My electricity provider, Origin Energy guessed what the reading might be at the start of the contract and then guessed how much electricity might have been used thereafter. As such, they just made up a number for the amount actually owed.
I wasn’t at the property, couldn’t read the meter myself, but wasn’t using any electricity, so I knew the bill was very wrong. When I finally got Origin to read the meter, their representative tried to scare me into paying the original bill. I discovered later (when I got a friend to check it) that the reading was actually not only lower than their estimate for the bill, it was lower than the “estimated reading” that they put for the start of the contract. Let me just make that clear. The actual reading was less than the figure they claimed was the reading at the start of the contract, and they knew it, but the representative told me:
“I have checked and I can see that we had an actual reading coming through. Would you like me to adjust the bill accordingly to that reading? Just wanted to also let you know, that the actual reading we had this time is higher than the estimated reading.”
This was a shameful and unconscionable lie! The company later admitted that they had no idea what was owed, because they didn’t read the meter at the start of the contract and they didn’t read it before they sent the bill.
What’s more, when negotiating with Origin’s complaints department, the rep said he’d have to revise the figure for the initial reading at the start of the contract. He made up a number lower than the true current reading and told me that the amount owed would be about the same. That is until I pointed out that blind Freddy could see he’d just invented a new starting figure. Then he capitulated and said they wouldn’t charge me any usage fees.
