Durban — EThekwini Municipality residents have been left frustrated, annoyed and dismissive after the municipality announced that its electricity contact centre was unable to receive calls due to a technical fault.
This was while continuous stage 5 and stage 6 load shedding left many areas without electricity before and after load shedding.
On Friday, the municipality said the Electricity Contact Centre was unable to receive calls due to a technical fault. Its technicians were working tirelessly to resolve the issue.
The municipality said to report faults and outages, residents should please email: [email protected] or send a WhatsApp to: 076 791 2449 (To report faults and outages; no follow ups) or online website: Report Electricity Fault.
It apologised for any inconvenience caused.
Commenting on the municipality’s Facebook page about the announcement, Angumma Pillay-Rasen said this always was the case when their services were needed. Don’t see the point of all these call centres and agents being employed when the service delivery is (forget poor) non-existent.
Mbali Zondi said the municipality was lying.
“You guys are running away from us who have stage 20 load shedding. Nxaa. Very incompetent I must say,” Zondi said.
Nirri Govender said they were all not working tirelessly to sort the problem of having no electricity for 36 hours. They were killing time by parking in the shade under the tree near a church… Perhaps praying for a miracle.
Amber Bull said; “25 hours without electricity last Saturday/Sunday and another 25 hours without electricity Thursday/Friday is absolutely damn ridiculous!!!”
Nothemba Fundzo said the municipality might as well close its call centre since they hardly answered the phones anyway.
“Whenever I call them I have to hold on (to) the phone for more than 40 minutes, and it’s always the case not just once. At times when they finally answer after that long wait the call will cut while I’m told to hold on, they are generating the ref number and it won’t even be SMSed to me while they had obtained all my details. I wonder what they are there for really,” Fundzo said.
Mandisi Mbambo Ka Maduna said: “Y’all fail at everything shame. What about people who don’t use online? And how do I apply to work at your Contact Centre? I hope y’all will compensate us for the food that we lost because of this load shedding because ukudla kuyabola kwi fridge zethu (food rots in our fridges).”
Aresh Misra said: “Your disappointment and poor service are not surprising any longer. Do u guys even know what it is to provide a decent service to our people?”
In July, the municipality said to ensure a seamless customer experience and improved service delivery, a decision was made to integrate the municipality’s three call centres.
Then, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda led members of the executive committee on an oversight visit to the municipal call centres to assess their functionality.
The municipality presently has three call centres for water, electricity and revenue services.
Kaunda said the backlog at the call centres was a major challenge for residents and following a study to determine the effectiveness and functioning of these call centres, a decision to integrate them was taken.
He said he was confident that in the next three months, the integration process would be completed.
“We are working to get the new system up and running with the aim of achieving improved customer satisfaction. We have also tasked senior management to iron out all labour-related matters, so it doesn’t hinder the integration process or improved customer satisfaction,” Kaunda said.
Daily News