29 April 2012

ActewAGL 'even pay' gas bill issue

| rodrigoe
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Has any family been caught out in the even pay gas bill issue where actewagl did not review the even pay arrangement causing hefty rises in the ongoing payments?

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I assisted a friend with this issue. AGL clearly state in the agreement that they will review the arrangement every 6 months. After speaking to the ombudsman it became clear that a large number of accounts had not been looked at and AGL were sending out letters saying pay up or we will cut you off.

We negotiated a suitable arrangement that took into account the failing by AGL to uphold their end of the deal. We did not however have to pay back the whole amount owing.

Genie said :

arb said :

milkman said :

We just pay the bill when it arrives. It’s not that hard…

+1

Not everyone can afford to pay out hundreds of dollars when the bill arrives.. Esp since ACTEW are so kind to send you the Gas, Electricity and Water bills in the one week.

I’ve always had up to $50 a fortnight be paid against the Gas and Electricity, then over Summer I usually am in credit so nothing to pay and over winter I may only receive a bill of $200, which can easily fit into the budget.

Problem and solution.

arb said :

milkman said :

We just pay the bill when it arrives. It’s not that hard…

+1

Not everyone can afford to pay out hundreds of dollars when the bill arrives.. Esp since ACTEW are so kind to send you the Gas, Electricity and Water bills in the one week.

I’ve always had up to $50 a fortnight be paid against the Gas and Electricity, then over Summer I usually am in credit so nothing to pay and over winter I may only receive a bill of $200, which can easily fit into the budget.

Instead of this, just b-pay. I figured out what my annual usuage was after the winter quarter, added a couple of % for price increase and divided the total amount by 26 fortnights (and rounded up by at least $5). Then on payday, I have set up an electronic B-Pay to cover rates, water, electricity and gas all in one hit. With the rates, i was spot on and even when the bill came in, showing i still had some $$$ left, it worked out it was due exactly on the 2nd pay day (4 weeks), and i’d have $1 to spare after 2 lots of b-pays went through. If a top is needed over winter, its never too bad.

goggles13 said :

agree there is something wrong with the gas unit of Actew.

We found the gas arm of ACTEW so difficult to deal with that we had the gas disconnected outright. No more idiocy out of them now.

I have my accounts registered with ActewAGL’s epayplus – I can tell that my even pay arrangement is ok from the account balance & can easily see if my usage is different compared to previous years without having to dig up old bills (which was useful when our hot water system had an undetected leak!)

milkman said :

We just pay the bill when it arrives. It’s not that hard…

+1

We just pay the bill when it arrives. It’s not that hard…

Same story here. Set up even pay some years ago. Then noticed earlier this year that there was a shirt load of arrears. I did wonder why the amount had not increased for at least six years. On the plus side, the consultant that I dealt with could not have been more helpful. I suspect that by the time my name came up ( I am fairly late in the alphabet) they had refined their procedures. We agreed on a fortnightly amount to clear the arrears over a twelve month period.

I don’t blame them at all. If I can’t be arsed to check the printed account that I get EVERY 3 months, then I probably deserve some pain in dealing with arrears.

But they could have been more attentive. May be next time.

Yep, I got caught by it. In December last year they told me that they had failed to adjust the payments since I think late 2008, and that we owed them upwards of $3000. When I actually looked back at the old accounts, it was quite clear that the amount owing had been gradually creeping up, but I didn’t notice it – after all the whole idea of even pay is that they take the right amount of money each fortnight so you don’t have to worry about them. And, it had been working for us for quite a long time before that – as others have said, some odd increases and decreases but it always worked out in the end.
Anyway, we ended up with a hefty increase plus another $80 per fortnight to catch up. I got the impression from the credit officer I spoke to that quite a few people had been caught up in this problem. I’ll be keeping a closer eye on those accounts in future 🙂

patrick_keogh8:31 pm 29 Apr 12

No complaints here, I have used even pay for many, many years (probably at least a decade). Sometimes there are fluctuations but in the end it lives up to the name. I used to use even pay for electricity too, but for the past few years they have paid me rather than me paying them so I cancelled it.

Nope, upgrades every year just fine. Our gas bill went down on even pay again this year.

You can ask for it to be reviewed at any time you know, but that would involve making an effort #firstworldpains

Their trick with us is they wait until the end of winter, and then take that quarter’s number, multiply it by four and then propose that as our new annual usage. We gently explain that we use gas heating in winter and not summer, and they get confused. Eventually we talk to a manager who agrees that winter is not summer. They’ve tried this twice with us now.

agree there is something wrong with the gas unit of Actew. Early last year, I sent them a revised direct debit form to adjust my payments up for Easy Pay. Even after a phone call to them, this never happened.

Later in 2011, I received a letter from them saying they had tried to ring but had no luck, and wanted to adjust my payments up. I never received any call, or a message to call them back. The tone of the letter was pathetic to say the least. Anyway, couldn’t be bothered following up the letter, but my payments did go up. Not fussed, as it will cover the winter quarter.

dajala said :

I think Actew’s even pay system is administered by amateurs. Two years ago my gas bill doubled from $110 a month to $220. This year it has dropped from $220 to $160 (gas usage has been mostly stagnant during these three years).

I didn’t think that taking the previous years usage as a base figure, multiplying a pricing growth factor and dividing by 12 would be difficult. However, it appears that it is beyond their capabilities.

Exactly. We cancelled our arrangement because it just did not work out. For various reasons, our bills were very different throughout the year. that meant that at times we were well ahead of payments and others well behind. But Actew kept threatening to cut our supply when it got behind.

It became all too much and we cancelled out. I would have though that this would be easy to administer but obviously not.

I think Actew’s even pay system is administered by amateurs. Two years ago my gas bill doubled from $110 a month to $220. This year it has dropped from $220 to $160 (gas usage has been mostly stagnant during these three years).

I didn’t think that taking the previous years usage as a base figure, multiplying a pricing growth factor and dividing by 12 would be difficult. However, it appears that it is beyond their capabilities.

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