Just when you think the advent of prepaid meter is a blessing to our power curse, there comes this rip off by PHCN that can only be classified as coporate robbery. Reminds me of 2shotz' 'Thief! Ole! Carry am go! of yesteryears.

Long story cut short, a relative called me over the weekend that he'ld be returning to the country next month. He needed me to put his place in order, and since I helped him oversee the installation of his prepaid meter, that I should purchase power airtime for him. The last time he recharged was in December 2012.

I went to PHCN (EEDC) office close to my vicinity to offset the bills and what I encountered there opened my mind to one of the reasons these people are lax with providing adequate power supply. I paid a fee in excesses of #22,000 in the name of service charge for a house that has not used power for almost 30 months. This amount is not even related to the money paid to buy power airtime for the building.

So, my point is this: If they are sure of getting #750+ from each house monthly as service charge, that means in a state like Lagos, they will be getting about #54,000,000,000 every year (#54 billion) whether or not these places had power supply. The fees paid for the power supply is different from this service charge.

Perhaps the best way to bring out the best of service from these 'friendly fraudsters' is to pay by the hour. Suppose the 750 is the monthly charge, let it be billed per hour, i.e: about #1.50 per hour so that they will only get paid when they offer the service instead of a standing charge for poor or zero service. Even with this, the service charge totals a little over #1,000, but as long as they work for it, who really minds?

I have always been against this their absurd service charge. Why pay for something that I will not use if I'm not around? There's no sugarcoating it, tiffery is tiffery.

Say for example, if I don't use my GLO line for a month, does it make sense for them to charge me for owning a GLO line whether or not the line is in use? Am I affecting the service they provide for their other customers?

Let us join hands and say NO to this exploitation. We no even dey see light and they even had the guts to increase the tarriffs.

You are right.

lalasticlala, can we have more audience on this? So that more reactions can be gotten and a possible channel to resolve this be exposed.