
The residents complain they have been trying to get answers from the metro, to no avail.
According to the residents, the telephone numbers listed on the back of their municipal accounts ring unanswered or are constantly busy, and no response has been received to their email inquiries.
Metro spokesman Themba Gadebe says because May 1 was a public holiday, the debit orders were processed on May 6.
The account due dates were respectively on May 1, 2, 3, and 4.
“The final notice is the warning issued after the due date of the account,” he says.
He adds that all ACB stop order accounts have already been corrected and the fee reversed.
When issued with a final notice, residents are fined R92.34.
This is done in accordance with the metro’s credit control and debt collection policy and can be found under 5.7 of said policy which states: “An administrative fee will be levied against the account of a customer in terms of the tariff provisions of the council, in respect of any action taken in demanding payment from the customer or reminding the customer by means of notice delivered by mail, by hand or any electronic means available, that account is in arrears.”
Gadebe says that queries pertaining to the above were dealt with telephonically, via email and person to person as and when the public got in touch with the metro.
When asked which numbers residents can phone to get hold of customer care, he simply replied: “The numbers are displayed at the back of accounts.”