disconnecting and reconnecting electricty

[murdock]

you have to love the way the electricty department works...my electricity has been disconnected for around 2 months...i have rigged myself up with solar...gas etc so i now dont need their power.

i get a disconnection notice for an outstanding balance of over R2000 estimated cost plus a reconection fee of R325 because it is alleged that i reconnected myself...last month and now again this month a balance of over R1000...yet i have contacted the metering department to advise them of my reading for the month as i did last month so that they dont charge me an estimate...my kwh reading for last 2 months has been zero...yet i still get billed an estimate...and nailed a self reconnect fee of R325...but heres the joke i dont even have a fuse on the pole as i instructed the person who disconnected to remove the fuse and take it with them and my cables from the meter have been rerouted directly from the generator to the main db...so that i dont have the problem i am experiencing...now they tell me it is impossible to run my house without electricity...and i am under investigation...well why dont they come have a look see...yet they still bill me every month...gee let me stand up my back is getting sore from holding my anckles...

the next thing is waste...i will be charged for waste water yet it will all be redirected in the garden etc...so how do they propose metering it or will i just get sc*wed a percentage as i am now....

then onto the rubbish removal...i have invested in 3 big wheelie bins which i use for all my rubbish and garden refuse which i will be dunmping once a week...yet i must still pay R91 per month for them to collect my rubbish.

the only 2 things i need now is a flying car so i dont have to use their roads and a borehole or relocate to a house with a river close by.

[Dave A]

It's going to be real interesting as to how this one works out.

the only 2 things i need now is a flying car ...

They would probably charge you a landing tax just like they do for planes that land at Virginia airport.

[NTLTL]

That Gorilla pic isn't the only one with his hand on his chin thinking whats the next move. Your on to something... Anyone for a game of chess with the government?

[daveob]

Anyone for a game of chess with the government?

Can't work

Chess is logical, predictable, with a set known number of variables, can't be bribed or cheated, and a set rule-book written in plain English and understandable.

[murdock]

at least in chess you dont have to be as patient as dealing with goverment services...at that saying something

[murdock]

It's going to be real interesting as to how this one works out.


They would probably charge you a landing tax just like they do for planes that land at Virginia airport.

and the same if you use the dams...if you could land on the water at the dam it would be free to fish or water ski...but the fact that you have to launch the boat...you pay a launch fee...fishing license...etc....we went thru this a couple of years ago...if you have a little money you have to share it with all the greedy people who want a piece of it.

[murdock]

another catch to having an issue with payments...you cannot transfer your account to a prepaid until you pay it up in full...and...once changed over to pre paid...cannot recharge your electricity meter if you are behind ith rates.

and they will not just fit a prepaid meter you have to get approval from the council...i think the next step is to change my name to sipho khosa so that i qualify for the free stove and bits and i can get a lower rate...seeing that my consumption will be less than 100 kw once reconnected...so it will be free.

the goverment is saying we should create employment....but how do you start a bussiness and employ people when just your electricity connection cost for a 250 amp supply and this is not including all the other costs involved are over R100 000 before you even consider a DB...cabling...labour...the electricity department cost to install the cabling...etc...you got to ask yourself how do you start a bussiness...with this kind of overhead...when i started my bussiness the connection was a small fee you paid...and please dont tell me it was made up in the electricty monthly bill..because now you are paying for connection cost and a flippen high rate per kwh...i believe that we are paying for all the lost electricty being consumed on a daily basis...and because eskom and the municipalities dont have any control over the illegal connection someone has to pay the bill...well that and all the huge bonuses being paid out.

[murdock]

check out the tarrifs

http://www.durban.gov.za/durban/services/electricity/tariffs

just a couple of years ago it was only a couple hundred bucks to connect your electricity....and you only paid from your fence...the council would supply the cabling to the fence free of charge...and if your transfomer down the road wasnt big enough...it would be replaced free of charge....now you as the customer pay for everything right from the source and all the upgrades required...ever single cent..so tell me how thay did it before and cant do it now...something just doesnt sound right.

[murdock]

i spent some time reading through the bylaws etc...looks like they have themselves pretty well covered...but what about the customer...and consumer protection act?

what about their absolutely rubbish supply they offer customers at the end of circuits...low voltages...outages...load shedding...cable theft and surges caused by this act and the damage it does to your appliances and electrical installation...what happens if you dont insurance or the insurance refuses to pay out...where does that leave us as a consumer?

[AndyD]

another catch to having an issue with payments...you cannot transfer your account to a prepaid until you pay it up in full...and...once changed over to pre paid...cannot recharge your electricity meter if you are behind ith rates.

As a ratepayer who isn't behind on his rates bills I'm happy that the councils are using whatever avenues and leverage they have available to collect unpaid rates arrears, rather that than my rates bills going up to compensate for the amounts they can't collect elsewhere. If you don't want to get a rates bill then don't become a house owner. When you opted to buy property you knew you would be liable for paying rates so why the objection to coughing up now?

...i think the next step is to change my name to sipho khosa so that i qualify for the free stove and bits and i can get a lower rate...seeing that my consumption will be less than 100 kw once reconnected...so it will be free.

You don't need to change your name...although you can if you like. If you're prepared to live in a low-cost or informal location you'll qualify for the lower rates anyway. Again it's your choice, I chose to purchase property in areas not considered as informal so I knew I wouldn't qualify for any reduced rates.

the goverment is saying we should create employment....but how do you start a bussiness and employ people when just your electricity connection cost for a 250 amp supply and this is not including all the other costs involved are over R100 000

A 250Amp supply is far beyond the requirements of most small start-up businesses.

...when i started my bussiness the connection was a small fee you paid...and please dont tell me it was made up in the electricty monthly bill..because now you are paying for connection cost and a flippen high rate per kwh...i believe that we are paying for all the lost electricty being consumed on a daily basis...and because eskom and the municipalities dont have any control over the illegal connection someone has to pay the bill...well that and all the huge bonuses being paid out.

Compared to international prices, electricity in this country is still ridiculously cheap, even after the recent increases. The global average KWH price is somewhere around 20UScents, we're paying closer to 10UScents at the moment.

just a couple of years ago it was only a couple hundred bucks to connect your electricity....and you only paid from your fence...the council would supply the cabling to the fence free of charge...and if your transfomer down the road wasnt big enough...it would be replaced free of charge....now you as the customer pay for everything right from the source and all the upgrades required...ever single cent..so tell me how thay did it before and cant do it now...something just doesnt sound right.

Electricity connections were historically subsidized, even in affluent areas, this is no longer the case.

....what about their absolutely rubbish supply they offer customers at the end of circuits...low voltages...outages...load shedding...cable theft and surges caused by this act and the damage it does to your appliances and electrical installation...what happens if you dont insurance or the insurance refuses to pay out...where does that leave us as a consumer?

How should the supply authority prevent damage by theft more than they already are? I think that they've made a convincing effort to stop cable theft, they have the 'copper heads' unit funded and operating fairly effectively, they're getting results in the courts and the sentences are stiff. Crime is a problem of society, not just eskom.
The Eskom supply is admittedly only borderline adequate quality by first world standards but with the system so badly stretched I don't see this improving soon.

[Justloadit]

Compared to international prices, electricity in this country is still ridiculously cheap, even after the recent increases. The global average KWH price is somewhere around 20UScents, we're paying closer to 10UScents at the moment.

Please don't compare our electricity cost to any other country, unless you compare income! Our income is no where near what the US is. Compare the power of the earner against the cost of electricity as a value and you will notice that we are paying far higher.

[murdock]

andy...as i have always done in the past paid my bills...registered with all relevant bodies or associations and what ever else was required...

i have been a home owner twice...the first time round i paid my rates etc without a complaint...the second property i purchased...had no problem paying my rates...until one month it went from R300 to over R900...and nobody can can give me a valid answer other than it was a reassessment...

250 amps for an engineering company or plastic injection moulding would not be regarded as large...but i am not here to nit pick...if you were starting a sign washing company you wouldnt need 250 amps....i can give you an example of 3 companies which have halted expansion due to the extremely high cost to upgrade their power...resulting in not requiring additional staff...increasing the supply would create employment if you look at the bigger picture...someone has to do upgrade the power...creating imployment...someone would have to supply the cable and transfomer etc creating employment...someone would have to install the cabling and transfomer...you get the picture.

something off the topic...i noted that the spoornet has only 250 appies counry wide and yet when i was an appy they had more than that in one training centre at any given time,,,why are they not training people...they have these well equipped training centres which look like ghost towns with maybe 1 or 2 people walking around and al the equipment sitting idle.

look at the cost to generate the power...show me the comparison in cost to generate.

how to prevent theft...create employment...disipline the youth...when we were kids if we got out of hand we were taken to the police station and sjamboked...i dont know that that would be the utimate solution but what i do know is there needs to be some control.

cigarettes are treated like a bad thing in society...maybe people need to open their eyes and see what drink and drugs are doing to our society especially the youth.

and just something i noted this morning on morning live...the military need special hospitals because of the type of injuries...do they get blown up...shot at...beaten up ...can someone give me stats on injures from gun shot wouunds...rape...in the military compared to civilians...if anything they should be building special hospitals to handle trauma...accidents...gun shots...etc etc...i remeber when i the military...our biggest cause of injuries...were accidents due to negligance...it came out on the morning live that these hospitals will be for goverment officials...mmm there is alway a plot.

[Dave A]

it came out on the morning live that these hospitals will be for goverment officials...mmm there is alway a plot.

So that they do not have to use public hospitals?

[Sparks]

At the end of the day it boils down to there being enough money available to be stolen. Only one place it can come from.

[AndyD]

Please don't compare our electricity cost to any other country, unless you compare income! Our income is no where near what the US is. Compare the power of the earner against the cost of electricity as a value and you will notice that we are paying far higher.

Unfortunately the fuel burned, the infrastructure used and even the technologies involved in power generation and distribution are all globally priced so you have to compare prices on a global scale and not a local one. The only thing I can think of that's locally priced is the labour but nowadays the price difference isn't that great when you take into account the output and abilities of the local workforce compared to their global counterparts.