Electricity meter reading and estimated bills

[wombat]

Power bill came the other day, based on usage from another 'estimated' read. The non-reading of our meter has been a bit of an ongoing problem; there's multiple premises on this site (commercial and residential) and the meters are located inside the commercial building. There's open access to them between at least 10am and 6pm everyday, often earlier, but for a long time we've had subcontractors who simply refuse to read the meter, the suspicion being that they can't be stuffed crossing the busy road to get to the place.

Usually I'm not terribly fussed, but because I was away OS for most of the same period last year, they've properly fucked up this estimate, going way under actual usage. The complication is that because of a rate hike halfway through the billing cycle, the XXX kWh that should have been charged at the old, cheaper rate on this bill, will now be charged at the new, higher rate on the next bill, adding what I figure to be well over $100 extra.
We've complained about the non-reading before, and the power company blames it on their sub-contracting readers, and say they'll put in notes about where the meter is and access blah blah blah. Never fixes anything, and now they want to levy a $50 to have an actual read done for this bill.

I've had a look at the EWON site and they outline the requirements of providing access etc. but there's not a lot of info on exactly what is reasonable access, and I don't really have any way to prove that the meter guys are just being lazy pricks and not bothering to do their job properly.

Has anyone dealt with this sort of issue before? Any resolution suggestions?

 

[pistonbroke]

Someone's gas meter is jammed. Gas company has been informed of this and said it has been noted. That was years ago. So every quarter this person gets a gas bill in the $28 range for service and zero charges for gas usage.

Doesn't really help your situation though. I would ring and complain and get them to do a meter reading for free. Failing this complain to the ombudsman. I got a swift response from the electricity company after lodging a complaint with the energy ombudsman.

 

[cokeonspecialtwodollars]

First thing to do is take a picture with a date stamp of the meter, this information may or may not be of use down the track but you'll never get another chance. As suggested hassle them to come out and read the meter for free, if they won't do it for free then maybe consider paying them the $50 especially if you feel you might be $100 out of pocket when they add the additional useage to the next bill. I have never been in this exact situation but have found that persistent pestering usually gets the results, just make sure you note down all conversations with their customer service reps etc.

 

[MsMaud]

Meter reading

Do you have a Smart Meter installed? If you do, they shouldn't need to access the premises to do a reading because the smart meter should feed the data directly back to them - this info goes to the distributor who then sends it to your retailer. The other thing you'll need to check that they're reading from the right meter is your NMI No. (National Meter Identifier) which appears on both your bill and your meter. For gas you need the 'MIRN' (Meter Identification Reference No.) which will be listed somewhere on your bill but not the meter. If your power company is not helping, find out who the distributor is for your area - for NSW, it'll be either Essential Energy, Ausgrid or Endeavour Energy. Ausgrid as a distributor is separate from Ausgrid as an energy retailer. If all else fails contact the ombudsman. Hope this helps

 

[beezlbub]

Yep, threaten the big O

Call your retailer, politely explain your position to them, reiterating that this isn't the first time you've raised the issue of access to the meter then finish by saying if its not resolved to your satisfaction (by reading meter within an agreed time at no cost to you) you'll be contacting the ombudsman.