MERA issues serious warning to ESCOM over horrible customer service that include staff rudeness 

* Also includes non-compliance to MERA’s directives and staff demanding money to rectify faults or for new electricity connections

* ESCOM had ignored two previous directives the Authority had issued — on September 30, 2024 and in April 2024

* MERA thus warns it will not hesitate to take further action against ESCOM should the non-compliance continues

By Duncan Mlanjira

While people had been complaining amongst themselves on social media of poor service delivery in as far as reporting electricity faults in concerned, other customers were reporting directly to Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA), which has since issued a serious warning to the public power utility company.

In a letter dated January 13, 2025, MERA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Henry Kachaje to Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), Kamkwamba Kumwenda, discloses that ESCOM had ignored two previous directives the Authority had issued — on September 30, 2024 and in April 2024.

In the recent communication to the ESCOM CEO, copied to Secretary for Energy, Kachaje says MERA has observed the continuing poor customer services over some time having received numerous complaints from various customers concerning bad experience of ESCOM service delivery.

“Generally, customers are kept waiting for long periods of time before being attended to when using your platforms to report faults and at times customers are completely ignored.

“It has also been reported that your call centre staff are rude to customers and that your faults staff are demanding money to rectify faults or connect electricity to new customers.”

Kachaje thus made reference to a letter he wrote to ESCOM CEO on September 30, 2024 highlighting unresolved and outstanding complaints from various customers against ESCOM service provision.

Kachaje indicates that MERA requested ESCOM to provide electricity complaints handling update and was also directed to provide a focal person at senior level who will be responsible for facilitating electricity consumers complaints to MERA.

But to date, Kachaje reminded Kumwenda, that ESCOM has not complied with the directive as well as that MERA sent in April 2024 in which ESCOM was requested “to provide investigation reports on various outstanding consumer-related complaints in the Southern Region — which was made to resolve electricity consumer complaints by the Authority”.

ESCOM did not comply by not providing the requested information to the Authority — and Kachaje wrote: “Your conduct demonstrates negligence, lack of commitment and bad customer service to electricity consumers — which is against your own customer service charter, provisions of the Electricity By-laws and the agreed key performance indicators.

“It is against this background that the Authority is seriously warning ESCOM over the poor customer service experienced by the consumer,” wrote Kachaje, while emphasising that non-compliance to MERA’s directives and requests “is being disrespectful”.

“The Authority will not hesitate to take further action against ESCOM should the non-compliance continues.”

The complaints are indeed being shared multiple times by the public on social media and on one occasion last month, to do with ESCOM staff demanding money to rectify electricity faults, a debate ensued in which other customers confessed that they were willing to pay the bribe asked for in order to be rendered the much-needed service.

This was after ESCOM flighted a flier on social media indicating that clearance of electricity faults is done at no cost to the customer and indicated that they were aware of the behavior by some of its faults-clearing technicians who are demanding money to clear faults.

The public power utility service provider strongly condemned the malpractice in the flier, saying it is against ESCOM Code of Conduct and stressed its commitment to serve customers as enshrined in the Customer Care Charter since clearance of electricity faults by ESCOM is free.

But soon after the flier reached the public domain, several customers sneered at it, hinting they are willing to pay because if they don’t, they are not served in time.

The debate was ignited when a corporate customer (name withheld) cried foul over inefficiency of faults-clearing services at their premises, disclosing that an ESCOM cable got burnt and was reported the same day and kept reminding the ESCOM faults department. 

The company reported that on three occasions, an ESCOM team visited the area and had a cable with them but all the time they indicated to the management of the affected company that the cable was for another client but the technicians were asking if they could “discuss” for them to ignore the other customer. 

Frustrated, the company’s management took to social media to disclose the ordeal they had suffered as they could afford not to have power for four days — it worked because it was seen by ESCOM and in not time at all, the fault was rectified.

That’s when an avalanche of responses indicated that ESCOM technicians do indeed rush over whenever a customer indicates they would be compensated for their effort to visit them.

Meanwhile, ESCOM is the biggest victim of vandalism of its infrastructure, whose replacement costs the company a lot of money from its revenues, but the public has always observed and hinted that most culprits of these acts of sabotage are disgruntled former employees, who got fired over malpractices against the company.

Which even ESCOM itself and other stakeholders are aware of and while the public is asked to help by reporting the malpractice through toll free number 847, the poor service delivery, coupled with blatant rudeness of customer care staff, probably discourage consumers from reporting.