Where we live we are subject to frequent power outages, some brief, others of longer duration. Our supplier Ausnet (not the on-seller) has a Customer Charter whereby they will pay compensation if unplanned power outages exceed certain limits, either/both frequency of short outages, or duration of longer ones.
I have not yet tried to make a claim, although am certain if I logged all outages I would qualify. It was interesting to note that the link to Compensation Claims on their homepage today is broken, and the Customer Charter describing what customers may claim for does not include a link to the claims process, so the information on how to claim is somewhat buried.
This makes me wonder how many customers are aware of this, (as many people do not enjoy reading PDS and Customer Charters…), how many try to claim, and how many claims are successful?
Since pressure from customers is a driver for improvement, would Choice be able to conduct a survey to assess this process and consumers’ experience of it?
Nice to see you back @Guitarfish
We are usually on the back end of service restoration but last night we were on the leading edge with about 15 minutes down. In that time the temp in the house went up 2C; someone living closer to yourself was down for 3+ hours and I will refrain from passing on the colourful language describing the experience in her household.
Our local norm is suffering regular short interrupts of a few seconds to 2 minutes because of wind, rain, branches blowing, and possums getting fried (according to Ausnet).
Yet from the Ausnet Customer Charter… and unless there is an over voltage problem that fries appliances or motors …
Claims for Supply Interruptions While every effort is made to maintain a constant supply of electricity, outages both planned and unplanned are unavoidable . We will use our best endeavours to restore supply as soon as possible, allowing for reasonable priorities. As we cannot guarantee uninterrupted supply of electricity, supply outages is not an event that would usually attract compensation. We will always conduct an investigation of a claim and depending on the results, we may decide to offer compensation.
There is a button to ‘acknowledge and start claim’ at the bottom of the above mentioned page that appears fully functional whilst I type.
Well that link is interesting Phil! This is their Customer Charter with their Guaranteed Service Levels:
https://www.ausnetservices.com.au/Electricity/Compensation-and-Service-Standards
And the table from this link:
Am I misinterpreting this? It seems pretty clear that if they fail to meet their guarantee they will compensate…
I’d be very keen to hear from anyone who has tried, both AusNet and other suppliers.
The latest ESC requirement is at p38 of this document.
Other than formatting and being broken out into them and their distributors responsibilities, it looks familiar to yours as snipped from that web page. It is curious their outages and claims web page seems to obfuscate (being kind) their obligations. I doubt they would do that accidentally but could try to defend on the basis that supply outages is not an event that would usually attract compensation so it should not happen, although it does regularly in our locale.
I call your post Well called out!
I have posted on their Facebook page notification from yesterday advising anyone affected to keep a log of outages (and tell their neighbours 
) . It seems not many are aware of the Guaranteed Service Levels and their potential right to compensation.
I detest this obfuscation - oh heck let’s call a spade a spade - disingenuously burying it - on their website, and will post on their FB page and on local groups’ pages to try to raise awareness. I may also investigate whether there are any advertising standards which are not being met by making information hard to find and inaccurate, and if so, report accordingly.
I’d love it if Choice would consider a survey of the general consumer knowledge/experience.
BTW, you can download your detailed consumption from Ausnet’s MyHomeEnergy (sub)site. If one has switched retailers recently it can be messy to understand, but if not it shows your actual consumption in a nice .csv file at relevantly short intervals. Although it misses those too common minute or few episodes it highlights the long ones. Power off == 0 consumption.
Two years back I asked them for a list of all my outages and they sent it.
Thank you Phil, good to know. I’ll try it, can use it to track outages
