Call centre woes

He said the lack of service when trying to report power failures is shocking and the municipality should not “brag” about their call centre.

“We constantly experience power outages. Criminals keep breaking into the sub station to steal the cables. The last time we had a problem at the sub station, it took the council two days to respond to the crisis and two days to solve the problem. We lost all our food and quite a few Koi fish. Do you think the council and its call centre staff care? Not a damn,” said Mr Tony Jardim, a Bez Valley resident.

During a power outage on July 10, Mr Jardim’s wife contacted the call centre.

She waited for 30 minutes, listening to a voice recording stating high call volumes are being experienced.

Mr Jardim also tried on several occasions, but failed, to speak to someone. He then apparently contacted Clr Carlos Da Rocha who said he had reported the problem. Mr Jardim tried the call centre again and managed to speak to a woman.

“She could hardly speak English. I asked how long I must hold on. She said until I get through. I asked if it takes six hours of holding on, must I still hold on? To my horror, her reply was yes,” said Mr Jardim.

Mr Jardim recently contacted the EXPPRESS about a sewage problem and raised concerns about poor service delivery. The EXPRESS published an article regarding the matter.

He said a few days later an operations manager visited his house and provided his contact details, stating if there was another problem, he could be contacted.

“Now that is a solution to a problem. What is the solution to this problem?

“How can the call centre be busy for 24 hours a day with high call volumes? The people in the municipal department who work on the problems we have do not give a damn. People in management clearly have little problems with electricity outages. They can make one call and their problem will be addressed. Let these hierarchy people within the municipality try and phone the call centre like we have been trying to do. I want someone from a high level of authority to call me and tell me what the way forward will be regarding the problem we have at our sub station,” said Mr Jardim.

He demanded to know what the solution to his, and that of other residents, is.

“The example I used about the woman above; how was she employed in the first place when she cannot communicate properly with a customer and offer a solution? Is that not a big part of why a person is placed in a call centre?

“Every time I have a problem with service delivery, I have to run to the newspaper before our problem is addressed. Should service delivery not just be part of the municipality’s values and actions that they act upon on a daily basis?” he asked.

Mr Kgamanyane Maphologela, the director of customer communications in the Group Finance Department in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), said the technical call centres have been experiencing high call volumes this winter due to a number of outages which were exacerbated by vandalism and cable theft. He said the city is concerned about the increase in cable theft.

“This vandalism and cable theft problem is holding the city’s economy at ransom, undermining our service delivery efforts and mandate. This also causes destabilisation of operations that affect many social and economic activities across the city. The call centre has been incapacitated, considering all aforementioned challenges,” he said.

He added that all customers are treated equally in resolving their service delivery matters.

“We apologise for the time taken to answer,” he said.

Last week Clr Carlos da Rocha raised concerns about the number of power outages being experienced and how people are struggling to contact an agent at the call centre to log their complaints.

“The cold fronts we had in recent weeks have exacerbated electricity problems. City Power is unaware of power failures because the call centre does not work. Residents cannot get through to Joburg Connect. This is unacceptable.

“I have become a punching bag to people who cannot contact someone at the call centre. Residents have no other way out but to call their ward councillor for help. I understand their frustrations, however the ward councillor in these situations becomes the call centre 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.

Mr Maphologela said the councillor, as an elected political leader in the area to facilitate local government service delivery issues and gaps, has a full mandate to escalate the matter or approach a relevant structure in the city to attend to his challenges.

When asked if it is acceptable for a councillor to be taking all these calls when people need to be getting hold of the call centre to report their complaints, he said no.

“The councillor may escalate these matters when they occur. There are also messages on the call centre system. It is not necessary to log the matter once you hear that this has been reported previously, as the technicians will attend to the reports already in the system,” he said.

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In a box

What the city is doing to address power outages

Following complaints about power outages, the EXPRESS forwarded an enquiry to the city questioning what it is doing to address problems.

Mr Kgamanyane Maphologela, the director of customer communications in the Group Finance Department in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), said, “The city’s power system remains ‘vulnerable’ to unplanned outages caused by vandalism and cable theft, however, we have put in place adequate protocols to respond to all power outage emergencies, including improving communications to customers, continuous media alerts and continuously analysing, monitoring and reviewing our alert systems.”

He explained the two types of situations which result in power interruptions.

Mr Maphologela said a planned outage is when an item in an electrical plant or a circuit has to be temporarily taken out of service for repair, or to allow network alterations.

“Generally, an outage of this type will be scheduled in advance and City Power will make affected customers aware of the outage details through the media or by leaflets delivered to premises. Every effort will be made to undertake planned outages during times which will least inconvenience residents, such as from midnight until early morning, but in some instances this is not always possible,” he said.

Unplanned outages are a result of the loss of a section of the network due to a fault from equipment failure, cable faults, damage by third parties, severe storms, wind and lightening, and theft and vandalism to electrical infrastructure.

“In these situations, there is no possibility of giving consumers early warning of an impending outage. However, City Power is committed to reducing both planned and unplanned outages, and is constantly monitoring its progress.

“In the event of a power interruption, our network control and dispatch centres will be notified of the outage and maintenance crews will immediately be dispatched to attend to the problem. The networks are generally designed to provide an alternative supply to cater for most fault situations but, in the instance of severe damage, an extended interruption may be experienced,” said Mr Maphologela.

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