KESC advertising campaign adds insult to injury

[rabeea]

KESC advertising campaign adds insult to injury

When I first saw the billboards, the TVCs and the print ads in KESC's multimedia advertising campaign, I just could not believe my eyes.


The advertisements being aired project the company's middle and upper middle class customers as power thieves.


No doubt there is power theft. But where?


Can and will the KESC provide data and evidence of power theft in say, the DHA (where I am currently staying) Mohammad Ali Society, Garden East and Garden West Clifton, P. E. C. H. S., Bath Island, North Nazimabad, etc., and from areas down the economic ladder as compared to the ones I have named?


The fact is that the middle and upper middle class is the mainstay of the KESC's revenue sources.


During the past few weeks, having not much to do, I have been taking a look at the KESC.


In my humble opinion there are very solid and urgent grounds for the Justices of the Sindh High Court, or even Pakistan's Supreme Court, to take suo moto action against the KESC and inquire through public, preferably televised hearings how and why the KESC has miserably failed to commensurate supply with demand, why it is consistently and persistently failing to honour its contractual obligation of supplying electricity on a 24/7 basis, why its system continues to be dilapidated, why there are "feeder trippings" sometimes lasting many hours, what is the extent of the economic damage being inflicted upon Karachi by the KESC's daily load-shedding, why the KESC does not announce schedules of load-shedding well in advance if load shedding is imperative, how and why the KESC consistently fails to collects its receivables from its debtors, how much money KESC owes to PEPCO, the IPPs, to PSO, SSG and other suppliers and why it is not paying off these organizations, how and why KANNUP is not kept in an impeccable state of maintenance while load shedding is being inflicted upon customers on a daily basis, what is the frequency of "feeder trips" say in comparable cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Tehran, or even Islamabad, why is KESC overstaffed, what is the absenteeism rate in KESC, why KESC does not provide sufficient telephone lines to its response center 118, why are the KESC's response center executives, particularly the male ones, ill trained and rude, why the KESC has not added more capacity to its system despite there being a supply deficit for the past many years, how and in what manner were the bail-out funds made available by the government spent and what the outcome was, if any . . . the list of issues to be framed is a mile long.


Power theft isn't something that can be easily hidden. Theft of electricity requires a physical infrastructure. Electricity technicians and engineers can easily identify it. It is simple, Electricity travels through some conducting medium. Somewhere, somehow, an illicit, unauthorized connection HAS to be made into the transmission and distribution system to steal electricity. Such connections can be easily traced, dismantled and the people to whose establishments such connections lead be brought to book? Why does not this happen?


The KESC's tariff is not the lowest in the world. It may well be the opposite. It is note rational either. All over the world, those who consume more electricity pay less per unit. In Karachi it is the opposite.


Yet the KESC has the cheek to call its customers thieves.


Will the KESC care to publish data regarding billing defaults, with break-up, showing the percentage of default among industrial consumers, commercial consumers and households?


Will the KESC care to publish data of power theft, identifying the thieving individuals, groups and entities by the locality where the power theft actually occurred?


Will the KESC care to provide the quantum of power theft effect via the "Kunda" and that effected via tampering with on-site meters?


The least that the KESC can do is withdraw this nasty and insulting advertising campaign AND tender an unconditional public apology via TV, Radio and the Print media through which it is consistently and blatantly insulting the very customers whose rights it tramples upon daily.


The Chinese have a very apt little saying that can serve as a summation of this post.


"Respect the hand that feeds. It can also slap".





Rabeea








EDIT: Added the two paras highlighted in BLUE..

[ejazilahi]

Mar 17, 2010 3:53:49 GMT rabeea said:

KESC advertising campaign adds insult to injury

In my humble opinion there are very solid and urgent grounds for the Justices of the Sindh High Court, or even Pakistan's Supreme Court, to take suo moto action against the KESC and inquire through public, preferably televised hearings how and why the KESC has miserably failed to commensurate supply with demand, why it is consistently and persistently failing to honour its contractual obligation of supplying electricity on a 24/7 bnasis, why its system continues to be dilapidated, why there are "feeder trippings" sometimes lasting many hours, what is the extent of the economic damage being inflicted upon Karachi by the KESC's daily load-shedding, why the KESC does not announce schedules of load-shedding well in advance if load shedding is imperative, how and why the KESC consistently fails to collects its receivables from its debtors, how much money KESC owes to PEPCO, the IPPs, to PSO and other suppliers and why it is not paying off these organizations, how and why KANNUP is not kept in an impeccable state of maintenace while load shedding is being inflicted upon customers on a daily basis, what is the frequency of "feeder trips" say in comparable cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Tehran, or even Islamabad, why is KESC overstaffed, what is the absenteeism rate in KESC, why KESC does not provide sufficient telephone lines to its response center 118, why are the KESC's response center executives, particularly the male ones, ill trained and rude, why the #KESC has not added more capacity to its system despite there being a supply deficit for the past many years, how and in what manner was the bail-out funds made available by the government spent and what the outcome was, if any . . . the list of issues to be framed is a mile long.





Yet the KESC has the cheek to call its customers thieves.



"Respect that hand that feeds. It can also slap".





Rabeea

The truth is that the KESC is itself failing to make payments to the IPPs, to PEPCO, to SSG and PSO.


It has instructed its call center operators to lie to complaining customers that the IPPs have arbitrarily discontinued supply of power to KESC due to which the customers have been put to hardship.


To top it all it is airing this immensely odious campaign which goes against all the principles of decent, truthful advertising.

[nishaat]

This topic makes hugely valid points. I am surprised no one from KESC has taken the trouble to respond.

[rabeea]

What answers do they have to give?

[Syeda]

It is a foolish campaign

[admin]

This is just another red herring, intending to yet again confuse and confound public opinion and draw attention away from KESC's own incompetence

[Laal Dopatta]

But how can they even hope people will believe what they are saying in that scurrilous campaign?

[RUKHSANA]

After reading this topic I went to their site and watched those videos.



They are nauseating

[Value Resource]

It is indeed one of the most ill-conceived, senseless and counter-productive campaign I have seen.

[Zee]

Mar 17, 2010 3:53:49 GMT rabeea said:

KESC advertising campaign adds insult to injury

In my humble opinion there are very solid and urgent grounds for the Justices of the Sindh High Court, or even Pakistan's Supreme Court, to take suo moto action against the KESC and inquire through public, preferably televised hearings how and why the KESC has miserably failed to commensurate supply with demand, why it is consistently and persistently failing to honour its contractual obligation of supplying electricity on a 24/7 basis, why its system continues to be dilapidated, why there are "feeder trippings" sometimes lasting many hours, what is the extent of the economic damage being inflicted upon Karachi by the KESC's daily load-shedding, why the KESC does not announce schedules of load-shedding well in advance if load shedding is imperative, how and why the KESC consistently fails to collects its receivables from its debtors, how much money KESC owes to PEPCO, the IPPs, to PSO, SSG and other suppliers and why it is not paying off these organizations, how and why KANNUP is not kept in an impeccable state of maintenance while load shedding is being inflicted upon customers on a daily basis, what is the frequency of "feeder trips" say in comparable cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Tehran, or even Islamabad, why is KESC overstaffed, what is the absenteeism rate in KESC, why KESC does not provide sufficient telephone lines to its response center 118, why are the KESC's response center executives, particularly the male ones, ill trained and rude, why the KESC has not added more capacity to its system despite there being a supply deficit for the past many years, how and in what manner were the bail-out funds made available by the government spent and what the outcome was, if any . . . the list of issues to be framed is a mile long.


Power theft isn't something that can be easily hidden. Theft of electricity requires a physical infrastructure. Electricity technicians and engineers can easily identify it. It is simple, Electricity travels through some conducting medium. Somewhere, somehow, an illicit, unauthorized connection HAS to be made into the transmission and distribution system to steal electricity. Such connections can be easily traced, dismantled and the people to whose establishments such connections lead be brought to book? Why does not this happen?


The KESC's tariff is not the lowest in the world. It may well be the opposite. It is note rational either. All over the world, those who consume more electricity pay less per unit. In Karachi it is the opposite.


Yet the KESC has the cheek to call its customers thieves.


Will the KESC care to publish data regarding billing defaults, with break-up, showing the percentage of default among industrial consumers, commercial consumers and households?


Will the KESC care to publish data of power theft, identifying the thieving individuals, groups and entities by the locality where the power theft actually occurred?


Will the KESC care to provide the quantum of power theft effect via the "Kunda" and that effected via tampering with on-site meters?


The least that the KESC can do is withdraw this nasty and insulting advertising campaign AND tender an unconditional public apology via TV, Radio and the Print media through which it is consistently and blatantly insulting the very customers whose rights it tramples upon daily.


The Chinese have a very apt little saying that can serve as a summation of this post.


"Respect the hand that feeds. It can also slap".





Rabeea








EDIT: Added the two paras highlighted in BLUE..

Indeed the grounds for suo moto action by the Justices are very solid.

[SuperGal]

It beats me how they could accept such a silly notion agree to spend millions on it.

[Sheeda Tallee]

From what I hear from people in Karachip the present management of KESC is the worst in living memory.

[natasha]

IN other countries this would have resulted in a flood of public interest lawsuits