eThekwini Municipality customers respond sarcastically after two contact centres have ‘technical faults’

Customers said technical faults or not, the municipality did not answer their phones. File Picture : Motshwari Mofokeng /African News Agency (ANA)

Customers said technical faults or not, the municipality did not answer their phones. File Picture : Motshwari Mofokeng /African News Agency (ANA)

Published Oct 2, 2022

Share

Durban — EThekwini Municipality customers have responded rather sarcastically to the municipality after it said the Electricity and Engineering, Water & Sanitation Contact Centres were unable to receive calls because of a technical fault.

On Friday morning, the eThekwini Municipality, on its Facebook page, told customers: “The Electricity and Engineering, Water & Sanitation Contact Centres are unable to receive calls due to a technical fault. Our technicians are working tirelessly to resolve the issue.”

The municipality said if customers wanted to report faults and or outages, they could use:

Electricity

Electricity.Faults@durban.gov.za or WhatsApp to 0767912449‬.

EWS

Eservices@durban.gov.za

WhatsApp 073 148 3477

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the municipality said.

Two Fridays ago, the municipality said the Electricity Contact Centre was unable to receive calls due to a technical fault. Its technicians were working tirelessly to resolve the issue.

The latest issue of the municipality’s contact centres not working left many customers dismissive since it was not new, as some customers put it.

Reacting to the municipality’s announcement, Mthokozisi Ian Mngadi said: “Nothing new here. Even when there’s no technical fault, they are still unable to answer calls.”

Kim Stuttard Dowle said: “Don’t bother fixing the technical faults… The phones are not answered anyway.”

Robert Rieckhoff said the only technical problem the municipality had was the staff not coming to work, that was the fault.

Graham Rice said: “You never answer the phone anyway so why “work tirelessly to fix it. Makes no difference anyway.”

Ntokozo Gasa said: “I can’t remember the day when their call centres were working on a normal basis, considering the fact that it takes forever for them to answer calls day or night.”

Gary van Vuuren questioned how long it took to repair a telephone fault.

Daily News