meter in the distribution board. The brown stuff hit the fan when he asked us why we weren't removing the municipal meter.

having the same problem...i applied for pre paid meters...but the municipality have changed the law and will not allow more than one municipal meter per property unless the property is sectional title etc...so now if u have a granny flat you have to install a private pre paid meter and the owner is stuck with having to hassle of providing tokens or some means of collecting money from the tenant....so you might as well add it to the rent and just install a small cbi meter or chinese meter just to monitor the useage...it works out way cheaper and less hassle.

[Dave A]

the owner is stuck with having to hassle of providing tokens or some means of collecting money from the tenant....

This prepaid meter system takes away all that hassle - it works quite well.