GrumpyOldGuy Posted August 26, 2010 Share get a pre-paid meter! Dont start me on pre-paid.! Firstly its a joke, the more units you buy (ie) bulk units, the more you pay, so if you buy 100-150 units you pay 90c per unit, 151-450 units costs 95c per unit, 450-700 units costs R1.15 per unit and 700 units upwards costs R1.20 per unit, and CITY POWER gets this money IN ADVANCE, which, in any normal business model, anywhere in the world, paying in bulk, in advance, would get you a better price - but not here boys, not here.! Guess why this is?? - okay I'll tell you, poorer folk buy power in small amounts more regularly, us "wealthy" fellas prefer to buy power once a month in bulk, so we can naturally afford to pay more, not so.!?? Typical socialist thinking. Eskom, JHB Power, everybody wants you to install pre-paid,(which I did and now regret) but they conveniently neglect to tell you of the escalating tariff, or the fact that very often they are off-line and you just cant buy power, or that they have a R90.00 per month meter tariff (forget I paid R2200.00 for the meter when it was installed) which just gets deducted when you buy power. I was told its a monthly fee to run the pre-paid system. My wife and I also live in a four bedroom townhouse, no kids anymore, just a puppy, we have converted our kitchen to gas, we are fixated on saving power and walk around switching off appliances and lights, granted we have a heated swimming pool which consumes about 500 units a month alone, but, excluding that, when we moved in we used roughly 800 units a month, without anything changing, we now consume around 1000 units a month, so yeah I hear you, I dont know the answer, except to stay WELL AWAY FROM PRE-PAID but I hear you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benadeja Posted August 26, 2010 Share get a pre-paid meter! I agree , also used to get sky-high accounts , never consistent , 1 month up 1 month down which proved the point they are using guesstimates... got a prepaid meter and problem solved , started managing and measuring my own consumption , no more surprises from Eksdom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ the Expat Posted August 26, 2010 Share Wannabee, I sent you a PM as I am going through the same thing... But in the meantime I found a partial sollution: A wireless power monitor meter from Comminica for R500. Going there tomorrow to check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerus Posted August 26, 2010 Share Take a meter reading weekly, take a photo of the meter reading as well as further proof.I would make it the landlords problem. I had the same problem at a house I was renting and I was being charged for the granny flats useage. They had dishwasher, heating the works, three people and a baby, with washing on the go all the time, yet there bill was less then mine. Hence the landlord became my enemy and I fought for months, and eventually they agreed there was something wrong. Also phone in your readings every month, on the same day if possible. Any more questions let me know, ive been through all this shite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerus Posted August 26, 2010 Share This country is getting more and more f%&$ed up evryday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wannabe Posted August 26, 2010 Share MJ tx, got your PM. I'm staying in a complex of which the "outside" or "complex" lights have been out for the last month already. Checked, all the power boxes are locked, cannot open them to record own reading. Agree, something is seriously amiss here. There is no way two people can consume close to 1000 units in a month. There is no swimming pool or other power guzzlers in use. Don't know if area I'm staying in will have an affect, thinking along the "you stay in upmarket area, you can obviously afford to pay more" lines. I do stay in upmarket area, but in a complex in one of those matchbox type townhouses (60 on one small complex), not freestanding house.PEC Metering says they are recording meters monthly and that they actually do go around to record. This is a bugger up of epic proportions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Brunsdon Posted August 26, 2010 Share Dont start me on pre-paid.! .... I dont know the answer, except to stay WELL AWAY FROM PRE-PAID but I hear you. Here in the DA Cape, Prepaid is the way to go. We only have 3 tariffs ( 70c for < 250; 1,05 for 250 - 1500; 95c for > 1500) Its also up to R100 cheaper to be on prepaid as we get charge a bookkeeping fee for post paid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariusL Posted August 26, 2010 Share PEC metering are sharks... you pay a surcharge to them, called an electricity availablity fee or something... and you pay more for your units (they are like the middle man). I hate the concept - what choice do we have if our landlords don't want to put in prepaid meters... F%^$ers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanC Posted August 26, 2010 Share WannabeI think the fact that the meter boxes are locked is your problem. The readers can't get to the meters and then thumb suck a value. they get paid per meter they actually read. So speak to the body corporate. They are not allowed to refuse you access to the meters. Also speak to the other people in the complex. Yopu might find that they have exacetly the same readings as you on there bills. I the reading boxes are locked someone from the body corporate is suppose to open them on reading day which is probably not happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOldGuy Posted August 26, 2010 Share Here in the DA Cape, Prepaid is the way to go. We only have 3 tariffs ( 70c for < 250; 1,05 for 250 - 1500; 95c for > 1500) Its also up to R100 cheaper to be on prepaid as we get charge a bookkeeping fee for post paid. Yeah, well, wish it were the same here, but here the muncipalities have a money hungry, penny grabbing mentality with no delivery for your buck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariusL Posted August 26, 2010 Share PEC metering are sharks... you pay a surcharge to them, called an electricity availablity fee or something... and you pay more for your units (they are like the middle man). I hate the concept - what choice do we have if our landlords don't want to put in prepaid meters... F%^$ers! I also forgot to mention - my first month in my place I get an account for R500, it's just me and my boys (called Felt and Cannondale) in my pad... when I queried it with PEC they found out they had been charging me industrial rates. WTF??? Needless to say it took them 5 months to pass a credit note to get the thing sorted out. Monkeys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOldGuy Posted August 26, 2010 Share WannabeI think the fact that the meter boxes are locked is your problem. The readers can't get to the meters and then thumb suck a value. they get paid per meter they actually read. So speak to the body corporate. They are not allowed to refuse you access to the meters. Also speak to the other people in the complex. Yopu might find that they have exacetly the same readings as you on there bills. I the reading boxes are locked someone from the body corporate is suppose to open them on reading day which is probably not happening. Sort of correct. The meter readers are allowed by law to do 3 consecutive estimates on your power usage before they have to do a proper reading. So if your box is locked, they only have to request it be opened every 4 reading or 3rd account as you are usually working in arrears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Brunsdon Posted August 26, 2010 Share Yeah, well, wish it were the same here, but here the muncipalities have a money hungry, penny grabbing mentality with no delivery for your buck. You get what you vote for ... LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOldGuy Posted August 26, 2010 Share You get what you vote for ... LOL Dont get me started on that either.! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vuilgoed Posted August 26, 2010 Share Grumpy, where do you live? I am thinking of switching to pre-paid but won't if its a big hassle. We pay anywhere from R1200 to R3700 for electricity. We made them come read our meter (they'd been using guesstimates for about 7 months) and ended up with more than R6000 credit! I was hoping pre-paid would reduce the monthly number of stress related headaches... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOldGuy Posted August 26, 2010 Share Grumpy, where do you live? I am thinking of switching to pre-paid but won't if its a big hassle. We pay anywhere from R1200 to R3700 for electricity. We made them come read our meter (they'd been using guesstimates for about 7 months) and ended up with more than R6000 credit! I was hoping pre-paid would reduce the monthly number of stress related headaches... I stay in Kyalami Estates. As I said they are allowed to guesstimate 3 consecutive months, but then have to do a reading. So 7 months, yeah, you have a right to be peeved. Look, some folk swear by pre-paid, but I just think its a money making scheme, you pay for the meter, you pay a tariff every month to have the facility, you pay in advance and you pay more - I dont know, I just dont see the value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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