The customer is king
THERE can be little doubt if eThekwini city treasurer Krish Kumar were to open up his post one morning and discover a municipal utility bill for a whopping R7 million, he’d probably stumble in shock and horror.
It would be an understandable reaction for someone who is used to receiving a bill averaging a few thousand every month, and is now being asked to cough up an amount that could easily buy one a luxury mansion in upmarket uMhlanga.
This is exactly the kind of shock and trauma that dozens, if not hundreds of disgruntled residents in Phoenix and Chatsworth, are going through right now as they are slapped with absurdly enormous utility bills after the city switched over to its new multimillion-rand revenue management system.
Hardly a day passes without angry residents complaining of receiving bills running into six figures. In many cases, the bulk of the costs on the accounts relate to use of water, but the residents claim there has been little difference in their use of water services and there is no evidence of leaks on their properties.
What angers them even more is the response they receive from the municipal authorities when they complain. The municipality stubbornly maintains the problem lies not at their end. They insist that after initial glitches, its new revenue billing system is now working properly.
In the meanwhile, desperate residents – many of them pensioners – are forced to run from pillar to post for answers to avoid having their services cut.
Some residents are told to lodge a complaint and wait for a call from the municipality. But no call comes.
At least one resident was told by the municipal offices the meter on his property could be faulty and might need to be replaced. He was told someone from the department would contact him, but four months later, he’s still waiting.
It’s cold comfort for the affected residents when Kumar blames the media, public and politicians for “sensationalising” the problem.
If there is any sensationalising taking place in this issue, it’s coming from your new billing system which is coughing out amounts that are patently absurd and outrageous.
Take the time to listen to residents’ complaints; try to understand their anger and frustration; if there are indeed glitches in your billing system, sort them out urgently; and lastly, give residents and ratepayers the respect they deserve.
At the end of the day, the customer is king.