PEC Utility Management billing complaint

[Frostfang]

Hi everyone, I need advice on the steps I need to take in order to get my money back from PEC Utility. I used to rent in a complex that gets its electricity billed by PEC, I had to pay a deposit when I moved in of R2800 for electricity. I was paying on average R770 per month which is already high for someone who lives alone.

You can imagine my surprise when I got my final bill for July saying I consumed 487kWh and was charged R1574. Nothing changed in the way I lived. They tried to tell me that since there were lootings in the same period, I might have been indoors more and hence used more electricity, but I have been working from home since last year and never used this much.

I don't know what to do, I have attached a graph I made earlier this year for my billing from 2020 till early March 2021, the spike in June we found out that we were wrongfully charged and they credited us back. The last person I got on the phone with from them was pretty certain everything was above book, so I don't know.

Below is my usage over the last few months:

Year	Month	Prev. Meter reading	Current. Meter reading	Consumption (kWh)	VAT	Charge	Total Amount
2021	April	66471,30​	66662,30​	191,00​	87,10	R580,64	R667,06
2021	May	66662,30​	66862,40​	200,10​	82,24	R548,27	R629,57
2021	June	66862,40​	67148,50​	286,10​	112,44	R749,58	R861,59
2021	July	67148,50​	67371,73​	223,23​	81,03	R540,22	R621,25
2021	Final	67371,73​	67859,60​	487,87​	205,34	R1 368,96	R1 574,3

Below is the email I got from them:

Further to our telephone discussion attached please find the photos of the meter readings done.

The meter readings for July were averaged because of the riots and looting.

Final reading: 67859.6kwh minus reading 15/06 67148.5kWh = total consumption 711.11kWh (This the consumption over 3 months.)

In the July billing cycle your readings were averaged with a consumption of 223.23Kwh and in the August billing cycle actual readings were taken and billed for 487.87kWh giving you a total of 711.1kWh consumption from 15/06/2021 to 31/07/2021.

I have compared you previous consumption and your average does seem to be +-700kWh over a three month period.

Best regards and take care

Anyone who might have an idea of how I should proceed with this please let me know.

 

[P924]

They are not saying you used more because of the riots, they are saying that they did not use actual meter readings in July, because of riots. Probably because the meter reader could not perform readings. So they used your average usage to determine a value to charge you for. Then in the final one, they were able to perform an actual meter reading, which is the 67859,60 value. What probably happened is that you had a higher usage in the last 2 metering periods, they effectively undercharged you in July, because they did not have actual readings, and then had to make up the difference in the last bill. People use more electricity when it is cold and the days are shorter - as reflected in your graph.

The meters themself are very accurate, so unless the meter reader made a mistake, the electricity you have been charged for is what you have used.

 

[Frostfang]

They are not saying you used more because of the riots, they are saying that they did not use actual meter readings in July, because of riots. Probably because the meter reader could not perform readings. So they used your average usage to determine a value to charge you for. Then in the final one, they were able to perform an actual meter reading, which is the 67859,60 value. What probably happened is that you had a higher usage in the last 2 metering periods, they effectively undercharged you in July, because they did not have actual readings, and then had to make up the difference in the last bill. People use more electricity when it is cold and the days are shorter - as reflected in your graph.

The meters themself are very accurate, so unless the meter reader made a mistake, the electricity you have been charged for is what you have used.

Thanks, I see what you are saying regarding balancing out the consumption from the assumed one from July but this is still a lot of money that I have never had to pay before, they probably changed the tariffs or VAT. I already checked with my past neighbours and it seems everyone has been billed this way with unusually high costs.

 

[P924]

they probably changed the tariffs or VAT.

Yes, the new tariffs came into effect, and by billing you low one month, and high the next, you pay more because of inclining block tariffs. (ie the units they moved from one month to the next might push you into the next block tariff for that month).