Prepaid meter City Power JHB

marine1

marine1

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A black hole in the universe - JHB
Hey guys need some help please.
Have a house that I rent out and we use city power.
I want to install a prepaid meter.

How would I go about this?
I have a prepaid one by meterman but they are useless and I want to use the city power prepaid meter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Contact City Power and ask the operator there to put you through to the prepaid meter guys. City power is very fussy when it comes to meters. If the right meter is not installed they throw a fit and try to terminate your services. They should schedule a technician to come through after you have paid the conversion fee (meter and installation apparently)
 
If you convert to prepaid, do they refund your electricity deposit ?

How long does that take ?
 
Rather just do it with City Power direct
ie. http://www.citypower.co.za/converts_prepaid.html


Not sure these days, but when i convered in 2011 (also free) they staggered it in various suburbs. Depending where you stay it could be done in the same month or 2 or 3 months later. iirc they subcontract private installers.

Anyway, techies take about 15minutes to convert you over
You get about 50kw free. After that you buy your credits from most supermarkets, online banking etc.

Heres the kicker...

City of Joburg account system is in shambles... as expected. So you're likely to receive 'estimate' readings of your electricity usage for a few months after your prepaid conversion. In my case it was 13 months after! Reached an outstanding balance of over 40k. They did reverse it eventually.


@Jola - while they do refund your deposit, but its in the form of a credit on your existing monthly billing (rates/water,etc)
 
I emailed [email protected] two weeks ago and have never received a reply. I have tried ringing 011 490 7487 again and again without anyone ever answering. The call centre number is not much better, call gets answered but no one can help.

Am I right in thinking that with pre paid both the service charge and the network charge fall away and all you pay for is the KWH (on a different sliding scale to post paid)

If anyone does ever get any useful info out of the council, please can they update this thread
 
Last edited:
The only way I ever got the COJ to respond to a query was to create a 100-page fax asking them to contact me, and to send that fax by computer, set for 100 copies. The PC fax started dialling at around 7am. They called around 10am the same day. That was admittedly some years ago.
 
Arthur said:
The only way I ever got the COJ to respond to a query was to create a 100-page fax asking them to contact me, and to send that fax by computer, set for 100 copies. The PC fax started dialling at around 7am. They called around 10am the same day. That was admittedly some years ago.
Click to expand...

Maybe I should try that !
 
simonbee said:
I emailed [email protected] two weeks ago and have never received a reply. I have tried ringing 011 490 7487 again and again without anyone ever answering. The call centre number is not much better, call gets answered but no one can help.

Am I right in thinking that with pre paid both the service charge and the network charge fall away and all you pay for is the KWH (on a different sliding scale to post paid)

If anyone does ever get any useful info out of the council, please can they update this thread
Click to expand...

The service charge and network charge do fall away.
 
Remember to take a pic of your meter reading before they remove it. Oh ja, and make a note of your old meter number too.

Also, i was given a form by the people who installed the prepaid meter, signed by them on which they wrote my old meter number and the reading.
 
i finally got to speak to someone at the call centre (2 hours on hold!) and was told i had to go to a customer service centre and apply in person. the person i spoke to could not tell me if there was a charge to change from post paid to pre paid. i have not built up the stamina yet to go and visit them!!
 
So with these new smart meters, how do we get it converted to prepaid?
 
We are converting the house to prepaid. Went last week Friday to the council in Sandton. There is a form you have to fill in. Handed it in. They told us to come back again in two weeks to get the quote. Then two weeks after that they might be able to install.

The attitude and lack of interest by the staff is equaled only by SAPS pigs in police stations :mad:

I swear to god, the one woman was sitting at her desk browsing a magazine and then she started screaming across the office to the other one in a black language and all I could make out is KFC and Chicken Licken. They were obviously planning ahead for lunch time which was two hours away still. :mad:
 
simonbee said:
the person i spoke to could not tell me if there was a charge to change from post paid to pre paid
Click to expand...

The prepaid conversion used to be a standard charge. Back in August 2013 I got a response from citypower.co.za (had a chain of around 6 people who all told me to contact someone else, so emailed them all each time... got very knowledgeable response in the end though, PM me if you want their email addresses... in case they are still there!) and they sent me this price list.
View attachment Electricity Tariff Miscellaneous Service Conection Fees for 2013-2014 - 01072013 lm (3).pdf

Under 2c: Conversion from a Conventional Credit Meter to Prepaid meter. It says: "City power will provide and install A Power Line Carrier (PLC) Split Prepaid meter in the meter box on the stand/Erf boundary. The customer is to provide and install all internal low voltage equipment and the meter box on the stand/Erf boundary"
1 Phase <=80 Amp (Existing or New meter box on boundary but using existing cable)) R2,200.00
I guess that could have gone up 8% in the last year? so maybe R2,400 now?
 
i started this process in February or March. went to the Randburg offices, completed the forms. Someone came and looked through the fence at my electrical box (is inside the property on the garage wall) and quoted R 2 500 to install prepaid. this requires a trip back to the council offices where their system was down for month end. i was advised to give it a week and try again. went back and got paperwork to pay. once payment made, had to queue again to get the payment allocated.

A couple of weeks later, a contractor came to remove the old meter and to install the prepaid meter. I was advised to take photos of the final read on the old meter. this was just before Easter. I continued to receive statements with estimates for the old meter. I payed the bills, but deducted all electricity charges. In August, I went back to the council to query the meter still being on my account. I was told it could take up to 6 months to remove the meter. they took down all the information again and said they will escalate it. have just got my latest statement and no electricity meter is on the statement!

All in all, it was a process that could have run so much smoother and quicker. However, I am now spending R 500 a month on electricity compared to R 1 500 with post paid (including all service / network charges). Cant complain about those sort of savings and am using that money to get 40 Mbps VDSL, so was all worth it in the end.
 
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