Long time lurker and bargain hunter, first time poster. Would like some advice on how to proceed further with SAPN or Origin Energy regarding this issue (other than bikies)
Trying to keep it as short as possible, but there's so much detail and screw ups that it's difficult to leave details out:
Moved into our new home (established home) on 15/07/2016, received our first quarter bill for 74 days totalling $821 on 28/09/2016 for 15/07/2016 to 26/09/2016, seemed a little high so investigated further. Checked the bill and the meter reads were listed as actual. Went to the meter and confirmed the meter number was the same, checked the bill meter reads:
Previous read (as at 15/07/2016 when we took ownership): 103509
Current read (26/09/2016 when they read the meter to finalise quarter): 105884
Checked our meter on 30/09/2016 and the total KWh reading was 102057.8. The meter was displaying a read on 30/09/2016 that was well below their apparent actual read on 15/07/2016.
Raised this with Origin Energy and after they confirmed the meter number and what we claimed the meter read was, they escalated to SAPN.
After ongoing investigation I was advised by Origin that SAPN have confirmed that the meter reads were incorrect and they suspect the meter is faulty, so they're launching an investigation and fault find with the meter. Somewhere towards late October I noticed that the meter was replaced completely by a new meter. This then prompted a query around the original bill and this resulted in Origin changing the bill to an "average based on a 2 person home of similar quality". The charges was reduced to roughly $400 which worked in our favour.
Fast forward 2 more quarterly bills and Origins systems keep trying to back charge us $400.48 from the first quarter (15/07/2016 to 26/09/2016) and is having to explain the whole situation to multiple people while being passed around from department to department. The first time this occurred in December a case manager was assigned and advised us that it tried to charge $400.48 due to Origin's systems pulling down the meter reads from SAPN and readjusting our bills to reflect the incorrect reads again.
After Origin refused to cancel the additional charge in this March bill it was escalated to the Energy Ombudsman.
This resulted in an ombudsman case manager from Origin being assigned and investigating the charges. They referred to meter read issue to SAPN again for confirmation.
The result: Apparently SAPN claim the meter reads were correct all along and the meter wasn't faulty (why was the meter replaced without advising us) and why was I advised this by the previous case manager. The Origin case manager claims there are no notes on their system that indicate that conversation occurred. LUCKILY, I have a photo of the meter read from 30/09/2016 showing the correct read, Origin escalated this to SAPN again.
The response: you're not reading the meter correctly and that's not the figure they obtain. There is no other figure similar to this and I was reading the total kWh reading, which according to Origin and various other provider websites, is the reading you need to look at. When I asked for information on how the meter should be read correctly, I was given the runaround. As a "goodwill gesture" Origin credited the $400.48 in a way that we will not be charged the amount again.
However, given the amount of stuffing around (almost 15 calls totalling 5 hours, plus documenting case notes for the ombudsman case) I'm not satisfied with the response from SAPN.
The incident has been posted on SAPN Facebook page for a direct answer which we're expecting tomorrow.
I'm seriously concerned that the previous owners were being incorrectly charged as well and the fact they replaced the meter, without advising of the final read seems really deceitful. I don't think they were expecting me to have evidence against their response.
There is much more that occurred with this case, where Origin were advised prior to the charges being debited that they were in dispute and to hold the charge, for it to be charged anyway and have to fight for it to be refunded.
The issue is somewhat resolved with Origin, but I'm now chasing SAPN for an answer as to why the reads were wrong and why they're now claiming they're correct. If they're able to provide hard evidence that I'm reading the meter wrong then I'm happy to drop it. But I'm seriously concerned that they're covering up the fact that someone who's supposed to be performing actual reads is just doing estimates, which Origin have advised would be illegal, to which I advised that I agreed and I believe this is why SAPN are responding in the way they are.
I'm not giving up that easily on something that has wasted so much of my time.
Do you think it's reasonable to be asking for reasonable compensation for the hours I've had to waste to document and follow up on these mistakes, if it turns out that my read is correct?
Ombudsman. Don't bother dealing with anyone else.