$3500 of Electricity Bills in One Day

cc23 on 27/03/2019 - 14:29

So this is an odd situation, but I moved into my apartment with my partner in July 2017. We took over the bills, did all the paperwork, set up all the direct debits. All was good.

Until last Friday.

I get a letter from a company saying they will cut off my electricity the following Monday unless I call them.

It looks like a con, the website they state in the letter doesn't work, so I went to speak to a few neighbors in the building and turns out they are legitimate and the suppliers of electricity for the building. They claim since I moved in, no one has once paid for the electricity. I say I pay Origin for electricity. Look up my bills, and turns out, nope I pay Origin for gas (my heart sank). My previous apartment, I had Origin for electricity and Gas was covered by the body corp so included in the rent in the rush of moving I'd thought this was the same.

Next thing they say they are going to send me through my bills.

They send 10 bills in row, one after another, totaling over $3500.

The rates are extortionate, my partner and I both work full time and are often away, yet the bills are coming out and the average of what a 5 person house would be.

My problem is, why on earth have they taken two years to contact me? If I had seen the price of the bills I would have moved company, sorted something else, and above all else having seen the very first bill, I would have then been conscious of our electricity usage from that moment forward. Instead they have waited for me to rack up a massive debt then 2 years later, despite knowing exactly where I live, have sent their first piece of contact.

Is there any way I can challenge this legally? Is it not legally their responsibility to make contact with me in a suitable time frame? Or am I stupid and do I just suck it up and pay and move on?

Home & Garden

Comments

    • cc23 on 29/03/2019 - 10:52

      Yeah I think this was the core of some of my confusion.

    • samfisher5986 on 29/03/2019 - 11:16
      +1

      Electricity companies rarely turn off the power as this requires them to physically visit the property.

      • DiscoJango on 29/03/2019 - 12:13
        +1

        in the past, when viewing rental apartments (which had been vacated) all of them had no power

        i had to use my iphone torch in the dark rooms

        im thinking this is a cock up on the power companies end, NOT the op's

        also the fact they have not sent or emailed one power bill, is crazy. even if they did not know his name, they certainly knew the address.

        • samfisher5986 on 29/03/2019 - 12:18
          +3

          Its completely normal for power to remain after someone leaves.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 29/03/2019 - 13:36
      +1

      DiscoJango, in the past sure, retailers would get the power shut off to ensure no loss of profits.

      Nearly all retailers don't follow this practice anymore due a few reported incidents where people on a form of life support equipment had their power shut off unexpectedly.

      They now nearly all follow the process that OP is experiencing, letters to the property notifying unbilled usage before any disconnection takes place.

    • poiuy1234 on 30/03/2019 - 17:52

      Quite simply, the previous tenant failed to inform the provider that they were moving and therefore never disconnected the account. The bills most probably still continued being sent, but were ignored as they were in the previous tenant’s name.

      • DiscoJango on 30/03/2019 - 19:26

        im fairly confident the op would remember 2 years worth of electricity bills sent to his address under a different name.

        • poiuy1234 on 30/03/2019 - 22:09

          Maybe he does remember but chooses not to disclose.

      • TtiGeR on 30/03/2019 - 21:26

        From personal experience, it's not the case for embedded network - very different from retail markets. When I moved out I disconnected my service, but it was still on a month later. (I know because the agent called me for help - showing them how to use an appliance during an inspection, and they said nobody connected the service but it's still on. I later called the company and they confirmed it's not 'connected' from billing point of view but 'connected' physically.)

  • zooter on 29/03/2019 - 11:50
    +3

    classic clickbait. I thought the bill was $3500 in one day, but sorely disappointed….I guess if you have a factory you could get that much electricity spent in a day?

    • cc23 on 29/03/2019 - 12:38
      +1

      Yeah sorry I hadn’t realised how click bait worthy that title was, I did get $3500 of bills in one hour, but not $3500 of electricity in one day!

  • mychips on 29/03/2019 - 14:38
    +1

    I once received a bill for $2k for electricity. It turns out that they could not access the meter and were merely estimating. I checked the meter and it turned out that there was a discrepency of ~10,000 kwh and I ended up getting a refund. Call up and ask them to pause the payment pending an investigation.

    Work out where that gas usage is supposedly from, the period and if it appears like it is way too high, don't hesitate to get ombudsman or consumer affairs involved. $3.5k seems quite high for gas imho.

    YMMV

  • nakahanap on 29/03/2019 - 18:07

    I had a slightly different situation at a place I lived. I submitted all the paperwork before I moved in and didn’t receive a bill. Chased them up, still no bill. Then I had a longer conversation and…sadly/happily we sorted it all out.

    Ultimately, it came down to their computer saying Unit x, 123 blah road and my form saying x/ 121-123 blah road. I had billing address issues for other things and bizarrely my address was in a different format on every single utility bill.

    For another service, despite repeated requests to update my contact details (and…lol…to send me the bill), the billing address was incorrect, not received as a result and the service was cut off. Had to go through the ombudsman as the hellish help desk for this major internet provider then refused to update my contact information without cc details and I refused to pay a bill sight unseen. Fun times.

    Anyway, my point is the billing department is not necessarily going to pick up on stuff and in some cases actually have no authority to update customer details….probably why the previous person was still getting your bills and you didn’t get chased up.

    Good luck. I hope it’s relatively easy to sort out.

  • Serapis on 29/03/2019 - 23:43
    +1

    @OP, refer to clause 29 of the Energy Retail code - Page 35

  • Lockieasy on 30/03/2019 - 10:53
    +1

    I think your partner may be secretly mining crypto coins or has a hydroponic farm in the room with a lock on it.

  • brokenglish on 30/03/2019 - 12:13
    +1

    Isnt this actually a deal if I understand correctly? Regardless of how much they billed you, you can always fight back with the actual meter reading so no worries there.
    I’d like to know how to make them not send you electricity bills for 2 years.
    1) your savings will rack up interest for 2 years
    2) you might only need to pay 9 months electricity in the end
    RIPPA DEAL!

    • try2bhelpful on 30/03/2019 - 17:22

      No, it is a PITA to sort this out with the providers, particularly if, somehow, they think they have moved you from one to the other and it’s fallen down in the middle somewhere.

  • T1OOO on 30/03/2019 - 20:16

    GOOD NEWS OP!!
    Until providers can only chase you for bills upto 12 months or so.

  • Will Mcdonald on 30/03/2019 - 21:24

    Had a similar scam from are electricity provider 'AGL', had to take them to the ombudsman and metered every appliance to check the actual rates. There was two faults, the digital meter was consuming electricity when the electricity was off and the rates being quoted were nearly double the normal rates. You will have to check every appliance for their electricity consumption.
    First step is contact the ombudsman, go down to bunnings and get those smart metres and check the electricity consumption of each household good and log it. Than you can build your case against them.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 31/03/2019 - 09:36

      Why does OP need to check every appliances energy consumption? Did you even read their posts?

      • Will Mcdonald on 31/03/2019 - 12:30

        Yes i did, the bill is huge for 2 people. When the quote the electricity for a 5 person household, they are not metering you. They are providing an estimation cost. I have seen them do it a couple of times to different properties.

        • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 31/03/2019 - 14:50

          It's an embedded network. Next to no chance they are providing bills for estimated reads. I think you need to reread this thread.

          • try2bhelpful on 31/03/2019 - 15:00

            @Typical16-bitEnjoyer: Unless the bill is broken down on provision of service, including an individual meter reading, then you can only guess - like the rest of us. The OP has found their meter now and, going forward, will be checking for themselves.

  • dufflover on 30/03/2019 - 23:14
    +1

    Something doesn't sound right if they wait for years to disconnect you if you never paid nor ever even asked about signing up.
    Do they have proof on their side they sent you correspondence? Sure, they can generate bills but any big company these days will have it all computerised/logged/etc. for exact bills and previous corro (imo).

    I didn't know the law had changed about electricity never being disconnected, only water.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 31/03/2019 - 09:39

      Happens all the time. Various reasons. Someone moves out without contacting, someone dies, real estate agency balls up. The list goes on and on.

      The first correspondence will be the bill OP received that identifies the retailer, options available to them and repercussions possible.

  • cc23 on 31/03/2019 - 13:46
    +3

    For those following this I’ll kind of do a final statement if you like.

    I paid the 9 months of bills they sent, I do feel a bad to have not paid for the months prior to that so instead of arguing down to the last penny at this point, I’ve paid the balance for the 9 months without arguing over early payment discounts or anything like that as they could have made the situation more difficult for me and didn’t.

    Moving forward, I’ve found where the meter is in the building are and I am going to challenge the very next bill if it is anything near the size of the previous ones. I’ll also be monitoring energy usage from appliance to appliance and see if I can find anything out of the ordinary,

    Thanks to everyone for your help and input. Even the unhelpful ones, you just highlighted how good everyone else was being.

    • try2bhelpful on 31/03/2019 - 13:59
      +1

      I think we've all learnt something from this. Best of luck for the future for you and your family.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 31/03/2019 - 14:52

      Thanks for reporting the outcome.

    • try2bhelpful on 31/03/2019 - 15:08

      May I also suggest that you talk to other people who use this embedded service and see what their bills are like. The fact that this isn't registered (although this can be the case for providing less than 10 services), the apparent high bills, the fact that it would appear that informed consent was not obtained. It all seems a tad "interesting" to me. It can't hurt to find out what their experiences are as well and you might get to know your neighbours.

      • cc23 on 31/03/2019 - 15:50

        Yeah for sure will be talking to a few neighbours :)

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