Olive Ejang Tebug Ngoh
22 December 2008
The Divisional Officer, DO, of Kumba I Sub-division, Thomas Tambe Tabot, has intervened in the present crisis between customers and AES SONEL in Kumba.Tambe visited the Kumba AES SONEL centre December 17 where he dialogued with disgruntled customers, struggling to pay bills.
Addressing the customers at the centre premises, the administrator said he had dialogued with AES SONEL authorities in Kumba and they have resolved not to disconnect customers who do not meet up with the December 20 payment deadline.
"It is not your fault that you have not paid the bills, it is theirs," the DO said.Tambe assured the customers that from his discussion with the electricity company authorities, they would not be disconnected till the end of December.
The AES SONEL clients thanked the DO for coming to their aid. They said, in spite of AES SONEL poor services and non-functioning of their machines, its authorities failed to address customers on the issue.
They said the company is only interested in getting people pay bills, forgetting to render quality services to clients.The embittered customers faulted SONEL authorities for frequent power cuts and the centralised payment of bills.
However, immediately the DO left the centre, the Chief of Centre for AES SONEL Kumba appeared at the payment room, scolding the security guards for permitting the DO into the centre.
The Chief of Centre stated that Tambe had no right to address customers and disclosing that defaulting customers would only be disconnected after December.It should be noted that for two weeks AES SONEL clients have faced difficulties in paying their bills. All the machines were declared non functional and only one cashier was present to serve its close to 400,000 customers.
The struggle to pay bills led to customers bribing AES SONEL workers to help them do so. Those who succeeded in entering into the SONEL gate collected FCFA 250 from stranded customers outside to pay their bills.
A manual system of collecting clients' money has been introduced whereby a singly cashier collects money and places a stamp on the customer's bill as confirmation for payment. When The Post visited AES SONEL Kumba on December 19, all the workers were reportedly on break while about 100 customers waited for their return.
Security guards at the centre prohibited this reporter from talking to the Chief of Centre (probably on his instructions) or any other worker, on the issue.By press time, thousand of customers had not paid their bills. Some of them who spoke to The Post anonymously vowed to molest any AES SONEL worker who dared disconnect them.
Monday, 22 December 2008 at 12:01 PM in News | Permalink
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