A few months ago I switched my power and gas bills to new providers. It went smooth and I’m happy with the new rates. Still, I had a feeling that the previous supplier (Dodo Electricity and Gas) had charged me more than it should have during the transfer process. This wasn’t clear from the latest invoice. Hence I called them and was informed that indeed, they owe me $250 I wasn’t aware of. A nice surprise. They are refunding it and this should be back on my card within days.
Being curious, I’ve asked Dodo what would happen if I wouldn’t call. The answer was that it would sit in my account as they need to speak with the account holder. Funny. They used the same card for years without talking to me and when they need to refund they need to add this hurdle. I wonder how much consumers’ money is sitting in such accounts forever.
So now you know what to do after switching …
We recently switched electricity provider, leaving Origin. A final bill was issued (email and paper). There was an accrued credit of several hundred dollars on the account from Solar feed in. There was no advice on what would be done with the credit. The account had been closed several weeks earlier.
Yes, it required a phone call to establish I needed to request payment of the credit. Whether one needs the credit to go to a card, or …. a direct deposit was the most expedient. Previously Origin have also paid by cheque on request.
Ditto.
As I was not paying by credit card, they certainly could not reimburse the non-trivial amount left from excess generation to a credit card. Instead I had to phone them to supply them with a BSB and account number, and jump through hoops to prove that the account was mine. Even so, it was all tidied up fairly quickly.
I requested a switch of gas retailer on 18 January and they don’t expect to complete the switch until late April. How about that for an efficient and competitive retail market.
Reticulated or bottled gas? If the former then that is indeed poor.
Gas transfers are usually after the next regular meter read after lodging the change. If one just misses a read the next one would be 2 months in Vic and 3 months in NSW, Qld, and SA. Not sure about WA, Tas, and NT.
Or possibly pay for a special meter read. While only one month into a 3 monthly billing cycle we changed NG supplier in Brisbane last year. The new supplier arranged a reading for the end of month (no added cost!) to align with their billing cycle. We were surprised!
But sometimes the old company passes through the cost, state dependent, and the cost of a special read can be much more than the potential savings of switching ‘right now.’
I effected (or so I thought) a transfer of my electricity from my old provider to AGL. The same day I received an email of welcome and was encouraged to visit My Account on the AGL website. I was unable to do so and the phone call I had to seek assistance prompted me to ask to be put through to their IT security team (advised none existed), then to a supervisor (advised none existed). An email containing my agreement details and terms and conditions arrived the following day as did an SMS to advise that the transfer between suppliers would occur on 7 March 2024
A total of three phone calls and two extended chat sessions occurred with AGL from 2 March to 7 March occurred revolving around my inability to access AGL’s on line My Account facility and progressively, informed me that AGL had incorrectly entered my date of birth, my email address and that they were going to do a new connection on site rather than a straight transfer through my smart meter. On 7 March it was revealed that the transfer had been cancelled and would I like to have it taken up again. Conflicting advice was given in each phone call. My email to AGL entitled “First Impressions” remains unanswered.
Not especially important but somehow reflective of AGL’s customer service was the review of service AGL sought at the end of the phone calls. The AGL system did not recognise the key pressed and for the exact same question the scale increased from 1 to 5 the first time to 1 to 10 the second time.
Sad to hear your experiences with AGL, but they have had a history of incompetence in administration and ‘getting it done’ for quite a while, from honouring their own offers to correcting their errors. You can find some of the posts using the Community search function. I personally would not knowingly go near them as a result.
This was my experience, years ago but a lasting impression reinforced by others.
Following my experience with AGL I used the Choice recommended “Bill Hero” service.
Registered with “Bill Hero” on Thursday, had their recommendation on Friday and completed application for electricity supply with that company the same day. Electricity supply with that Provider commenced on Saturday, and I was able to establish the My Account facility on their website successfully on the first attempt.
What a sharp contrast this experience with the new Provider was compared to the absolute rubbish service provided by AGL.
