Customer receives large bill for a year's worth of usage

When a customer was issued with a bill from their previous provider for 12 months of electricity usage all at once, he was unhappy as he had been chasing the provider for regular bills for a long time. Here’s how we helped.

Rakesh* was with an electricity provider who had stopped sending bills to him for an extended period of time. Whenever Rakesh questioned when he would next be sent a bill, the provider was unable to provide a clear answer.

Unsatisfied with his provider’s customer service and lack of bill, Rakesh moved to a different provider. Two months later, Rakesh was hit with a bill from his previous provider billing him for one year of electricity all at once. He contacted EWOQ for help.

Here’s how EWOQ helped

Rakesh was unhappy that he had been charged a large bill for his electricity after chasing the provider for a long time with no success before moving providers. He questioned if a provider was allowed to issue a back bill after such an extended period. EWOQ raised an investigation with his provider to see if the correct billing process had been followed.

We found that Rakesh’s previous provider had an issue where they couldn’t bill Rakesh and once this had been resolved charged him the full amount of usage and supply fees for the 12-month period where he did not receive a bill. Under the National Energy Retail Rules, providers are limited to recovering the amount undercharged in the 9 months before the date the customer is notified that they are to be billed for an undercharge. They must also offer the customer time to pay the owed amount in agreed instalments.

Outcome

The provider apologised to Rakesh for the poor customer experience and their lengthy delay in billing. They removed $895 from the final bill to comply with the 9-month period.

What can you do?

If you aren’t receiving regular bills from your provider, you should contact them to see what the issue is and if it can be resolved. This will help avoid receiving a large back bill.

If you’re unable to resolve the billing issue with your provider, we can help. You can submit a complaint online at any time.

*name changed to protect privacy.