Business

How IE denied consumers payment services over planned tariff increase

THE downtime experienced on different payment platforms by consumers of Ikeja Electric (IE) throughout last week might not be unconnected to the planned electricity hike slated for July 1 by the nation’s electricity distribution companies, investigations carried out by Brands & Marketing on the issue have revealed.

Consumers in different parts of the metropolis on the platform had experienced difficulty in recharging their meters, resulting in some of them spending the Sallah holiday in darkness.

A consumer, Dapo Ajiboye, who resides in Olorunto Area, Aboru, in Agbado Oke Odo Local Council Development Area of the state, stated that he had to resort to his power generating set throughout the holiday; since none of the payment portals of the disco was available for him to recharge.

Another consumer, Mrs Patricia, living on Raji Razak Street, shared same experience.

“What pained me most is the fact that the light was stable throughout the period, but I couldn’t recharge my prepaid meter. Wouldn’t know why the company behaved that way,” she lamented.

But why the sudden inaccessibility of payment portals, especially at a period when Muslims, all over the globe, were celebrating a very significant event in the Islamic calendar? Attempts at unravelling the above puzzle were not without its interesting moments.

For instance, besides the several failed attempts by the correspondent, who is also a customer of the Disco, through his mobile banking app, none of the POS operators in Ikorodu, Aboru, Akinola and even at the Opeki office of the company contacted could vend during this period.

“A lot of customers who have deposited money with me for this purpose, but I’ve not been able to do any. It’s not just going,” said Paul, a POS operator who operates on RajiRazak Street, Aboru, Iyana Ipaja, approached by the correspondent.

And for Paul, it had been like that since the beginning of the week.

Another vendor, Madam Shola simply referred the correspondent to Ikeja Electric after several failed attempts, saying the fault must have emanated from the Disco.

“The transaction is not just going. You will complain to customer service. The fault is from IE, and not from this end,” she stated.

But, the initial snub of a text message from our correspondent regarding the vexatious issues, Brands & Marketing eventually got through to Mr Akinola Ayeni of the company’s Corporate Communications, who denied knowledge of such challenge.

“It is not true that our system is down. Why not try another POS, if the one you tried is not working?’ Payment is being made in our office right now, so it cannot be true that our consumers are finding it hard to recharge,” he stated, prompting the correspondent to visit some of the Disco’s offices in Alimosho.

At the Disco’s Opeki Office in the Abesan Area of Iyana Ipaja, customers who had been there as early as 7am, on Friday, could not recharge as late as 3pm when the correspondent visited.

A staff of the company, who would not want his name in print, however asked the correspondent to come back the following day, Saturday, or try the recharge on his mobile phone, later in the day,since the portal ‘would have been opened then’.

According to him, the challenges were not unconnected with planned electricity hike, but would be resolved by Friday, on the eve of July 1.

Surprisingly, the payment portals have since come alive since July 1; a coincidence or confirmation of the strong allegation that the company deliberately shut its doors against its customers at Sallah? Only the distribution company is in the best position to give answers to this puzzle.

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