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:
- The reading are correct because AGL says they are
- If they check the meter and it is faulty then we have to pay for the fact they checked the meter
- The onus is on us to invalidate their readings
- The bill is correct....because the bill is correct...unless we can prove otherwise
- 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
- Otherwise, the bill stands because.... it is their bill!
HOWEVER
- 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
- 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.
- 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?
