What is their excuse?

[Dave A]

I watched a brief snippet of Good Morning South Africa this morning which covered the billing challenges of the electricity department in Johannesbug. The headline case was a guy who has been going into the help centre every month for the last two years because the department has mistakenly been billing his home as a factory. As a result he gets a bill of about R20 000.00 per month instead of what he should be paying - perhaps something around R2 000.00?

The story reminded me of an article I wrote about 4 years ago - one of the lost articles in the TFSA upgrade, so I've just reposted it on my blog. It's about competence, or perhaps more relevant to this case, the lack of it in South Africa.

How is it possible that anyone has to go back to an organisation every month for two years with the same problem?
What would it take to fix this man's problem? Five minutes, half an hour, an hour perhaps of some clerk's time?
Why hasn't this man's problem been fixed?

And just look at the price!
Massive waste of manhours, and apparently he is not the only one. The call centre is absolutely snowed under with people who have similar problems.

Well, if you aren't going to solve what is causing the problem, of course it's going snowball!

What is their excuse?

[AndyD]

You're looking at this from the wrong angle Dave, you see it as lack of competence they see it as lack of call center capacity and with this amount of feet through their offices they're massively understaffed.

[BusFact]

Joburg billing is an incompetent disaster. I've done my fair share of time in their call center. I apparently owe them half a bar for electricity, and no I don't run an aluminium smelter.

I actually feel for some of the call centre staff. They have a horrible job. The problem is upstairs with Amos and his buddies. I just cannot fathom how they can make so many signifiicant mistakes.

From a management point of view, how can you cut off the electricity to more homes than you have the capacity to deal with, when they query it and try and sort it out? I'm sorry, this is not a matter of high level skills, this is just common sense.

They have no excuse.

[wynn]

I sold my previous property in feb 2008, in march they billed me for rates, when I called and pointed it out to them they said 'don't worry, it will sort itself out soon'
Three years later I am now recieving calls from a collection agency with a demand for the money I don't owe the monkeypality, and I keep saying to them 'call the municipality ask them to look on their computer when the property was transferred out of my name and when they started billing me and you will get an 'eish! answer'' but of course everytime another caller from the collection agency calls me.
I will wait for the summons and go to court and make them pay me money for the inconvenience.

[Dave A]

I actually feel for some of the call centre staff. They have a horrible job. The problem is upstairs with Amos and his buddies.

Absolutely. When you have a systemic problem like this that isn't getting any better, you have to look at the leadership.

And surely that leadership is running out of excuses by now?

[IanF]

The question is do the majority of the voters think the mayor should be voted out?

Until they think that, the attitude will stink! Just think how pleasant the officials where during the world cup, because they were told to put on a good show and they did.

[murdock]

every month my electricity account is around R900...last month they did an estimate and now it is suddenly R2500 a month has there been an increase in the tarrif that i dont know about...last i checked it was around R0.81 cents per kw/hr?

[tec0]

Perhaps the community must form a complaint comity register a lawsuit against the department heads and take them to court?

[Dave A]

Just think how pleasant the officials where during the world cup, because they were told to put on a good show and they did.

Everyone had a great attitude because they were told to put on a good face? I'm not so sure.

My sense is at the time there was a strong sense of pride running through the country. We all walked a little taller and probably paid a little more attention to our role in society. We all had a positive attitude and most of us cared about how the world would see us. We actually cared... really cared about something outside of our own personal bubble.

I think at the heart of this is an issue of pride; or more specifically in this case, a lack of pride. If someone in that department actually cared about what sort of job the department was doing, it wouldn't be like that. They'd have fixed it by now.

Quite obviously the leadership doesn't care!

As long as they get their nice car, their nice house, their nice salary, some perks - however the work is done is good enough too; no matter how lousy a job they're actually doing of it.

[IanF]

Everyone had a great attitude because they were told to put on a good face? I'm not so sure.

My sense is at the time there was a strong sense of pride running through the country. We all walked a little taller and probably paid a little more attention to our role in society. We all had a positive attitude and most of us cared about how the world would see us. We actually cared... really cared about something outside of our own personal bubble.

That was the carrot, I am sure there was a stick as well! But how to get that feeling back, not the world cup, that was terrible for business the sense of pride!

[murdock]

every month my electricity account is around R900...last month they did an estimate and now it is suddenly R2500 a month has there been an increase in the tarrif that i dont know about...last i checked it was around R0.81 cents per kw/hr?

actually gone up to 90 cents per kw/hr...for most of us and down to 64 cents for others plus they get 65 kw free and we no longer get anything free in fact we are now also charged a service fee which is included in the rate.

[AndyD]

If you fall into the higher consumption bracket you actually pay a little less per unit but you incur the daily service charge so it works out more expensive overall, you also forfeit your free units allowance.

[Butch Hannan]

Dave, what is scary about this whole question is that even the criminals listened to our Presidents plea to behave and leave the tourists alone. This actually happened so can we make the assumption that the criminals work for the President.

Very few of the people employed in public office actually understand what the words " civil service'' mean or let alone the word service.

[wynn]

I had to laugh last night watching 'Carte Blanche' when that stupid woman who is head of the compliance department said 'Nobody told her to inspect the agents'

Obviously got a nice title, office, car, housing subsidy, salary but was not told what her job actually was???

[Martinco]

I had to laugh last night watching 'Carte Blanche' when that stupid woman who is head of the compliance department said 'Nobody told her to inspect the agents'

And what about the R 250,000,000 that is budgeted for the police to pay for civil actions ? i.E. We as taxpayers have to pay for the police's mistakes.
This is unfair,unfair,unfair !