SAINS, the NS water authority's acronym may suggest a smart organization. It's not.
I had been happily paying my water bills all these years under the name of the previous house owner. When I bought the house in 1995, I didn't bother to change the name. Until July last year.
All this time the monthly bill came to about RM 8 - 10 a month. Gradually under Syarikat Air Negeri Sembilan Sdn. Bhd. until about the middle of 2014 it surged to RM 15 - 16. That was still ok.
From January 2015 to April the same year it jumped to about RM 22. That was about a 50 % increase. Then from May to August it jumped another 149 % !, about RM 56 !
On 9th. of July 2015 I went to inquire at the SAINS office Central Market, and lodged an official report.
When the August bill came to RM 63, I jumped, and on 12th. August went to the same SAINS office and lodged another official report.
That was when I was told I needed to re-register under my own name. I did. I paid RM 114.40 plus GST. Luckily I kept the copy of the payment record. Remember, this was almost one year ago! Because this was where SAINS' incomprehensible idiocy emerged in these last two months.
On 11th. April this year, I received a letter from SAINS accusing me of running a meter unregistered with them.
On top of that letter they printed the meter I was having "No. meter SAINS 13A29032" ! So I called, and was asked to see "Roslan", which I did. I brought along all the paid bills from 2011 to 2015, the "Borang Bayaran" transfer account holder, the two official reports, and even my house grant to prove the transfer of house ownership. Roslan made copies of some of the items and let me go giving the impression everything was then in order.
Imagine my surprise yesterday, when at about 2 p.m. the water stopped running in the house, and I went to check the mains and found the water meter missing ! I immediately called SAINS and one "Norsiah" asked me to come before 4.30 with my supporting documents, after I explained my meeting with Ruslan last month.
I'm satisfied that I kept my temper under control ("extreme control", I might add). I repeatedly explained how my meeting with Ruslan went, and pointed at the "Borang Bayaran" as proof of settlement of new owner's account. I said how can they just come to the house unannounced and simply "pull the plug" with no consideration for appliances in use etc.
That was 3.45 pm. Finally Norsiah said they'd reconnect the supply at 6 pm.
6 came and went. At 7 pm I called their complains number and under questioning repeated several times the chain of events, and the guy finally said the connection would be done before midnight.
Midnight came and went. At 6.15 am I called the complains number again, and as I'd expected I had to repeat everything to the guy when he said my account does not exist according to his record. He said he'll investigate further. I left for golf.
When I came back from golf, I saw nothing has changed. Soaking in sweat because of the extreme heat today, I called the complains number again. Again the guy said my account does not exist from his record, and I grit my teeth and repeated to him what happened last month and yesterday. He said he'll investigate.
So I called Norsiah at about 11 am, after I'd taken my bath and was comfortable and cool in my air-conned den. Surprisingly, one ring and she picked up the phone. I said you promised 6 pm yesterday, and now it's 12 pm the next day and nothing has been done. "Not done ?" she sounded genuinely surprised. "Give me 5 minutes. Give me your number" After several failed calls to her, and one and a half hours later I drove to the bank for some urgent business, and went straight to Norsiah's office, again.
I met Norsiah at her office at about 2.30. What a relief ! There was no need for repeating anything. She gave me a copy of the new account number, and the phone no. of one "Asyraf" to call for installation problems, and said I should get my water supply back by 5. The guy came at 4.
Apparently the SAINS system f.u. the "new account" done in August last year. By creating a new number this morning, everything is now ok.
That's not just water under the bridge. That's a lot of shit,too.
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