Hi Ozbargain hive,
I moved into an apartment on fairly short notice (1 bedroom, single occupant) on 22 March 2021. I was not aware that gas was utilised in the apartment complex as I have no gas appliances. I believe now that the hot water supply to the building is heated with gas, and each apartment is individually metered for its hot water usage.
In late June, I received a first letter in the mail addressed "Dear Occupier" from Origin Energy, which stated that between 24 December 2019 and 22 June 2021 there had been "a total of $1243.34 in natural gas charges used at this property." and asked me to sign up on their website. I created an account and signed up for a plan, and explained over the phone that my lease had only commenced 22 March 2021, and the outstanding charges were likely attributed to previous tenants. They agreed over the phone to bill me only for usage incurred from the commencement of my lease.
I received my first bill on the start of July for the period 22 March - 1 May. The previous read from 22nd March read 9104 units (E - for estimated) and actual read on 1st of May 9955 units (A - for actual) which equated to around 3000MJ of usage or ~80MJ/day. I felt this was somewhat high, and reached out to their customer support clarifying how they came up with their estimated meter reading as they could not tell me when the meter had been last read prior to May. They stated to wait for my next actual reading and next bill, to determine my actual usage, and adjustments could be made at that stage.
Today I received my latest bill based on actual usage, and found that I had only been using ~50MJ day (~40% less than what had been estimated), however, no adjustment had been made to my bill to account for the overcharging.
Naturally I reached out to their customer support team who then told me " The previous billing period of 22.03.21-01.05.21 was based on actual usage. The initial reading of 9104 was actual (basing on the national database) and also the reading on the 01.05.21 was also actual which was 9955 (also matched on the national database)."
They have said they are going to re-issue the first bill changing the initial March 9104 read to (A - actual) and that the usage charges would be upheld. This all seemed a little suspicious…
TLDR: Energy supplier overcharged me based on "estimated" and now states that the estimated reading was "actual" based on a national database.
Questions:
1) Is there a "national database" of meter reads (presumed to be remotely read and recorded?) which can be used to substitute an actual meter read?
2) Can an energy supplier amend a previously estimated (E) reading to an actual (A) without having performed an actual meter read on that day?
Go the Energy Ombudsman. I've taken Origin to the Ombudsman three times which, as I tell them each time, is more than any other organisation I've taken the Ombudsman (the only other is NAB, once, who folded immediately).
The process is easy, efficient and well worth your time…
https://www.ewov.com.au/
Every time you take them to the Energy Ombudsman - it costs them money.