Billing issues (gas)

[MrNeedHelp]

Hello,

I'm trying to understand my gas bills.

Firstly,

According to my plan (Essential Saver) my usage rates are as follows, (copied from myaccount/energyplans/energy-plan

First 1644 MJ	c/MJ	2.21760
Next 1314 MJ	c/MJ	1.94810
Thereafter	c/MJ	1.55210

Yet on my previous bills the 2.2 c/MJ rate has only been charged for a maximum of 849MJ. Shouldn't the 2.2 c/MJ rate be charged until I reach 1644MJ in a month?

Then the 1.9 c/MJ rate seems to only be applied to less than 1000MJ. Shouldn't this figure be 1314 MJ of usage?

And the remainder is charged at the 1.55 c/MJ rate.

The second question I have relates to estimated readings.

On the bill I received for the 19th Sept - 18th Oct the meter read was listed as an estimate done on the 18th and a usage of 974.99MJ.

Then on the bill I received a few days ago for 19th Oct - 18th Nov it shows two meter readings, one on the 19th of Oct listed as actual for 1145.52MJ and another on 18 Nov which is estimated and for 1106.02.

Now apart from the fact that I'm sure we have not had a month since joining AGL where we used more than 2000MJ in a single month, the current bill seems to suggest we used 1145 MJ between the estimate reading on the 18th of October and actual reading on the 19th.

I appreciate any assistance you can offer and I'm happy to provide further details to any one authorised but I'm not going to have a chance to call the help line this week, otherwise I would have rung tomorrow morning. So if assistance could be offered here I'd be thankful.

[-Nam-]

Hi MrNeedHelp! 

Welcome to the AGL Community! 

Based on what you've copied and pasted above, your gas pricing steps are based off a 60 day period and because you've nominated for your bills to be issued on a monthly basis, your pricing steps are based on the amount of days within that billing period. We have more information on our website on how your plans and rates are worked out on your bills.

The above leads into your second question, as you've nominated for monthly billing, this doesn't change the meter reading cycle that your gas network completes in your area. Your monthly bills will be issued based on an estimate meter reading or on a meter reading that you've provided, once an actual reading has been competed then your bills are adjusted accordingly. 

I hope this clarifies how your bills are worked out. 

Kind regards, 

-Nam-

[MrNeedHelp]

Okay so the 60 day thing was obviously something I missed but I still don't think that explains why the current bill is so high.

My past 3 bills (because the site is throwing up errors accessing any bills back past that) were as follows.

19/7-18/8 31 days 1696.56MJ Estimated

2 days later this bill was adjusted to

19/7-18/8 31 days 1388.1MJ Estimated

19/8-18/9 31 days 1282.93MJ Estimated reading 18/9, Actual reading 20/8

19/9-18/10 30 days 947.99MJ Estimated

Now the current bills is

19/10-18/11 31 days 2251.54MJ Estimated reading 18/11 Actual reading 19/10

In the previous 4 bills the MJ used was never above 2000MJ and if I was able to access my previous bills without your website throwing up an errors I'm sure I'd see none of my bills have ever been near 2000MJ for a 30-31 day period.

For the record nothing in this house has changed dramatically in the last month, or even since the last "actual" reading. This is a small house 3br, 2 adults, 2 kids, gas is only used for cooking and hot water.which is only used for 2 showers a day (max) and dishes once a day. No washing clothes, no gas heating, nothing else runs on gas. Yet somehow we've jumped to 2000MJ in one month? Even in this strange world of estimations and 'fix it later' that does not make sense.

[MrNeedHelp]

In addition to the above, (because I can't edit the post)...

I was just looking at my previous three bills. The average daily use shown on each bill is 44.78MJ, 41.39MJ and 32.50MJ. The current bill is 72.36MJ a day.

So for the previous three months the average daily usage was 39.55MJ. Yet the current bill is heading towards double that figure. That's a substantial jump even if there was more things using gas on a daily basis

[-Nam-]

Hi MrNeedHelp! 

Without being able to look at your account I won't be able to 100% confirm how your bills have been calculated however, I'm assuming that you haven't provided your own readings for your monthly bills, this would mean that your monthly bills have been estimated and so this wouldn't be a true reflection of your usage each month, the average usage figures that you're looking at won't be based on what you've actually used, this would be just a guess. 

Once your meter has been read of if you've updated your own meter readings then your consumption would be bought up to date on that latest billing period, if we've been underestimating you on the previous monthly bills then your usage will increase for that latest monthly bill. We do recommend customers to provide their own meter readings if they nominate monthly billing, this way the bills will be issued more accurate to your usage for that month. 

As we can't track where and when your gas is being used, I'd recommend checking our Energy Saving Tips page for a few ways that you can track on your end, you might be able to determine where the unexpected usage has come from. If you'd to check this further with us, please Contact Us so we can check your account with you. 

Kind regards, 

-Nam-