Thank you AGL for your reply, but it’s all too little, too late. I have been in touch with a number of AGL customer reps throughout this week and have been very disappointed with the way AGL promotes, administers and deals with customers in relation to the AGL app functionality and the battery rewards plan.
Our household recently had a solar/ battery system installed and we‘ve been with AGL for both Electricity & Gas. Our Sigenergy battery/inverter is eligible for the $1000 credit if we stay with AGL's plan for over 12 months, but we will not be joining this plan or staying with AGL for electricity.
The Sigenergy retail battery rewards plan is not available to view anywhere on the convoluted AGL website. There is no plan or rates summary available online and customer service representatives have given me false information when calling up to inquire about plan specifics. They even refused to pass on relevant offer details and plan documentation via chat or email, explaining that I’d have to call the battery or resolutions team to get this absolutely basic information!
We were initially promised by an AGL customer service rep on the phone that the credits from our electricity plan could be applied to our AGL gas bill on the same account, but upon asking for clarification in writing (via AGL chat) before signing up, we were subsequently informed that the electricity feed-in-tariff credit could not be used in this way.
In addition to the AGL apps lack of functionality, the way in which feed-in credits are to be issued from May 12th (moving from credit gift-cards to AGL bill credits) means that the feed-in proceeds are now effectively held hostage by AGL. This is economically nonsensical and deprives customers of any value when compared to other providers.
The newly constituted battery rewards plan means that credits applied to your electricity plan cannot be used to pay off your gas bill, even if they are on the same AGL account. The credits are also not able to be paid out into a bank account. So what exactly is the point of these credits?
The financial value of the solar-surplus feed-in and the battery-exports that consumers provide to AGL at peak times simply cannot be utilized by customers and it's value is therefore retained and locked-in by and for AGL. It's only available utility is to pay for more electricity from AGL, which is the complete opposite of what a solar/battery system sets out to achieve. The value of our feed-in can thus never be realized.
Globird allows feed-in credits to offset gas bills on the same account, and has significantly better app functionality. Flowpower allows credits to be paid out to your bank account.
What is the value for the customer in AGL's approach to feed-in credits when signed up to the Battery Rewards Program? None that I can see.
AGL has chosen to use customers feed-in as a disingenuous way to extract the value of our spare electrons with no financial recompense. If AGL don't allow us access to the value of our own electrons and steals the financial value of these inputs, then the return on investment and pay-back-time for the significant capital outlay of a solar/battery system makes no sense. I'll be moving on to a retailer that both values my custom and what my electrons bring to the table.
