Customers receives an unexpectedly high bill for uninhabited building

When Sylvia* received a high bill for her uninhabited commercial building, she contacted her energy provider to find out why. Sylvia’s energy provider advised that the bill was a catch-up bill based on an actual meter read as the meter had not been read for 2 years. All the previous bills had been based on estimated meter readings.

Here’s how we helped:

We wanted to check if there were many cases where it might be 1 or 2 years before a customer has an actual meter read. We asked the energy provider to investigate and advise if this has happened with other customers too.

The energy provider advised that sometimes customers’ meter readings are estimated, rather than read in-person. This can happen for a few different reasons – mostly when there are property access issues, but can also because of distributor-related reasons, such as extreme weather or scheduled meter reading dates. If there are property access issues twice in a row, the energy provider communicates with the customer and provides instructions on how to submit a ‘self-read’, which is more accurate than an estimation.

During their investigation, the energy provider identified there was an opportunity to provide a better customer experience by providing this advice to all customers who had 2 estimated bills in a row, regardless of the reason it had occurred. They also decided to offer customers the option to install a smart meter when there are issues with easily accessing the meter.

5 other customers had a similar situation occur, and since the new process commenced, we have not received any further complaints.

*name changed to protect privacy.