[Resolved]  Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam — Incorrect calculation of electricity bill

Address:

Faridabad, Haryana

I, Vishal Sharma, r/o C-64, Second Floor, Dayal Bagh Colony, Faridabad is facing an inconvenience since last 4 months. I have an electricity connection in my mother’s name with account number DB11-0309 and the Division Code is Old Faridabad with Sub Division code F13. The problem which I am facing is that I am being overcharged for the units that I consume every bill cycle. This is because of a simle calculation mistake which is quiet evident if you take a look at the copies of electricity bills that I have enclosed with this letter.
If you look at the bill for the month of June 2010 (Bill 1), you would notice that
New Reading is - 9100
Old Reading is - 8839
Units Consumed is - 1120
Now if you see that here is where the problem is. If calculated properly the units consumed should have been 261 and not 1120. Due to this simple calculation error my electricity bill came up to be Rs. 4969 wherein it should have been way less than this.
I noticed this error in the month of November 2011 when I received the bill for the month of October 2011. I was really amazed to see such a huge amount which I was supposed to pay. I tried to figure out why am I being charged such a high amount and in the process I found out this silly calculation mistake which directly resulted in an excess payment. I was really surprised to see such a simple yet horrendous mistake and started to suspect that maybe I have already been paying more than what I have to. To clarify this I checked for the previous bills and what I discovered was way beyond my belief. I was being overcharged for the number o[censored]nits that I consume since June 2010 bill. Apart from the August 2010 and December 2010 bills, on every other occasion I was being overcharged.
On 9 November 2011, I decided to file a complaint against this error and for that I went to the DHBVN Palla office. I was provided with a complaint form and asked to fill it up and submit it to the J.E, Mr. Neeraj Tyagi who was at Gurukul office at that time. I was also told that I would get a compliance receipt against my complaint. I filled the form and went to Gurukul office to see Mr. Tyagi. I described him my concern and showed him the October 2011 bill. He himself did some calculations and agreed to the fact that yes there was a mistake in the bill and I am being overcharged. I requested him to do something to rectify this error. He wrote Rs. 4200 (according to his calculation) on the bill and asked me to go to Palla office again and get this amount updated in the computer system and make a payment of the said amount. When I asked him about what would happen to the money that I have already over paid since June 2010, he said he would send someone to my doorstep as he suspect that there might be a problem in the electricity meter and once the meter is checked the amount that I have already paid in advance would be adjusted in my next bills. I was really amazed at the response from a person at such a high post. The mistake is evidently in the calculation of the bill and he was blaming an electricity meter to be at fault. Still I agreed to his solution and asked him for the receiving of the complaint. He said that the lineman who would come to check my meter would provide me with a compliance receipt and the report of the functionality of the meter. After this I left to get the money and make a payment at the Palla office. By the time I reached there Mr. Tyagi was also there and he himself helped me get the amount of Rs. 4200 updated on the computer system and once it was done I made the payment and came back home and waited for the lineman to come and check the electricity meter. However, nobody showed up on my doorstep.
Before a lineman could come to check my electricity meter, I received yet another electricity bill for the month of December 2010. I looked at the electricity bill and I was dumbstruck when I saw same calculation mistake in the bill. I was being charged for 1533 units instead of 405 units. And to add insult to injury, there was an arrear of Rs. 3197 for the balance of October 2011 bill. It was really a shock to see that even after filing a complaint the error was not resolved. I again went to the Palla office on 6 January 2012 in hope that I may find somebody responsible enough to listen to my problem, understand it and do something to rectify it. But to no avail. I was again given the same complaint form and instructed to follow same steps of filling up the form, submitting it with JE and wait for the further proceedings from your department. I Went to Palla office to see Mr. Tyagi, but apparently he seemed to be in some kind of a rush that he could not even talk to a complainant and an end user of the services that his organization provides. This time when I asked him for a receiving of the complaint he denied and said, “receiving hum nahi dete, jo meter check karega wohi dega.” I told him that I am ready to take any of his staff members with me to get the meter checked right now, but he was in such a rush that he didn’t bother even to listen to what I have to say. He took the complaint form and left the place in his car. Again it’s been more than 40 days nobody has showed up on my doorstep to check the status of the electricity meter.
Now I am not sure what happened to the complaint forms that I submitted to the J.E of DHBVN, I can only suspect that either they are still laying in some file at the corner of Mr. JE’s table or best they might have found their way in the dustbin of his office. This shows the incompetence and negligence of duty of the staff members at DHBVN Palla office in Faridabad.
I would really appreciate any help that I can get in order to rectify this particular problem that I am facing.
Thanks and Regards,
Vishal Sharma
C-64, 2nd Floor, Dayal Bagh Colony
Faridabad, Haryana – 121009
Mobile: [protected]