Consumers, Jos electric firm differ on ‘illegal’ bills, glitches

Many electricity consumers in the franchise states of Bauchi, Benue, Gombe and Plateau under the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDCO) have complained of being shortchanged while the distribution company allegedly allocated illegal debts to their profiles.

Some of the customers, who spoke with The Guardian, lamented that the experience had lingered for days.

The electricity users also claimed that the company suddenly disappeared from the list of distribution companies while purchasing units on the mobile app, with a notice of “provider is not available.”

Also, the customers have taken to the official Facebook(Jos Disco) page of the company to lay their complaints despite the response from the management.

A resident of Bauchi, Abubakar Usman, who is on Band A feeder, said: “Two days ago, I recharged my prepaid meter with N5,000, where I’m supposed to get 22.5 units of electricity, but JED gave me only 4.5.”

Another customer, Aisha Umar, in Bauchi, said her meter of about seven years old with no debt, suddenly showed “outstanding debt of N15,000”, adding: “We never used an estimated bill since we moved into this house. Where did debt come from?”

“Jos Disco, can you please explain to me the outstanding that is showing in my meter?” Lucy Jiksim wrote on Facebook.

Another Facebook user wrote: “I wanted to buy 5k light, I saw 4k outstanding, and truly I ended up with 1k worth of light.”

While responding to the issue, the company’s Head of Customer Service, Saratu Aliyu, said the organisation’s system has no issues, maintaining that the vending portal was functioning well.

According to her, customers with genuine concerns should report any glitches to the nearest offices within the company’s franchise states.

“Those who complained about debts are the customers with outstanding debts. We have just come up with a debt recovery strategy for our customers. Those who owed below N1 million have the fund spread over. They will be charged N2,000 monthly.

“Meanwhile, they are advised to visit our desk officers to check their profile to get the issue of debt resolved,” she added.

Aliyu said JED is available for vending on all mobile and financial applications.