I can vividly recall Mrs Akirijiola’s prying face, poking around in our room in Lokoja, with a pen and a sheet of paper in hand, noting how many ‘electrical points’ we had. If you do not know, a point means an electrical appliance. We shared electrical metre with Mrs Akirijiola and the metre was domiciled at her apartment. She received the bill, and shared ít accordingly.

“One, two, three, four…”, she counted every bit of electrical appliance. When she was done, both the sitting room and bedroom, she turned to me and asked “una dey use iron shey?”. I nodded, and she noted it on her paper. Later, she would inform my elder brother whom I stayed with what his share of the bill was. My brother wouldn’t ask any question. I wouldn’t either, for the one who paid the bills was ok with it.

But my shallow knowledge of electricity in Physics made me know there was a difference between a 200W appliance and a 2,000W appliance. I knew their electrical energy consumption rates were different. Worst still, no one went to Mrs Akirijiola’s house to count the number of electrical points in her house. I don’t know if she counted hers well as well. But I know she would never be accurate in all her financial mathematics as regards the sharing of those electricity bills. She’ll either cheat us or herself.

I resolved never to let such ‘nonsense’ thrive wherever I find myself in future. I resolved I was going to pool all appliances according to their ratings and share the bill in the appropriate ratios. No one would be cheated. But then, I also knew that the energy one consumes through an appliance is dependent on the frequency of use. It was getting complicated. That was Lokoja, and in the 90s.

Many years later, I moved into a two-bedroom apartment in a compound I shared with a neighbor. I lived alone and this neighbor lived with his wife and seven kids. I only stayed in the house in the nights and during the weekends; only my refrigerator was guaranteed to be powered 24/7, all other appliances are only used when home. An exception would be when I have guests who came on holidays.

At the end of each month, my neighbour’s wife would inform me the bill has arrived and after ascertaining how much, I would give her some money, a round figure but more than half of the bill. My neighbor worked with one of the companies and worked offshore most times. So, he wasn’t around most times. I had made up my mind not to share metre with anyone, but this was a little different, or so I thought. The pay wasn’t much to me and so I cared less.

One day, to my utmost dismay, our electrical line was severed due to unpaid bills. I don’t have to tell you how exasperated such make me feel. The woman complained of how she couldn’t make it to the Power Holding office to make the payment. I got a local electrician who re-connected the lines.

The following month, she brought the bill to me. This time, she tried pushing the responsibility of going to pay the bills to me. I once again gave her money for the bill. Yet again, the lines were dropped when the power company staff came checking. The bill was not paid once again. She had used the money to drink Big Stout (don’t ask me how I got to know yet, she told me some time later).

I was furious this time and blamed nobody else but me for accepting to remain in the bill sharing union in the first place. I pestered my landlord day-in day-out to get me my own metre. One analogue metre arrived eventually, but not before a criminal duped him of some reasonable sum and supplied a non-functional ‘pay-as-you-go’ metre, which the criminal begged me to certify ok so he could extort more money from the landlord. He succeeded in duping me as well because I gave him money to buy ‘phcn recharge card’, which never came. I reported the metre non-functional and kept pestering the landlord for a good one.

Meanwhile, phcn started dropping ‘estimated bill’ on me. It was N4,000 initially. I was ok with it, even though I knew I never consumed up to that. It also powered me to pester Mr landlord the more.

With the analogue metre, I started receiving ‘crazy bills’ from the company. It rose gradually from around N4,000 to N8,000. When it was N12,000, I knew I couldn’t take it anymore. I started seeking a solution to it. How on earth could I have consumed such ‘quantum’ of electrical energy?

One day, I dialed the telephone numbers on the bill (phcn had rebranded from the slip with light blue print to the new one) and one of them went through. I lodged my complaint and the person, after enquiring of my location, directed me to their ordinance junction branch. He gave me the branch manager’s (one Mr Obi then) number and encouraged me to get back to him if not attended to. I called Mr Obi and had a meeting with him in his office where he asked me to put my complaint in writing. He suggested my metre might be out of order but I assured him the metre was working.

I directed a letter to him and stated the readings of my metre at different times. I submitted the letter at their admin dept. and got a copy stamped ‘received’ for myself. I followed up with calls on the manager and he eventually gave me another appointment (this would be my second meeting with him and my fourth visit to his office). Note here that it was not in any way convenient for me to leave my work and go meeting with PHCN officials, it was a stiff sacrifice.

When I went to their office the fourth time, the manager knew I was serious about this and, lucky enough, the marketer in charge of the area was there, Rebecca. He summoned Rebekah immediately and verbally queried her before me. Rebecca, after identifying my apartment, told us my metre was hidden and not readable, thus the arbitrary apportionment of bill. I was confused for I was no longer too sure if the metre was actually hidden in the verandah. My argument on that wasn’t very strong.

I agreed with Rebecca on a metre-reading date so I could come from the office and wait for her around 11am so she could read the metre. But when I got home, lo and behold, the metre could be read from outside. I assigned a friend close-by to wait for Rebecca so they could read the metre together on the agreed date. Where you see Rebecca?

I went back to their office the fifth time. This time, I threatened I wasn’t going to pay a kobo on electricity bills anymore if they continued, and I would only budget N2,000 monthly for reconnection. And also, if it continued for a long time, I would sue PHCN.
Luckily, Rebecca was around and the manager called her and scolded her sternly. I had told the manager I wanted to do a second letter I would direct to whoever was his supervisor.

Rebecca called me aside and advised me on what to do. She told me that the reading in their database entered against my metre never matched the actual reading, hence it’s nullification by those in the billing room. She told me that bureaucracy would keep my letter some few months before it would get to the personnel in charged , and within that period, the ‘estimated bills’ would keep coming.

They eventually adjusted the reading on my metre to conform with what they had on the system. The next month, they wiped the bills (it was around N28,000 debit) and credited the account with some big money. PHCN became indebted to me. Their debt reduced gradually with time before it went into debit and I started paying bills again. I had about 5 months bill-payment leave.

Thereafter, my bills were in the neighbourhood of N900 and N1,300. Meaning my bill was actually as low as N200+ sometimes without the service charge of N700.

I became very observant to always monitor my metre reading to ensure they did not allot a wrong reading to me. Once when I saw my bill and it was N5,000+, I called the marketer in charge to complain that they gave me a wrong bill. He was on top of his job as he informed me, after identifying my house, that there was ‘a mistake’ they would correct in the next billing system which they had noticed even before my call.

So, when you encounter any issue, don’t be quick to give bribe. I am not one to give bribe and so I had to exhaust all necessary steps. If we all do the right thing, mischief makers would eventually realize that they don’t have any other choice from doing their job. If you keeping paying, they’ll call you a maga, and they’ll keep coming for more. People take advantage of the fact that you ‘don’t have time’ and exploit you.

I have moved to a new apartment now and greeted with the same issues. Perhaps I would tell you how I resolved it eventually. But one thing is sure, I don’t give bribe. It may cost me my time, energy and other legitimate resources, but I definitely would not let any man exploit me.

I also opine that: since electricity theft is a crime, and non-payment of bills is also punishable, at least with the denial of supply, government should criminalize inaccurate billing by PHCN. That company has a lot of criminals working for them.

Thanks for reading.

Feel free to share your experiences.

Source: http://www.obitteleo..com.ng/

This is a pain staking endeavour. But good it paid off.

tunwumi:
This is a pain staking endeavour. But good it paid off.

Yes my brother, that is what Nigeria looks like now. But things are getting better now. For my present predicament, I lodged my complaint through email.

hob:
Sorry i dear not read

I know you are not the reading type, the write-up is not for those who'll dare to read

Afam4eva, OAM4J, please push up for people to learn

I wish everyone of us could pursue all complaints and ensure that they get resolved like this.

Bumper to bumper.

Nice one OP

Today is my birthday,if u want to celebrate your next birthday,gimme likes

hob:
Sorry i dear not read

Sorry I dare not read!