EDITOR – I urge the community to be careful of a group of people calling themselves Sustainable Energy.
Someone calls you and tells you that they are checking up on the amount people pay for electricity. She then asks if she could send someone out to see you and takes down your details. She says her manager will call you to confirm. A short while later on a man calls and tells you he will send someone out to you at a given time.
The next day another man arrives with briefcase, papers, pre-paid electricity meter and Eskom card and asks to see your electricity statement, taking down every detail.
He tells you that they install pre-paid meters for R2000 payable at R46 a month. I readily agreed, thinking it would save me money. He then asks for bank details and a cash deposit of R100. I told him that I did not have any money in the bank, and he accepted R100. When I asked him for a receipt, he would not give me one, and said the amount is on the form he has filled out, and he showed it to me.
He then told me a man by the name of Johan would install my meter the next Wednesday and would have two copies of the form and would give me one.
Needless to say no-one by that name ever came to see me. This man is in his late 20s or early 30s, drives a small white, older model car. Unfortunately I did not get the make or number plate.
Be very careful. I know about scams and what to look for, yet was completely fooled by this man. I found myself trusting him.
The following week another woman called me and said she was from the same company, not realising I had already been called. I managed to get a phone number from her and asked about the company. When I asked to speak to the manager, the same man came on the line, listened to my story and told me what the first man had done was illegal. He then stopped talking and I heard him laughing in the background. He then told me he would call from another line, which was another lie.
I tried calling back and the line was constantly busy. All this happened from 18 to 29 August.
I have warned the public, now I want to warn this man. I really feel very sorry for you. You have stolen R100 from a woman pensioner who could barely afford it. Now watch how God, my defender, deals with people like you.
Angry
Durban
