Impossibly high bill - and no options provided except "prove us wrong"

[JeffreyT]

BACKGROUND

Let me set the scene. We are two people in a house (in our sixties) and our electricity bill has been around $1000 each quarter for over 12 months. Around 50-60 kWh average daily usage. Now this is really really high for two people, no dependants, in a house on our own. However we have lived with it, even though the little "house" picture shows us that we ae using far more electricity that others in the area.

THE LATEST BILL

To our horror, the latest bill is $2307.71. A jump of over 100%! 100kWH average daily usage.

TO BE CLEAR

We have not changed anything. We have not added a new appliance, a new washing machine, nothing. What has changed is that AGL installed a Smart Meter in March this year. That's the change. 

The little house picture shows that we are using the equivalent of 20 people's electricity compared to houses in the area! There are two of us.

MY CONVERSATIONS

I have now spoken to frontline support a AGL, someone in the resolution team, and a manger in the resolution team. Here is the story I am given:

1. The reading are correct because AGL says they are
2. If they check the meter and it is faulty then we have to pay for the fact they checked the meter
3. The onus is on us to invalidate their readings
4. The bill is correct....because the bill is correct...unless we can prove otherwise
5. We have to turn everything off in the house and spend time messing about with appliances (where we know there has not been a change) to prove to AGL that their bill is faulty
6. Otherwise, the bill stands because.... it is their bill!

HOWEVER

1. AGL is providing a service to us, and we are entitled to pay fair value for a service rendered. This is an impossible bill, and we should not have to pay for a service incorrectly rendered
2. If AGL installed a smart meter, it is their meter that is making the readings, their system that is doing the calculation, and their system that is generating the invoice. It is beyond belief that AGSL says "trust us because you should" when a bill is provided that cannot, just cannot be correct.
3. We did not ask for a meter change. AGL put in a "smart meter" for, on the surface, to SAVE MONEY on the people who now do not need to read meters, and, on the surface, to institute some sort of scam where they can now charge double, with the response: it is what it is (heard that somewhere else?)

And the onus is totally thrown back on us to prove them wrong. 

This totally unacceptable.

I am going to write to AGL one more time, and then straight to the media and the ombudsman. I cannot be alone receiving this appalling behaviour, and it is time that companies like AGL start to realise that there are customers with rights, and the supplier's role is to serve the customer, not to issue bills based on calculations that the consumer has zero control over, and then put the onus back on the customer to prove them wrong.

Does this resonate with anyone else?

[bhupesh8]

I also have same issue and wonder what are the steps I can take as AGL said exactly same .. we're right unless you prove us wrong and until than keep paying .. Will it be helpful to change the supplier.

My Last Quarter Bill was $816 and this quarter is $1965 .. nothing change in the house ... this is ridiculous 

[Ngoddard]

Ohhh so this isnt just happening to me! I was with another provider that AGL took over- not happy about! I have always had usage of less than one person in my house, now it says the same as you, 20 odd people. Ive lived here for 6 years and always have bills of $340, now they are $1100!!!! And havent actually attended to a reading since September until this week. 

[NeilC]

@Ngoddard @bhupesh8 

Please read my previous posts regarding getting information about your account so you can confirm your current billing.

Start reading your meter(s) every day at about the same time and document the readings.

I take it that both of you have 90 day billing cycles.

So after you log onto your account and get your current rates you can calculate your daily usage. Once you have your daily usage you can then calculate what you can expect for your bill after 90 days.

Unless you have a smart meter you must be on a fixed tariff so the calculations are quite simple and calculations are easy.

Read your meter(s) at say 8 o'clock (2000 hrs) and write down the readings.

Say you have a reading of 2000 for your peak and 900 for your off peak.

The next day at 2000 read them again.

Lets say you get 2025 peak and 915 for your off peak.

Now after getting your current rates you find that you are paying 32c for peak and 21c for off peak.

For the day then your costs would 25*.32 + 15*.21 + $1.05 (for your supply charge)

That is $8.00 + $3.15 + $1.05 or $12.20 a day, which would work out to be (12.2 * 90) or  $1098 for a quarter.

Now do this for a week, calculating the daily costs as you go, then take the last reading of each meter and subtract the first reading giving you the weekly usage, divide this by 7 and then multiply by 90 to give a average daily usage for the seven days. Again calculate the cost.

Now @Ngoddard  you stated that you have not had a meter reading done for about 212 days so that is 2.36 times more than a normal billing period (340*2.36 is $800).

Have you both check your bills for accuracy.

On your bills are your meter reads for the period, the number of days are listed on the bill.

Take those figures and revert them back to a daily usage (End Meter Reading - Start Meter Reading) divided by the number of days.

If you are a constant user you should come close to the figures you obtain from the checks I have asked you to do above.

Smart meters are a different kettle of fish as you can be on a multitude of different plans which rely on having your accurate usage on at least half hourly usage. However you can view this data on either your MyUsage page or via the AGL app.

Now lets say that the only change that you have made to your house is that you added an inverter split system to your lounge room.

Inverter systems have an oil heater in them, now this draws a measly 125 watts an hour (whether its running or not) so this becomes 125*24 watts or 3000 watts a day.  3000 watts is 3kW a day so on a 90 day billing cycle it is and extra 270kw or an extra $86.40 on your bill.

The other thing is that @JeffreyT has never come back with his resolution so was he wrong or was AGL at fault. I would say that if he found that AGL was wrong he would have been straight back online telling of his win.

[bhupesh8]

Thnks Wonder if someone can share how they have dealt with similar issue

--
Bhupesh

[NeilC]

@bhupesh8 

I suggest that you log into this message IMMEDIATELY  and remove your personal details.

These pages are not restricted to any person and anyone can read your details

Click on the three dots,  then edit reply...

[John-T]

@bhupesh8 

Mate I would take note of @NeilC  post above and remove that information asap!

Just an FYI

I live about 10 minutes from you and with the information you have already furnished here in your post, all it would take is for somebody to camp at your locations typical postal delivery times to extract one or 2 more details in a bill letter etc to steal your ID.

You have supplied your "Full Name, Address, and 2 contact numbers, a would be scammer or identity thief would be rubbing their hands together.

In this day and age you must never offer up this kind of information on an open forum. You are asking for a world of hurt.

Regards

John      

[Ngoddard]

Where does it say my details? I never posted them and cant see them on there?

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[J_Isabel]

We are experiencing the same issue. No explanation for such high bills, there are only 3 people in the house. T.V is hardly on. All we use is a washing machine a couple of loads a week. Basic fridge, small appliances in the kitchen & bathroom occasionally. A few lights in the evening. Apparently we use more electricity than a household of 5 people! I have taken the issue up with ombudsman, but AGL stand by their past billing, I’m still

in arrears of over $3,000 even though I have been paying every instalment plus more to try and catch up with the arrears. No one seems to listen, I will back to EWOS, see if they can resolve something.

[rdsz]

Same here 

We have a brand new solar installation almost 15kW system, a brand new inverter, a smart meter installaled exactly a week ago and I switched to the AGL solar savers plan.

Our solar installer also told us to make behavioural changes so that maximum usage is done during the day. Besides, I recently started a new job and hence I'm not at home from 7 am - 8pm. My family does not use heaters/air conditioner, we do not possess a tv and I'm the stingiest guy despite living in a 5 BR house. We also dry our clothes in the sun. 

I was therefore expecting that my 15kW system would generate a credit daily considering that we do not use much power and the sun has been shining bright for the whole week. 

To my surprise the app shows that our consumption has jumped from 20 kWh before solar to 35kwH after solar and our Solar feedin is only 8kWh. A 15kWH system in sydney after accomodating for orientation and being generous with efficiency losses should generate atleast 43kWh/day. 

This means that according to AGL our daily consumption is 35kwH ( from the gird) - 8kWh ( Solar feedin) + 43kwH( Solar power) = 70 kWh which is a 335% increase in consumption despite a reduction in comsumption due to changes at home!!! This is impossible even if the brand new solar is underperforming!! 

 AGL also has the word "estimate" for both the solar feedin as well as power consumed from the grid! How can the word estimate be included when the data comes from the smart meter?? I intuitively feel that there is something seriously wrong here!! AGL either has a faulty meter, is incorrectly calculating consumption and feed-in and/or outrightly scamming its customers through creative accounting!! 

[Rebby]

Although you've been helpful & given good tips on how to consume less, you're failing to comprehend that the consumer may be right about incorrect billing.

I get monthly billed.

Last two years in a house of 6 adults the monthly bill is between $100 & $130

The last bill, where there there were only 3 adults for 5 weeks, was at $266.

It was a bill estimate due to apparently not being able to read the meter (nothing has changed to access).

Called them up & they've admitted to over billing by 50%. It is still too high for having half the humans & zero additional energy consumption.

A bill projection should be that...a projection of what your bills generally have been.

You've not once said that AGL may have gotten it wrong....even in the the most excessive cases.