Eskom charinging us almost R100 000

[scotty777]

Hey guys, my family is in a spot of trouble. Eskom, or more the municipality, has thought it's a good idea to charge us R40 000 on August, and between R10 000 and R20 000 for the other months between July and November. However, we usually pay R1500 a month on electricity, so I'm slightly doubtful of this value.

Anyways, in July, I did a project for Wits, so I have meter readings, from my house, I took a meter reading two days ago, and guess what, it shows that on average, we've used R1500 worth of electricity per month(orR6000 over the four months). I don't know if my results will hold up in court, even though I'm a very meticulous person (you can tell this from the fact that I've kept my project, and also wrote down meter readings for three weeks).

Anyways, I'm helping out my dad with this, I mean, R100 000 is no laughing matter, and that's why we have to go to court over it. This could be me not going to study my second third and forth year here . So yeah, I'm trying my best to create a bullet proof case.

I've now sifting through their bills, and yes, I do see that all their insane values are in fact estimates, however, I'm not going to take chances with their lawyers. If we lose and have to pay that R100 000, it's literally going to fark things up for me, my sister, and my dad's struggling with work as it is. So year, no way I'm leaving this to chance.

Is there anything I can do to make our case bullet proof? As far as I can tell, we have grounds to sue, because this is fraud through and through. You can't have vodacom say "we know you only use 200 talk hours a month, but we think you used 2 000 this month, because our computers crashed"... if that makes sense.

 

[seventhson]

Hey guys, my family is in a spot of trouble. Eskom, or more the municipality, has thought it's a good idea to charge us R40 000 on August, and between R10 000 and R20 000 for the other months between July and November. However, we usually pay R1500 a month on electricity, so I'm slightly doubtful of this value.

Anyways, in July, I did a project for Wits, so I have meter readings, from my house, I took a meter reading two days ago, and guess what, it shows that on average, we've used R1500 worth of electricity per month(orR6000 over the four months). I don't know if my results will hold up in court, even though I'm a very meticulous person (you can tell this from the fact that I've kept my project, and also wrote down meter readings for three weeks).

Anyways, I'm helping out my dad with this, I mean, R100 000 is no laughing matter, and that's why we have to go to court over it. This could be me not going to study my second third and forth year here . So yeah, I'm trying my best to create a bullet proof case.

I've now sifting through their bills, and yes, I do see that all their insane values are in fact estimates, however, I'm not going to take chances with their lawyers. If we lose and have to pay that R100 000, it's literally going to fark things up for me, my sister, and my dad's struggling with work as it is. So year, no way I'm leaving this to chance.

Is there anything I can do to make our case bullet proof? As far as I can tell, we have grounds to sue, because this is fraud through and through. You can't have vodacom say "we know you only use 200 talk hours a month, but we think you used 2 000 this month, because our computers crashed"... if that makes sense.

Don't pay. You should write down the meter reading with the meter reading dude. They want bonuses.

 

[davemc]

Taking this to court will cost you, remember to sue for legal costs.

If you want bullet proof, then you will have to use the municipalities own meter readings as proof, your readings are not proof enough.
There must be a statement somewhere in the past that has an actual reading on it that you can use to make it bullet proof.

BUT, in the meantime, get yourself and 3 of your neighbors to take readings of your meter, so that if you get an amazing electricity usage bill again then you can prove using the "witnessed" readings that the municipality is lying.

 

[|tera|]

Ok? You receive a bill of 10 to 20K July and August and left it? WTH?

In November you owe 100K and want to sue? Basic budgeting and accounting applies here and common sense

 

[scotty777]

I forgot to mention, my dad is friends with a lawyer, so I think we fine to take them to court. However, Since I took the meter readings before any of the mad bills came through, then it's an unbiased reading, but yes, I agree, I'll take to my neighbours about this.

In any case, these scum bags have been causing me a lot of head aches. They cut our power during my exams, and for things like circuits, I need my pc to evaluate my test answers. No power also means no studying after it's dark since my eyes aren't very good in low light levels (so I can't really used candles). I just hope I passed my exams, but I know I'm not going to do well because of this.

 

[scotty777]

Ok? You receive a bill of 10 to 20K July and August and left it? WTH?

In November you owe 100K and want to sue? Basic budgeting and accounting applies here and common sense

We've been having family issues wrt my mom. She's meant to be paying the bills, and also the tax, but she's fallen off the rails, so she's just been paying the R1500 for electricity as she always does, but didn't see it necessary to mention the high prices.

and no, July was a normal month, they increased the prices in October, August, September, and now November. October was R3000 (I guess that looks like just a typing error I guess), but then August, we needed to pay R40 000, and September 20 000, and November made it shoot up to R90 000 in total money owed. I should have stepped in earlier because my mom asked for help, but I selfishly chose to prepare for exams and ignore the problem (I feel shyte about it ok). I'm spending my whole holiday on this now, and I think I'm gonna sit in court with my dad as an adviser. I've done all the calculations, so now it's just proving to them that they douche bags.

 

[|tera|]

We've been having family issues wrt my mom. She's meant to be paying the bills, and also the tax, but she's fallen off the rails, so she's just been paying the R1500 for electricity as she always does, but didn't see it necessary to mention the high prices.

Ok. So to be blunt:
Why the hell would you sue? It's a clear billing error, so phone accounts at Eskom and have it resolved, you can't sue for nada? It's a mistake, unless you used the power. Common sense needs to enter here bro, please man

 

[scotty777]

Ok. So to be blunt:
Why the hell would you sue? It's a clear billing error, so phone accounts at Eskom and have it resolved, you can't sue for nada? It's a mistake, unless you used the power. Common sense needs to enter here bro, please man

loss of productivity? And do you think my dad's a fool . We've done the civil thing, and we've asked them to look at their results. Instead, we got very abrasive calls from some legal firm, demanding us to pay. They didn't let us sort it out the logical way, and from stories I've heard, they don't let these things die. What they do instead is cut your power until you either pay in full, or, alternatively, you pay some moneky behind the pc to 'squash' the bills, but that'll cost R10 000~R20 000 (so basically, bribe us and it will all go away). However, this might seem cool at first, but who's to say they won't do this again in the next 6 months? So that's way we suing.

 

[|tera|]

We've been having family issues wrt my mom. She's meant to be paying the bills, and also the tax, but she's fallen off the rails, so she's just been paying the R1500 for electricity as she always does, but didn't see it necessary to mention the high prices.

and no, July was a normal month, they increased the prices in October, August, September, and now November. October was R3000 (I guess that looks like just a typing error I guess), but then August, we needed to pay R40 000, and September 20 000, and November made it shoot up to R90 000 in total money owed. I should have stepped in earlier because my mom asked for help, but I selfishly chose to prepare for exams and ignore the problem (I feel shyte about it ok). I'm spending my whole holiday on this now, and I think I'm gonna sit in court with my dad as an adviser. I've done all the calculations, so now it's just proving to them that they douche bags.

No court case is needed.This isn't a movie, reality check needed. I've said enough, ciao.

 

[scotty777]

No court case is needed.This isn't a movie, reality check needed. I've said enough, ciao.

you assume we haven't exhausted the alternatives. These guy want us to pay, so we just making a point because they don't want to hear our pleas. My dad has been to three or four meetings with the main manne, and he's an arrogant ass, he's not ready to listen. I don't want to spend my holiday on this, but now I have to.

 

[Elfreako]

Just lay a querie/complaint wiith Eskom man, they will investigate and will most likely squash it. It happened to us once when our house was struck by lightning it did something to the meter and they tried to make us pay R40 000 for the month! We just kept our cool and queried it with Eskom, it took about 3 months for them to investigate at then they just let it go. I heard another case where the city council installed a trafic light out side one of my moms friends houses, their electricity bill shot to about R10 000 a month, they queried it and Eskom investigated and found that the light was somehow using their electricity and they fixed it.

 

[scotty777]

Ok, So I sat down and went through the bills. I found a couple of problems with their readings.

What I did find was two problems.

In August, they doubled our account, as in they wrote down every thing twice.
In September, October and November, they made a massive error with our third phase. It's our least used phase, but what seems to have happened is that they must have mixed it up with other account. It suddenly shot up from a couple hundred units of power, to a about ten thousand. That's where I think the problem lies. So I'll still try find any more problems, and then talk to my dad about the issues.

 

[zulgin]

if you declare a dispute with them then they aren't allowed to cut off your power, currently they are over billing those who can pay electricity to sponsor the rural communities, bloody pathetic if you ask me. I've had the same issue for the past year now, my bill is currently at 120 000, one month its 40 000 the other its R3000, then its normal, its simply incompetence, then there is also this idiot in Tswane who put a board up saying we have to pay 40% before they want to settle it, currently its still in a despite and I'm considering an illegal connection.

 

[scotty777]

if you declare a dispute with them then they aren't allowed to cut off your power, currently they are over billing those who can pay electricity to sponsor the rural communities, bloody pathetic if you ask me.

Yeah, I heard that... We've been paying them R3500 for both water and electricity for years, which is usually over paying them by about R200~R500 a month. So I think they trying their luck with me. However, R10 000 for electricity is a bit extreme, I mean, that's like I'm running a full blown meth lab...

 

[HavocXphere]

Try a face to face meeting...usually works better than phone calls.

Good luck dude.

 

[deweyzeph]

Can you say "prepaid meter"?

 

[Venomous]

Just stop a moment.

.


You say you did a project? When did you do the project? When was it handed in? If this was covering some of the time in question &&& was handed in BEFORE you became aware of these tiny bills....

I think you have all the proof you need.

You have an actual reading from a certain day & they are welcome to come take a current reading.

Also they should include an actual reading value on the meter. What is this & what does the meter currently say?

 

[scotty777]

Just stop a moment.

.


You say you did a project? When did you do the project? When was it handed in? If this was covering some of the time in question &&& was handed in BEFORE you became aware of these tiny bills....

I think you have all the proof you need.

You have an actual reading from a certain day & they are welcome to come take a current reading.

Also they should include an actual reading value on the meter. What is this & what does the meter currently say?

Yep, I on the time of submission, none of this stuff was coming up.

And also, I can prove that the meter reading on phase 3 is not just wrong, it's almost fraudulent because they were inflating prices during estimations (they clearly state estimate). What it looks like to me is that they made an error, then they used that inaccurate data to project estimates. ATM, the meter projects exactly what I said it will... R1500 per month, what it's been for years.

 

[Venomous]

stop! When you talk to them don't say it's been reading the same for years....

Makes it sound like the meter never moved.

& from what you said it certainly says to me you have valid proof. There was no reason for you to lie in the project. If i was you i would go ask at the uni for a certified copy as they would probably have date stamped it when you handed it in.

 

[scotty777]

stop! When you talk to them don't say it's been reading the same for years....

Makes it sound like the meter never moved.

& from what you said it certainly says to me you have valid proof. There was no reason for you to lie in the project. If i was you i would go ask at the uni for a certified copy as they would probably have date stamped it when you handed it in.

Well it would be simple to as to ask them for the date of submission of this report, and since I didn't hand it in late