Prepaid meter stuck - not counting down units

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RoloTomasi

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I noticed a strange problem today, the "ECON" prepaid meter in my apartment has been displaying '40' units all day long. It's not counting down at all, according to elec usage, as it is supposed to. What do I do? (There was loadshedding in my area about 2 days ago, not sure if that was the cause.)

Does this mean the prepaid meter is now broken? Or a problem at the municipality not displaying the units? (not sure where the reading is actually managed)
The electricity is still on but will this now run down to "0" units and the power will go off, while still displaying the "40" units? Or am I now the lucky one who don't have to pay electricity anymore since it will always be stuck, displaying "40" units? :)

If the meter needs to be fixed, who has to pay for it? Are these "ECON" meters the property of the owner of the apartment, the body corporate, or do they belong and fall under the jurisdiction of the municipality? I'm the tenant - northern subs of Cape Town.
 
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This happened to the tenant renting a house from my mother. My mom eventually sold the house and discovered the electricity meter was fault. Eskom soon calculated how much had been used over the 10 months the tenant thought he was getting free electricity and he had to foot the bill whoch by that time was around R2000. In order not to lose his deposit he paid it, no questions asked.

So I recommend you get it fixed because if you are aware it is broken and don't fix it then you are actually breaking the law. I don't know who would foot the repair bill but it won't be the body corporate.
 
Sensorei said:
So I recommend you get it fixed because if you are aware it is broken and don't fix it then you are actually breaking the law.
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I was just kidding about free electricity. Don't worry, I'm not a criminal. Having it fixed was the idea from the start but I just wanted more info from people who perhaps had a similar experience since I'm not sure where the responsibility lies, in terms of paying for repairs.
 
I was impressed with the City of Cape Town municipality's service today. Logged a call with them at around 17h30 to report broken prepaid meter, they arrived at my place 30 mins later, replaced the meter at no cost to me, left 15 mins later. Not bad.\
 
RoloTomasi said:
I noticed a strange problem today, the "ECON" prepaid meter in my apartment has been displaying '40' units all day long. It's not counting down at all, according to elec usage, as it is supposed to. What do I do? (There was loadshedding in my area about 2 days ago, not sure if that was the cause.)

Does this mean the prepaid meter is now broken? Or a problem at the municipality not displaying the units? (not sure where the reading is actually managed)
The electricity is still on but will this now run down to "0" units and the power will go off, while still displaying the "40" units? Or am I now the lucky one who don't have to pay electricity anymore since it will always be stuck, displaying "40" units? :)

If the meter needs to be fixed, who has to pay for it? Are these "ECON" meters the property of the owner of the apartment, the body corporate, or do they belong and fall under the jurisdiction of the municipality? I'm the tenant - northern subs of Cape Town.
Click to expand...
hi where do you see your meter number on your econ meter?
 
Wow. I am glad i do not have prepaid or postpaid electricity from Eskom/Municipality. It's such a pain to deal with load shedding and power outages and outrageous bills.
 
If it can do this without human intervention, it can do this with human intervention. How many pre-paid meters are rigged to supply free electricity? Nevermind the 80 electricity token machines that was "stolen" from Eskom in 2007. When you see those ads with the cheap electricity for sale, its the stolen machines that still operate.
 
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