A DEVICE designed to save electricity, is not only costing a Sherwood resident thousands of rands but it is also the root of endless frustration for her.

This is according to the resident, who bought and installed a device called Electro Smart at a cost of R8 500 - which promises to help customers save between 25% and 40% on their monthly household electricity bills - from CT International last November.

"Buying and having the device installed was a real waste of money as I have, to date, not saved one cent," says the resident who wants to remain anonymous.

However, she is not alone in this battle, as a website called www.hellopeter.com is evident. This website, especially created to give dissatisfied customers a portal to air their opinion on anything from bad products to bad service, are now home to several complaints by disgruntled customers, who have bought and installed the Electro Smart device.

According to Electro Smart promotional material, the device is basically a timer switch for the geyser, but instead of simply turning the geyser on and off, the Electro Smart does it at such intermittent intervals to ensure that the water does not drop below a certain temperature and thereby consume much less energy when it reheats the water.

"Being sceptical about the Electro Smart when first approached by a lady promoting the device door-to-door, I was given a three-month grace period with payment, starting on February 1, 2010, on the condition that if I did not see a saving I could cancel. I was very adamant about that and assured of the fact that I could cancel, no problem," said the resident.

"After having the device installed, I duly started to take down the readings everyday and after a while could see that there was no saving, as I was putting in the same amount of money weekly as before. I lodged a query and that is when the run-around and the stalling by the many staff I had to deal with started. Since the end of January, I have been sending numerous e-mails and making endless phone calls to CT International to try to sort the problem out, without any success.

"To date I have paid over R4 000 - the monthly payment goes off via debit order - and am yet to see any saving on my electricity usage."

According to the resident, despite the fully money-back guarantee in "the unlikely event" of a customer not saving up to 25% and more on his or her electricity usage after 90 days, and the promise of a Ten-Year Service Agreement, she has been struggling since the beginning of the year to get her money back or for a technician to come and look if the device is working as it should.

However, Hanno Hendrikse from CT International is of the opinion that the "run-around and stalling" is due to the resident who refuses assistance from the company.

"The client phoned us with a query for her Electro Smart and we assisted her immediately. As per her signed agreement she has to allow us to assist her in finding the maximum savings on her electricity accounts. The client refused our assistance and only told us to remove the unit," says Hanno Hendrikse from CT International.

"We offered her assistance again by sending her a form to complete, on which we will be able to determine if her unit is faulty or if she needs to be educated on the usage of the unit. Again the client refused our assistance, swearing and cursing at our personnel to remove the unit. It is clear that the client does not want our assistance and only wants to find a way to justify nonpayment.

"In good faith we will gladly assist the client if she allows us to do so."

With regard to the Hello Peter website, Hendrikse said, "this is a website purely designed for people to complain. Hello Peter gladly accepts any complaints as the companies that wishes to respond have to pay Hello Peter just to respond to a query. Any company you can think of is on there," says Hendrikse.

"We can never surely say how many of those queries are genuine. We are in the process of responding to the queries and we can assure you that there are not hundreds, like you state. As a respectable company, we are not happy with the fewer than 20 complaints on Hello Peter, but there will always be agony aunts and no company will ever be left without any complaints."

According to the resident, she received the form from CT International in January, however, she immediately informed them that she could not make head-or-tail of it. "But they just kept insisting that I complete the form. Upon installation I specifically asked whether I must do anything with regard to the Electro Smart, and I was told to forget that it is even there and just enjoy the savings," says the resident.

The resident has now consulted a lawyer and is in the process of contacting Carte Blanche and 3rd Degree to air the story.

According to Eskom, they are aware of the Electro Smart device, but have not endorsed it. "Eskom does not endorse specific products, but supports any energy efficiency product categories that are aimed at energy efficient lighting, water heating and energy reduction in general."