High electricity usage (smart meter)

[Jatin_Bhambhani]

Hi,

I was away from 17 December 2022 to 7 Jan 2023, approx half a month, there was no one at home. From 17 to 24 December, I got a usage of less than 1 Kw per day which is fair enough. On 25 - 31 st December my usage is high, for a day even 9.81 Kwh (27 December) when there is no one at home an no appliances running. 

On calling AGL manager picked up explaining me the bill, saying that there was an AusNet distributor power lost with my meter on 25th Dec (hard to believe as they always message me when there is an outage) and smart meter got disconnected and the reading after was an estimate, so they gave me 3$ discount, probably after charging 15-20$ extra for that month. They told me AusNet give the readings so nothing they can do, they can have a chat with AusNet provider but will be waste of time and bill won't change and even if I want to complain this higher, I can't do anything as I am talking to manager. Then manager got all rude in the end when I demanded this is unfair estimation, do actual reading, I was away and how is 9Kwh used per day when house is empty with no appliance running. Anyway, I would just assume I lost 20$ for December 2022 and probably much more before and after. I am moving on to different provider who is not dodgy and can demand explanation/ fight to distributor on behalf of me for unfair usage as I pay bill to provider. I recorded all the conversation with manager cutting my direct debit without my consent, this provider deserves airtime for ripping off hard working people.

My vote for worst Aussie provider goes to AGL.

Jatin

[-Olgi-]

Hi @Jatin_Bhambhani,

Welcome to AGL Neighbourhood! I'm sorry to hear that you weren't assisted to your satisfaction by a Resolutions Manager and that you're considering leaving us as because of this. To be able to assist you further, I would need to look into your account to find out what and why these estimates have occurred. I'll send you a private message to grab your account details from you.

Thanks,

-Olgi-

[Jatin_Bhambhani]

You have stopped replying to my messages, you told me it will take 10 days to sort this reading and its well above 10 days. I havent got actual reading bill yet, so I will not pay until actual readings are there on my bill. 

[NeilC]

@Jatin_Bhambhani 

Jatin,

Lets see if we get some facts straight for you.

Your RETAILER (if you have a smart meter) relies on the smart meter sending the data to a receiver site and they use that information to calculate that bill.

Now your SUPPLIER also gets a copy of that same file.

The meter itself is SMART, they have some sort of memory storage device and battery backup (for up to 10 years).

Basically they store the info, connect to the receiver at set periods and if the site is available transmit the data.

If the receiver is not available they continue to collect more data and keep trying until successful.

Now the meters can also be read by a person physically connecting to the device and downloading the data to a laptop or similar.

Now the issue on the 25th may have been that the receiver site was down for a period. The SMART meter notes this and when connecting send codes to indicate such errors and a pile of other stuff.

Now if you change retailer and the issue occurs again you will have the same problem.

If you wish to PM (Private Message) me, I can give a private email address, you can then send me a copy of your download file and I will analyze it for you and hopefully you can get this resolved with actual factual data from your file.

Cheers Neil

[_Mark_]

Hi @Jatin_Bhambhani, I can see Olgi started talkng to you privately. I'd like to just check the account and see what notes are on there and provide you with an update, so i'm just going to send you a private message as well. Thanks- Mark.