My Tussle with Eskom
2006 has been our house renovation year. We gutted the lounge, dining room, passage area, both bathrooms and the guest loo completely and rebuilt. In the process, we installed underfloor (i.e. under tile) heating which our electrician advised us to switch on at the beginning of winter and just leave it on. Well, we got caught a little. Not realising that Eskom only does quarterly readings, we left the underfloor heating on all winter only to be hit with a R5,000 bill end August which we queried, not having planned for this expenditure in the cashflow. When it turned out, after a bit of a wait, that the bill was correct we made arrangements with Grace on the phone to spread the arrears over 3 months - that was on 12 October. The arrangement was accompanied with a reference number which we wrote down - thank goodness!
On 31 October, one of the few free days I had in the office, Eskom disconnected us without warning at around 11am. Of course, we did not realise we'd been cut off, we thought it was a general power failure, but after an hour I phoned around, to find we were the only property without power. We went to our distribution box on the outside of our wall, and sure enough, there was the Eskom disconnection seal of doom. No phone call, no email, no sms. Boom. We've been in this property for almost 8 years, never defaulted - but that, evidently, stood for nothing either.
We phoned in and produced the reference number. But where's our letter of confirmation? What letter, we asked? It turned out that Grace had not recorded the arrangement on the system. Lesson one: get it in writing.
We were told we need to settle at least half the bill before we could be reconnected. At that stage, attempts to get through to the manager, Valerie Andreas, were thwarted. Within an hour we had paid the required amount - but it's awkward trying to fax proof through when you have no power....OK, they'll switch us back on. All laptops now dead. No email since 11am. We waited, and waited, our freezer started defrosting, it became dark - I took the family out for supper. Got home. Still no power. Next morning no hot water. All fridges defrosted. We phoned in again. Didn't the guy come out? Sorry! An hour later, a furtive looking chap from Eskom arrived and reconnected us (which I could have done myself - but at risk of breaking the law). One day of productivity wiped out.
A few days later I promised (in my last newsletter) that this newsletter would carry the story of exactly how Eskom bullies their customers. One of my Richards Bay (Eskom) subscribers, Patrick Byrne responded quickly by writing me a note copied and it to his former boss, Hugh McGibbon at Distribution. Since then, there has been email dialogue, generally constructive, which ultimately resulted in a large bowl of fruit being delivered to my house with an apology from the local Regional Office - a gesture which I appreciated. Here's the explanation:
It seems that the practice is to send you an sms to warn of an imminent disconnection. This is repeated prior to disconnection taking place. If there is no response, you get switched off - not a bad system, if they have the right cell phone number. But I'd changed mine 7 years ago and had forgotten to update it with Eskom against my account number. However - they had both my landline numbers - no phone call perhaps? Point is, they fail to log an arrangement and I get cut off, with serious consequences to my business without the courtesy of a phone call?
My question is - if Eskom were not a monopoly, if they had to compete for my business, would they be cutting off their customers without doing more to make contact and sort out the problem? The answer, sadly is no - they wouldn't dare. Because I chose to pursue until I had a satisfactory response, this incident has cost me, and Eskom, a lot of time and trouble. But perhaps we've both learned a lesson here. But here's lesson two:
These days if you want to change your cell phone provider, you no longer need to change your number - but if you do (or have) - notify everyone with whom you have an account and insist on written confirmation from each one - similarly if you move home out of your current area and get a new landline number. Same with email changes. Take the trouble to let people know - it could save you your power one day!
From a Service Provider's perspective (lesson 3 is for Eskom and all other large service providers), it's time to move out of the dark ages and take the trouble to look after your customers, particularly the ones with good track records. Can this be so difficult? No it's not, it just takes additional resources, initiative and genuine caring - something you and I, who make our payments every month surely deserve.
'Till next time!
Paul du Toit.
