Saturday, November 24, 2018

THE IKEJA ELECTRIC SCAM



   There was a knock on the gate, one fine Saturday morning. It was a group of men; they said they were sent by Ikeja Electric to install prepaid meter for our house. Yes, the whole estate didn’t have prepaid meters and we were going to be the first. 
Why not start from number one? They said we use a three phase. We can’t be the only house with a three phase in this estate. We are number one on the list given to them. My lil bro argued and didn’t want us to get it first.
   They went on to preach about the benefits of the prepaid over the postpaid meter. We wouldn’t spend so much on our bill, etc. They even talked about how there is hundred units already pre-installed in the meter. That the hundred units were free from Ikeja Electric. A thank you gift. They heard Etisalat paid for the whole thing. That’s so nice of them I thought. They went on that the hundred units could even last for a month and what not. One sang about how he doesn’t use hundred units in one month.
  It took them hours to cut through our amour cable and install it. Saturday night, they brought the light or as we sing ‘UP NEPA!’ The hundred units started running. Sunday evening, our light went off. I looked outside and the whole neighborhood was as lit as a Christmas tree. Wait, the free hundred units finished in less than a day? Are you kidding me?!
  The next day, we tried to pay for extra units but were told it needed activation. Why weren’t we told when they were installing this meter? Off, I went to their office on Kudirat Abiola way, Oregun. The lady at the customer service tells me, the activation token would take forty-eight hours. It was installed on Saturday and this is Tuesday, hasn’t that passed. Forty-eight working hours starting from today, I came to the office to register. We were supposed to register and no one told us? I couldn’t imagine days without electricity.
  She asked about our free hundred units they gave us. Your free hundred units finished within a day, was that really hundred units? She went on with how we must have put on all the devices in the house. I just smiled and remembered how someone said he used hundred units for one month every time he recharges. I figured they cut down on the free units as they were on some sort of deadline to install prepaid meters everywhere. The office was a beehive.
  After two days of darkness and night of perspiration and not sleeping, went back to the office. Forty-eight hours turned to almost two weeks without light. With me calling customer service, morning and evening, going to the office by my brother almost every day. They didn’t even bother giving us units, each day there was one excuse or the other, the blame was never theirs.
  We finally got the activation token. They weren’t sorry, no apologies, no sorry for the inconvenience, incompetence and all we’ve put you through. We spent a lot powering the house. I couldn’t sleep for more than two hours each night, the heat has been crazy. No here, take these extra units for your pain.
  We paid six thousand naira, on the paper I saw they took out almost three thousand naira for sub-account arrears when my brother got back. What’s this? He hadn’t seen it. The place had been very busy and rowdy, he had run out.
  I spent the night pondering if the prepaid meter wasn’t new after all. I also thought about the hundred units but that was free, right? They had all said it was.
  Before you rejoice we have light, nope, our light didn’t come on. It took me three days of phone calls to get the installers to come deal with the mistake they had made.
  Now, we had light. The units have been running like water, we have calculated and checked everything in the house. We have complained about that one, it’s been a week now and we have spent three hundred units. I don’t understand these new meters. They say they’ll come check it out on Monday.
  Back to the story, we went back to ask about the sub-account arrears. Guess what we were told? Yup! That was for the supposed unit they had all said was free. My brother met a man shouting furiously at their office for them not telling him the free units weren’t free. So, it wasn’t just us.
  What if we had recharged three thousand naira? Why not be upfront with people? Every time I called and we went to their office those two weeks, no one had told us it wasn’t free and we would have to pay for it.
  Let me borrow the man’s oyibo accent and the sentence he used as my brother had narrated the story. “This is pure scam! Y’all are thieves!”
P.S: My neighbors had their three phases postpaid meter installed two days after ours and they still don’t have light because of the forty-eight hours activation token. It’s been three weeks.


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