Last week the ZESA in the form of ZETDC announced that they were going to hike the price of prepaid electricity units starting this month. It seems, however, that since the beginning of the month people have also been experiencing issues when it comes to buying ZESA units.

Scores of people have reported having issues if they try to buy power using Ecocash in particular. While the popular mobile money platform has had its fair of issues it seems this time around it might actually be ZESA’s fault. Their API seems to be experiencing challenges that are causing intermittent transaction failures.

Avoid Ecocash

While it’s true that this is not Ecocash’s fault, you are safer not using their platform to buy electricity units. The Ecocash platform is notorious for making people jump through hoops before they reverse failed transactions. This means even if the transaction fails, you will not get your money back. It sometimes takes months.

Despite some lip service and promises from the top about improving the process of getting a reversal, reality has not changed that much. You only need to take a glance at Ecocash/Econet/Cassava’s social media pages and handles to see scores of people venting.

If you don’t want to be one of those victims avoid using Ecocash to buy power, at least directly until the situation is resolved.

Here is how to buy power safely

A lot of customers are using supermarkets, Pick N Pay, for example, allows customers to buy power at the tills. You can also do it the traditional way, go to ZESA and buy your power there.

Also, most banks have a mobile option that allows you to buy ZESA units, these work much better than Ecocash. Processing reversals are much easier with banks too. There is also the option of agents that can sell you power.