A resident of Aswani, Mechanic village in Ikeja, Lagos State, Jeffery, has accused the Ikeja Electricity Plc, IE, of overestimated billing and unmetering of his apartment, saying the action the company was fraudulent.
He accused the electricity outfit of billing him outrageously between August and October 2016 without taking into consideration the days and hours he never had electricity supply.
Eruanovwe-Megbu claimed that despite tabling several complaints at IEC’s headquarters and its Ajao Unit Office both on email, telephone and face –to-face interactive conversations, the company has continued to “bombard” him with “extremely outrageous,” bill.
A mail he sent to the company reads in part: “This went worst in October 2016 when there was power outage/failure for a total of 20 days with less than 6hrs daily on the remaining 10 days of the month.
“Irrespective of the outright power failure for the month, they went ahead to issue a bill of N13, 866.30. How on earth was 650D consumed?
“Having a bill of N13, 866.30 in less than 60hrs light in an entire month is a sharp contradiction to their claims of using what they term to be ‘’scientific method of billing’’.
In a correspondence exchanged between him and the electricity company which he sent to DAILY POST, Eruanovwe-Megbu, said rather than resolve his issue, the company sent one Mrs Oladele to take inventory of his electrical appliances.
Wondering how taking of inventory relates to outrageous billing, Eruanovwe-Megbu said, “Sending Mrs Oladele (whom you referred as ‘him’) from your Ajao unit to take inventory of my appliance is illegal and is a very clear indication that you and your establishment want to continue exploiting me with incessant estimated bills.
“Lets assume I have 5 bulbs, 2 fans 1 TV & 1 refrigerator. How would your inventory determine the consumption rate vis-a-vis my billings?
“If you are seeking for means to justify your continuous outrageous bills, seek for advance ways that conform to the twenty-first century era.
“If after a period of over 2 years of sending me electricity bills you are now sending your personnel to come and take inventory of my appliances. How have you been arriving at all the bills you sent to me in the past?
“Do you realize that this action of yours has justified and proven my claims beyond every reasonable doubt that the bills you have been issuing to me is not only outrageous but exploitative and unfounded.
“However, I advise that you expedite action in installing prepaid meters which will go a long way in assisting you to get accurate reading and feedback (avoiding estimation), instead of sending out personnel to initiate manual and archaic method of estimating bills and encroaching into customer esteemed privacy .”
Reacting to the complaint, IE claimed that Eruanovwe-Megbu denied an official sent to carry out investigation access into his apartment.
The company urged him to grant its official access into his apartment so as to resolve the issue of the outrageous billing.
The correspondence from the electricity company to Eruanovwe-Megbu reads on parts: “With respect to your complaint on high bill.
“Further investigation reveals that our Energy Sales Representative was at your premises on January 13, 2017 to carry out an inventory of your appliances but you denied him access to the apartment. Kindly grant us access to the apartment to enable us carry out adequate investigation on your complaint regarding high bill.”
As at the time of filing this report, the IE was yet to respond to a mail DAILY POST sent to them in order get their own side of the story.
Source: Dailypost
