On Friday evening at about 9:00pm, we noticed that some of our downstairs lights and oven were not working. First thing Saturday morning, we called our landlord, Stuart, so we could get an electrician in to do a quick fix and be back in business. Long story short, electrician says it is not the house but rather a counsel problem - in other words, it is the source of electricity- City Power. Yikes - only we didn't know at the time to think Yikes.
Stuart calls the City of Johannesburg and leaves a message. Naively we thought okay someone will get on. No power Saturday night - eat out. Sunday morning, thank goodness friend brings over croissants. (did I mention that Bill decided he couldn't live without an oven and left Saturday night for almost 3 weeks to Kenya.) Sunday lunch, over at a friends. Sunday dinner, heat up leftovers in microwave.
Monday morning, no power. I wait hopefully for the landlord to make things happen. Monday evening a colleague of Bill's stops off to drop off some things. When I mention the problem, she says "Oh you must call Mhairi" (another colleague) who it seems is, unfortunately for her, an expert. Sure enough she is. Poor thing has the number for City Power memorized. She says call, call, call. In fact, have as many people as you can call for you, and first person to get through reports the problem and must must must get a reference number. Because you will be calling back to follow up.
Okay - one thing you need to know to begin to understand part of why this is so damn inconvenient is that phone service is ridiculously expensive here. We are on pre-pay for our cell phones and each minute you are burning through rand. Using a landline would have been cheaper but wouldn't you know our landline is inexplicably out - again - for about the 5th time since we got it in January. (so yes, we have experienced incredibly poor service delivery with our phone service - goes out, we report it, no idea when it will be fixed.)
So what does wonderful Mhairi offer to do - she calls City Power for us, stays on hold till she gets someone, gets a reference number and reports back to me that the problem will be attended to in 1-4 hours. Yay!! I am so relieved. We go out to dinner, assured that we are on the way to full power again. Mhairi had recommended I call back in about an hour just to check so I do when we get home. About 2o minutes on hold - just under $5. They say by 11:00pm someone should be there to fix it. I go to bed.
3:20am our gate buzzer rings. Yay - it is City Power to fix the problem. I walk out in pj's and slippers to chat with them. They assure me they are on it. I go to sleep confident that I will wake up to a working stove.
Ha. No such luck. I call City Power Call Center - surprisingly and delightfully get through in about 5 minutes. Oh they say, the problem is fixed. I assure them it is not, and they give me a new reference number and tell me that someone will be here in 1-4 hours to fix it.
I squeeze into my day buying some airtime because I am burning through it with these calls.
I come home in the afternoon disappointed to find it still is not fixed. I call - 45 minutes later of listening to this horrible music over and over, I give up. Woolies roast chicken, picknpay precooked rice, and salad for dinner. I check my phone airtime balance - I had had R300 rand after I recharged, am now down to R100! We go to bed.
1:20am - Security company, CSS Tactical, calls - they report our alarm system is no longer sending a signal to the control center. Sure enough the alarm panel is dead. They send the heavily armed, body armored security guys to check all around our property. Fortunately, all clear. But a little nerve-wracking to be in the house with no working alarm system for the rest of the night. I sleep fitfully. (have I done that post yet on security here?).
5:30am, our electric fence alarm goes off. As soon as I turn it off that panel too goes dead. Great. CSS Tactical guys come again to check around - only this time they can't get in the electric gate because that too has lost power. Double Great. The only good thing is that it is almost morning so I won't lie awake hearing bad guys jumping over our non working electric fence and breaking into our non-alarmed house.
I call City Power at 6:00am - and am told, unbelievably, that the problem has been reported as fixed at midnight. I am furious and frustrated and so ask to speak to a supervisor and beg beg beg them not to put me on hold because if I hear that music again I am going to lose it. In fact, I lose it anyway and cry and they put me through to a supervisor and I cry to the supervisor,Jabu, as I explain that I now have no security, can 't get out of my gate, have two small children (ok - that was a little white lie) and that he must promise me that the problem will be fixed today. He does. I make him promise again and he does - I am sure he was desperate to get off the phone with this hysterical woman. He says he needs to check with the Technical Department and will get back to me.
As the minutes tick by I lose hope, but then my phone rings and it is my new best friend, Jabu. He says the technician is leaving the depot now and my house will be his first stop - he will be at my house not later than 10am. Since it is now only 7am, I am a little suspicious that I am really first on the list. I comment that the depot must be very far away. He says he is allowing for traffic. I let it go.
I make the decision to come straight home after dropping kids at school and not go the once-a-term Pridwin mums' coffee so I can be there when this guy comes. Too bad because I like these coffee mornings but much more important to be there when the technician arrives.
Meanwhile, Stuart is also working an angle. He knows a City Power technician who sometimes does some side work for him. They are to meet at our house at 9:00. I worry vaguely what will happen if Stuart's get a little business on the side guy is there working on the line when his on-duty colleague shows up. Oh optimistic, silly me. 8:00 comes and goes. 9:00 comes and goes. 10:00 Stuart comes - his guy is still sleeping, having worked the night shift. Stuart is not optimistic that his guy will come at all.
Furious that I trusted Jabu, I call City Power, and ask to speak with him. Finally, after more minutes of the terrible music and draining my airtime, Jabu comes on the line. "Ma'am - you should have lights now. They fixed the problem." Fantastic, only when I flick the light switch, nothing. "No, Jabu, still out." He promises to get back to me in 5 minutes.
I now know City Power uses a factoring system when it comes to time. I don't panic when 30 minutes goes by. Meanwhile, I must go to my doctor's appointment. I am 5 minutes from the Dr's office when David from City Power calls. The technician is at my gate!!!!! As I make an illegal U-turn I plead with David to have the technician wait for me. He says he will wait for 10 minutes. I drive like a maniac while calling the doctors office to cancel my appointment. Not the safest thing I know but maybe you can understand my level of desperation to talk face-to-face with a technician.
Hallelujah!! Jomo is there waiting for me!! He assures me they can fix the problem. Guy goes up in one of those bucket things, tightens some wires, does some other mysterious things. 20 minutes later, Jomo says your gate is now working. Sure enough it is, and when I go in the alarm goes off - Hallelujah again!!!! Lights work, stove works. All fixed. Why I ask Jomo did these other guys not fix it when they came out. He shrugs - he can't explain it.
On the advice of Stuart, I got Jomo's cell number. Why? Because I am going to bypass City Power Call Center next time and go directly to Jomo. Understood that if he can sort it out, there will be something in it for him. Rather give him the money than spend it in airtime for fruitless calls to the Call Center. Is this just good common sense or the slippery slope of corruption?
Wow. That puts my frustration with AT and T into perspective. Glad your stove is working now!
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