Over a week after PDD restored its billing service following a malware attack, many consumers complained they received ‘flawed’ bills.
While some consumers said that they received inflated bills, some others complained they have been charged flat rate and not as per meter reading.
The consumers said the officials at their subdivisions concerned were not able to help them as the systems at subdivision level were yet to be fully restored.
“I had zero outstanding. But a few days back I got a fresh bill charging me around Rs 9,000 when my usual monthly bill would be around Rs 1,000,” said Mohammad Shafi, a consumer.
Bilal Ahmed, another consumer from Dalgate said he too received inflated bills. “When I went to the concerned subdivision, the officials said systems are yet to be restored and they can’t fix it,” he said.
An official from PDD’s IT wing said the systems at the sub-division level were yet to be restored. “We have developed a temporary portal for uploading meter reading there may be minute human error which will be rectified. The subdivisions are kept disconnected till they will be properly synthesized. Once that is done, subdivision offices will get back full control,” he said.
Chief Engineer Distribution, Aijaz Ahmed Dar said there was “less than half percent error” which will be rectified. “We are also going to restore our sub-division offices and bills will be generated from there like normal,” Dar said.
On June 24, PDD witnessed a major malware attack hitting its Bemina data center, leaving the PDD’s billing services defunct.
Although the PDD data center and billing services were restored later, officials said it will take a few more days for full restoration at subdivision level.