Friday, May 8, 2015

Re: Re: Kenya Power, it's 'emergency' numbers, etc., - more misadventures...

Soon after I sent off my last email on Wednesday evening regarding a few houses in our estate which had lost power since Tuesday morning and after over 24 hours of being shuttled into the dark ages by KPLC, the transformer that is  responsible for our power supply, suddenly blew up with a very loud bang at about 9.00 pm. 

This resulted in the whole line of houses, including my flat, losing power, too. So, the earlier few houses, now had more company.

Now, my take is that, maybe this could have been avoided IF, this monopolistic power company had addressed and solved the issue of the few houses that had lost power on Tuesday morning. They did not do this and maybe whatever it was that was ailing and caused their power to be cut off, got worse and more complicated because that was not solved...?!

Anyway, just like the KPLC, when informed of the symptoms of what had happened to their transformer immediately came and shut off everything, they could have with equal urgency and haste replaced the transformer, too, at the same time. But, they did not! Instead, when asked, we were told that, 'maybe, tomorrow....'

Yesterday, they showed up at around mid-morning to take the offending transformer and again when asked by a neighbour about when we would get our power back, the reply was very vague. She was told that maybe on Friday or even next week!!!!

No reason was given, of course. This, brought nasty thoughts to my and my neighbours' minds. This because of an earlier (a couple of weeks back), incidence of a KPLC employee who had asked for 2500/- from a company (where a friend works and who had told me about it), which had lost power for 6 days and were getting desperate. This company had personally gone to the offices of KPLC and their emergency offices, too, to get them to restore power to no avail. Why?

Therefore, we started getting suspicious about our own restoration of power and the time it would take to get back to normal supply. Maybe, there is a racket going on of fleecing the public to part with cash and giving them a hard time so that they will do so, just like our cops, etc. Seems like corruption is the order of the day in this country. We seem to be breathing, eating and literally wallowing in this horrible vice. Why, again?

Is this also the reason for the numbers of days that have suddenly increased before consumers get their power back? To harass them to the point of making them part with their hard earned cash, before 'service' is given....?!

I found out when I visited Kenya Power's Facebook page where umpteen numbers of people from all over are complaining about the same thing and using very colourful language for it, too. 

Kenya Power seems to be totally impervious to all the adverse publicity that it is getting. As was mentioned by a recipient of my emails - due to its monopoly in power provision. They couldn't care less about public opinion!

Finally, after umpteen phone calls, they agreed to solve our transformer problem in the afternoon. This arrived at our gates at exactly 6.30 pm, work started on it at 6.45 pm and finally finished at 8.45 pm when everybody in the estate got their light back, Alhamdulillah.

Now, my question is - why the delay? And this not the first time that this transformer has given up the ghost. But, every time, Kenya Power seems to prefer working in the dark (literally), than in the broad light of day. Again, why? This  time they had a choice to do so in the daytime, but deliberately arrived here after sunset and worked in the dark with flashlights, etc. One would imagine that it is easier and faster to work in the natural light of the sun...?!

Raziya

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 9:34 PM, Shaileen Shah wrote:
Does ANYONE in KPLC respond?
Mr.Shaileen Shah:a client and a SHAREHOLDER of KPLC.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Re: Kenya Power, it's 'emergency' numbers, etc.,

Yes, very sad (which is a mild word to describe the situation). And the CEO helping....?! Fat chance! They don't have the sense to even answer these emails.

Another example of their incompetence and devil may care attitude has happened right in my estate, yesterday. 

A whole lot of houses which are on phase 2 of the power supply lost power early in the morning yesterday, right around the time that we in our block got ours back after them taking their time coming here and then fiddling around in the metre box for over half an hour.

Now, is that connected to the fact that as soon as we got our power back these houses further inside lost theirs and they have yet to get it back even after 24 hrs of outage? Was it just a coincidence that we got back power and they lost it? Very strange!!!

Then, one of the women finally managed to get through to their 'emergency' number and was given a reference number. I was told about this sometime in the afternoon and so smsed it to my contact after informing him about the outage. Till today, nothing has been done!!!

Will these irresponsible people compensate the umpteen numbers of consumers who are constantly losing their power and to add salt to a long festering wound, they also have to bear the brunt of the loss of spoilt items in their fridges, etc.?

Then there is the case of how the power company behaves regarding their highly inflated bills.

The customers have to make sure that they pay their bills on time never mind if they haven't yet received them. According to these awful people, it's the consumers responsibility (since they are highly IRRESPONSIBLE THEMSELVES AND UNACCOUNTABLE TO BOOT!), to go to their offices and ask for their bills to be able to pay them. Does this sound fair or just? Nowhere would this make sense other than in this country where there is no  law and customers have no rights to demand anything.

Like with all 'service' providers it's the consumers who are made to feel that they are doing the service providers a favour than the other way round. This power company is a perfect example of such an attitude.

So, according to KPLC, if they don't send you a bill and then you don't pay them on time because you haven't got it yet, it will not be a defense for you if they suddenly one fine day come and disconnect you for non-payment. Doesn't matter that they never sent you a bill in the first place!!!

They can be as irresponsible and insolent and inefficient as they like and please, the same will not be tolerated from the rest of us, the consumers, unfortunately.

We live in the most trying of times...

Raziya


On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 9:06 AM, Dr. Juzar Hooker
wrote:
Very very sad. The way of all monopolies, unfortunately. Perhaps the CEO could step in?

Sent from my iPad

On May 5, 2015, at 12:53 PM, Raziya Mohamedali wrote:

​'Afternoon!

It's been quite a while that I have written about  this redoubtable company, though, I  have written to them and about them on Facebook and commented regarding their various 'services'.

Today​, I thought of writing again because, these kinds of incidences seem to be happening all too often in this country (yes, country NOT county), and one wonders how we are EVER going to be so-called 'industrialized' by 2030. At the rate this monopolizing company responds to emergencies, I doubt it very much.

It came to my notice last evening that a friend who lives in Malindi had lost power since 4.00 pm. She had tried calling the much advertized emergency numbers 95551 umpteen numbers of  times to no avail. Nobody was answering.

Now, I don't think she's on twitter, etc., and her ONLY way of letting this awful so-called power company know of her predicament was via a phone and that too a mobile which runs on a battery. Unfortunately, this too, has been slowly dying so  you can imagine her frustration. I found out about this because she posted all this on whatsapp in our group.

This morning, I found out that her power had still not returned and her phone was about to give up the ghost, so I decided to help her...

I  called the chief engineer's number which I always call and he, mercifully answers most times. Anyway, I asked him if he could give me the name and number of somebody in Malindi who  could help my friend. He promptly did and I  passed on both of these to my friend. 

She called him and was rudely told to call the emergency number and quickly cut off. She tried these awful unresponsive numbers, yet again, to no avail and sent me a message about what had happened. Therefore, I  called my pet engineer again and told him what his counterpart (?), had done. 

Now, can Kenya Power get this once and for all through it's collective head, please! We, the long suffering public, would NOT bother ANY of their 'officials' when we lose power IF THEIR so-called EMERGENCY number/s were promptly answered and responded to pronto. 

Because, the whole emergency  'mechanism' at KPLC is on the blink, is why we use other means of getting through to them. Otherwise, we truly DO NOT want to bother these 'big bosses' or don't they know?!

Coming back to my Malindi friend; after having talked to the engineer, he in turn called the Malindi KPLC guy and the response was that my friend got an sms from him telling her that her power would be back in the afternoon!!!!

Well, it is afternoon now, so I hope that she will have got back to the 21st century and she has probably had her fridge defrosted with perishable items gone bad or about to. That would make it a nearly 24 hour outage with no remorse or apology, etc., from KPLC. And if it still hasn't returned than God and this awful power company alone know when it will return.

​Will ANYTHING EVER change at Kenya Power...?!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Kenya Power, it's 'emergency' numbers, etc.,

It's been quite a while that I have written about  this redoubtable company, though, I  have written to them and about them on Facebook and commented regarding their various 'services'.

Today​, I thought of writing again because, these kinds of incidences seem to be happening all too often in this country (yes, country NOT county), and one wonders how we are EVER going to be so-called 'industrialized' by 2030. At the rate this monopolizing company responds to emergencies, I doubt it very much.

It came to my notice last evening that a friend who lives in Malindi had lost power since 4.00 pm. She had tried calling the much advertized emergency numbers 95551 umpteen numbers of  times to no avail. Nobody was answering.

Now, I don't think she's on twitter, etc., and her ONLY way of letting this awful so-called power company know of her predicament was via a phone and that too a mobile which runs on a battery. Unfortunately, this too, has been slowly dying so  you can imagine her frustration. I found out about this because she posted all this on whatsapp in our group.

This morning, I found out that her power had still not returned and her phone was about to give up the ghost, so I decided to help her...

I  called the chief engineer's number which I always call and he, mercifully answers most times. Anyway, I asked him if he could give me the name and number of somebody in Malindi who  could help my friend. He promptly did and I  passed on both of these to my friend. 

She called him and was rudely told to call the emergency number and quickly cut off. She tried these awful unresponsive numbers, yet again, to no avail and sent me a message about what had happened. Therefore, I  called my pet engineer again and told him what his counterpart (?), had done. 

Now, can Kenya Power get this once and for all through it's collective head, please! We, the long suffering public, would NOT bother ANY of their 'officials' when we lose power IF THEIR so-called EMERGENCY number/s were promptly answered and responded to pronto. 

Because, the whole emergency  'mechanism' at KPLC is on the blink, is why we use other means of getting through to them. Otherwise, we truly DO NOT want to bother these 'big bosses' or don't they know?!

Coming back to my Malindi friend; after having talked to the engineer, he in turn called the Malindi KPLC guy and the response was that my friend got an sms from him telling her that her power would be back in the afternoon!!!!

Well, it is afternoon now, so I hope that she will have got back to the 21st century and she has probably had her fridge defrosted with perishable items gone bad or about to. That would make it a nearly 24 hour outage with no remorse or apology, etc., from KPLC. And if it still hasn't returned than God and this awful power company alone know when it will return.

​Will ANYTHING EVER change at Kenya Power...?!