ActewAGL to impose Dog Owner Charge

Apparently, in the distant future (and Europe) they have gas and electricity meters with radios in them so they can be read from the road, even if there are dogs on the premises.

Deano said :

There are a couple of more features in this “upgrade”. They will no longer issue electronic gas bills and you will no longer be able to access gas consumption or transaction data.

It’s almost as though the AGL part is about to break off from ActewAGL.

They were never fully integrated in the first place.

The billing side was always done by AGL anyway. If you compare the payment systems of water/eletricity to a gas you will see the difference.

In anycase if these features are being removed then that is not a good thing.

I found the Country Energy folks to be very helpful and cooperative – but I didn’t ask about the meter thing. Let me know what you find out!

There’s nothing worse than a monopoly for shocking customer service.

deezagood said :

Vote with your feet. Few people are aware of this, but you don’t HAVE to use ACTEWAGL for gas. Country energy (and others) also supply the ACT (they basically sub-contract the lines and service from ACTEW) and they will give you a quote for a fixed contract period.

I didn’t know that, I might have to look into it, as long as they will allow me to phone in my Meter Reading though!

deezagood, that’s exactly what I did, as soon as we could I got rid of ACTEWAGL. Basically the story goes that we moved out of a house, we call ACTEWAGL and let them know that we no longer live there, no problem, they give us a final bill. A few months later we get another one for 4 times the amount of our final bill. We call them up and ask what’s going on (as we hadn’t lived in our old place for nearly 3 months at this stage). It turns out the idiots forgot to get the reading properly. Mean while new people had moved into the house and yet ACTEWAGL wouldn’t believe me when I told them we haven’t been living there for at least 3 months, and the fact that we called up to have the service disconnected from the old house and reconnected at the new house on their system meant nothing. At that stage there was no comptition, now there is I get semi regular calls from them saying we are a valued customer and they would like us back.

Vote with your feet. Few people are aware of this, but you don’t HAVE to use ACTEWAGL for gas. Country energy (and others) also supply the ACT (they basically sub-contract the lines and service from ACTEW) and they will give you a quote for a fixed contract period. In our case, the quoted price was very slightly higher than the ACTEW price, but may end up being more economical if ACTEW’s prices rise (and they usually do). I have switched – primarily because I think ACTEWAGL are a pack of bastards (yep – data centre issues, and their false advertising campaign on the tellie) and I detest the monopoly that they seem to have here in the ACT. I feel a lot better about giving my money to Country Energy.

erm, I meant: Meters don’t show Megajoules they “show” Cubic Metres

darkmilk said :

Are you sure you read that meter right? The last digit is usually a fraction so that’s 3948.5 which compared to 3300 estimated seems more like being overcharged $5 for a pizza…

Meters don’t show Megajoules they should Cubic Meters, meaning if I had a decimal place wrong I would be incorrectly complaining about a $28357 bill, rather than the $800 I am faced with.

Are you sure you read that meter right? The last digit is usually a fraction so that’s 3948.5 which compared to 3300 estimated seems more like being overcharged $5 for a pizza…

The people that do the readings for Actew are completely incompetent. I was overcharged by over $1000 recently on my electricity bill.

end rant

Davo111 said :

PsydFX said :

I understand why they estimate bills, what I don’t understand is why they are taking away the ability for me to report my meter reading, seeing as the guy who is supposed to do it will never be able to.

I bet people have been abusing it. As usual these days, a few people stuff it up for the rest of society.

How can they abuse it? By giving false readings? Eventually they will get a reading and the bill will be paid for.

PsydFX said :

I understand why they estimate bills, what I don’t understand is why they are taking away the ability for me to report my meter reading, seeing as the guy who is supposed to do it will never be able to.

I bet people have been abusing it. As usual these days, a few people stuff it up for the rest of society.

I sincerely hope that is said in jest tylers – as I said on the previous thread, we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that issue.

Davo111 said :

stray said :

ummm…whats the dog reference sorry? and before i get blasted for asking, excuse my ignorance.

oh dw dude, it wasn’t very clear.

Usually the AGL bloke just walks around the side of the house and reads your meter. If you have a dog, the guy isn’t prepared to get bitten/attacked etc. So instead they “estimate” your bill. To be honest, i think it’s tough luck for the OP.

I understand why they estimate bills, what I don’t understand is why they are taking away the ability for me to report my meter reading, seeing as the guy who is supposed to do it will never be able to.

Well, that sucks! Basically what I would expect from ACTEWAGL however.

Did you know they sued me? Except I was never served so I knew nothing about the debt. It seems my husband was served, and they thought that would do since I’m his chattel and all.

Of course, if I’d known, I’d have said, “Pay it! For God’s sake, pay the usurous bloodsucking scumbags!” (and other things that I might have come up with if I’d really had some time to be creative).

That was nearly the cause for a good divorce. The worst fight we’ve ever had that he hadn’t told me. Although in fairness he did think it related to an earlier bill which had been sorted out.

I guess I should be grateful they didn’t serve the neighbour down the road or my three year old on my behalf.

It still makes my blood boil to think about it. If we were partners who weren’t married they’d have had to do me the courtesy of giving me the opportunity to defend myself.

I really feel that I was discriminated against due to my marital status. I am still contemplating a complaint to the Human Rights Commissioner.

In the meantime, we hates them precious.

*chuckle*

Get cats, or contract mdme workalot to train your dogs. 🙂

…I also hear that she’s superb at training cats…AND humans.

There are a couple of more features in this “upgrade”. They will no longer issue electronic gas bills and you will no longer be able to access gas consumption or transaction data.

It’s almost as though the AGL part is about to break off from ActewAGL.

Back in your box Holden – I’d hate to have to sic the dog onto you 😛

stray said :

ummm…whats the dog reference sorry? and before i get blasted for asking, excuse my ignorance.

oh dw dude, it wasn’t very clear.

Usually the AGL bloke just walks around the side of the house and reads your meter. If you have a dog, the guy isn’t prepared to get bitten/attacked etc. So instead they “estimate” your bill. To be honest, i think it’s tough luck for the OP.

p1 said :

I am curious to know how I find out if and when ACTEW has been either reading or estimating my gas meter? Because I have no idea, and am also interested in what they do if they discover they have been charging extra for the last couple of years…?

There should be a line on your bill that says meter reading as of – or something similar, I would check, but they’ve taken down access to online invoices, even though they were still supposed to be available until the 13th of November.

Get cats, or contract mdme workalot to train your dogs. 🙂

I am curious to know how I find out if and when ACTEW has been either reading or estimating my gas meter? Because I have no idea, and am also interested in what they do if they discover they have been charging extra for the last couple of years…?

oh..sorry. that was dumb. i got it now. never mind.

ummm…whats the dog reference sorry? and before i get blasted for asking, excuse my ignorance.

PsydFX, I have had the same issue in the past, although not quite to that extent. As I recall the actual reading was over the estimate by about $250 – still annoying though.

Since that happened, I worked out my fortnightly average & now I pay slightly over that amount each fortnight via Bpay.

A pain if you pay your bills differently & it may not work for everyone with bank fees and such, but it’s nice to receive the bill each quarter & find I’m in credit for a few dollars.

ActewAGL always get this wrong, we have had the meter person give a wrong reading three times in a row all because he was too lazy to look properly.