11 February 2009

Illegal gas.

| Nontaingne
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Today I tried to disconnect my gas. Or rather I tried to stop paying for it.

We’ve lived in a southside rental for the last 3 years and apart from a six month stint when we moved in have not used the gas. (There’s only 1 bayonet in the loungeroom for heating and it’s unflued).

I’ve been told by ACTEW it is ‘illegal’ to disconnect the gas while I am in the residence and that I must continue to pay the $42 a quarter to them for line maintenance?!

Does anyone know anything about this?

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cleverclogs said :

Even when you’re dead they still try to bill you. My poor mother spent hours on the phone to various utility companies after my dad passed away… you think they’d want to know if the person whose name the bills are in is in fact 6 ft under.

Yes, bad. But thankfully not as bad as the real estate agent in Bondi who visited my aunt after my uncle had died (and was not yet buried) to offer her condolences and ask if the house was going on the market, and if they’d like her to handle it… ghoul (the real estate agent, that is…)!!!

Woody Mann-Caruso8:29 am 14 Feb 09

So how hot can we withstand the air temperature – eg – 47 in Melb the other day.

Air is a lousy conductor of heat. Water is a very good conductor of heat. You can easily withstand much higher or lower air temps for longer than you can in water. For example, you can walk around pretty much forever at 20oC, but sit in water at that temp and you’ll be hypothermic in under an hour.

Lay a great big curry fart in a plastic bottle and mail it to them. Then mail them a bill. Send reminders.

Demand that you be paid with seven letter spiders?

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

And it can’t be hotter than 50 degrees

Why do you need tap water hotter than 50oC? At 60oC you only need 6 secs of contact for third degree burns. My instantaneous gas goes to 55oC and it’s scalding.

They made that rule after a disabled man died in his shower after being left unattended. Sadly he was so badly scalded he was killed. 50 degrees is plenty hot.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy10:13 pm 13 Feb 09

Lay a great big curry fart in a plastic bottle and mail it to them. Then mail them a bill. Send reminders.

So how hot can we withstand the air temperature – eg – 47 in Melb the other day.
Can we survive above 50 degrees or so?

Woody Mann-Caruso8:19 pm 13 Feb 09

And it can’t be hotter than 50 degrees

Why do you need tap water hotter than 50oC? At 60oC you only need 6 secs of contact for third degree burns. My instantaneous gas goes to 55oC and it’s scalding.

My wife just rang Energy Australia and asked them to cancel the gas, but leave the electricity connected. They refused to do it.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

You need to have a good, long hard read of http://www.holladaddy.com/
quote]

Best. Website. Ever.

I’ve lived in two houses that had instant gas hot water systems and low-flow shower heads.

AH ACTEW/AGL – sold me a instant gas hot water system – that doesn’t work with low-flow shower heads…..apparently none of them do! So I can be a bit green and use a 6 star rated HWS – but I have to use more water to do it. And it can’t be hotter than 50 degrees – because the ACT gov thinks we might burn ourselves.

It’s all one big joke.

Woody Mann-Caruso10:35 am 12 Feb 09

hush down gurrl… da dead cant talk. plus, i’z tryin 2 get mah mack on.

Jesus, I’m in tears here…

Woody Mann-Caruso10:33 am 12 Feb 09

You need to have a good, long hard read of http://www.holladaddy.com/

Now there’s coffee all over my shirt. Need to find a way to work raping all your families and leaving everybody you love dead “wit dikholes in they eyes” into a post.

Soz Dogen*

Thanks Doggen – armed with this info I’ll take another swing at it : )

Vic Bitterman12:36 am 12 Feb 09

JD114 said :

If you is in da rental ploperti dis is da problem fo da landlord methinkum. You don’t want da gas, so you am gonna be happy fo da gas to be gone, but da landlord, he might want da gas to be retined fo da future tenants.

You need to have a good, long hard read of http://www.holladaddy.com/

It’s much more entertaining than trying to read your post!!! 😉

Jemena is the old Alinta, which is fully owned by Singapore Power, which as mentioned above is a 50% joint venture partner in ActewAGL Distribution (in which AGL itself no longer has any interest!).

ActewAGL Distribution owns the network, and the operation of it is contracted out to Jemena.

On top of this the people you deal with as a customer to connect to the network and buy gas are a retailer – of which ActewAGL Retail (a JV between ACTEW and AGL) is but one.

It is a somewhat tangled web, to put it mildly.

Urgh, “AGL”. If there’s an AP staff member who curses out loud at my work, it’s probably because of something to do with the “AGL” part of ActewAGL… it was a real laugh/cry situation when we discovered they were sending bills out to the buildings where the meters were, rather than to us (the building owner/account holder). Funny, the demands for payment found us quickly enough…

Hi there guys, I work for ActewAGL as a phone monkey so I’ll fill you in on the actual situation. The person you talked to on the phone is an idiot and gave you the wrong information. You, as a tenant can close your gas account at any time for any reason, it is not “illegal” to disconnect your service. Just call again to close your account. What they should have said is that if there is no one connected to the property and paying the supply fee then the distributor “Jemena” has the right to either wad (put a plug between the main and the meter) or remove the meter. If the owner wishes to maintain supply then they have to pay this fee. In practice Jemema usually only wads the meter and if anyone new moves in that can be removed within 3 working days however, removal is still a possibility and if this happens you need to pay for a new connection; upwards of 200 dollars. Jemena is not owned or operated by ActewAGL or the ACT government, they are a separate and private entity.

jakez: The OP’s erroneous use of “ACTEW” not withstanding, the ACT, Queanbeyan and Yarrowlumla gas distribution network is owned by “ActewAGL Distribution”, which is a partnership equally owned by Singapore Power and ACTEW. It doesn’t have any more ability to force people into contracts than any other private company.

Holden Caulfield said :

Nontaingne said :

Holden – that reminds me of the guy who tried to pay a utilities bill with a drawing of a 7 legged spider:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665847

Thanks for the link, I need to show that to someone else, so you have saved me the trouble of finding it!

And, yes, an all time classic!!!

OT, but the spider guy has his own website, absolutely hilarious.
http://www.27bslash6.com/slyseb.html

Are yes, but forces them to respond to your letter, a la the seven legged spider story.

p1 said :

’m not a legal expert but I believe that unless you have signed a contract with someone then you can tell them you no longer want the service and then stop paying.

Perhaps you could even ring them, tell them they no longer have permission to store their meter on your property, and that if they don’t remove it, you will be forced to invoice them $42 per quarter…

That doesn’t stop Government backed entities outside of the ACT, I doubt it will stop them on a jurisdiction where nobody owns ‘their land’.

Holden Caulfield4:14 pm 11 Feb 09

Nontaingne said :

Holden – that reminds me of the guy who tried to pay a utilities bill with a drawing of a 7 legged spider:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665847

Thanks for the link, I need to show that to someone else, so you have saved me the trouble of finding it!

And, yes, an all time classic!!!

Even when you’re dead they still try to bill you. My poor mother spent hours on the phone to various utility companies after my dad passed away… you think they’d want to know if the person whose name the bills are in is in fact 6 ft under.

Caf – a campaign, and a righteous one at that. I’m liking the sound of this.

I’ve had shocking service from the ActewAGL gas people (though the electricity people seem a lot better). I reckon write a letter requesting that your account be closed, and just keep sending follow-up letters until they do it.

We had gas through ACTEW but it cost too much so had it disconnected. After about 3 years we got a “TO THE HOUSEHOLDER” letter from ACTEW stating that we used $14 in gas and as they had no account name etc for us, they wanted the money and details.
I had to explain they must have had a leak as it was disconnected and plugged by ACTEW and we had no way of using it at all.
They still sent quite a few reminders for the $14 but I just ignored them.

Ahh yes, the seven legged spider. One of the best e-mails of recent years.

JD – the advice from ACTEW was that the account ‘could not’ be cancelled unless I was moving out. At that stage I suppose it would go back to the landlord. Because they know I am living there they implied they were legally obligated to continue to bill me for the service – whether I chose to use it or not.

Holden – that reminds me of the guy who tried to pay a utilities bill with a drawing of a 7 legged spider:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665847

If you is in da rental ploperti dis is da problem fo da landlord methinkum. You don’t want da gas, so you am gonna be happy fo da gas to be gone, but da landlord, he might want da gas to be retined fo da future tenants.

So, you advise da ACTEW you are cancelling yo account, and dat’s it. Iffen dey wants to maintain da supply and charge some sucker, it’s da owner of da property who is gonna be handin’ over da moulah, not you da poor tenant.

So, the upshot is, you can cancel your account, and it’s up to ACTEWAGL to sort out where they’re going to get the money from after that.

I’m looking beyond parity – I think I’d charge $52 per quarter.

Holden Caulfield3:38 pm 11 Feb 09

This reminds me a bit of the email story that did the rounds quite a few years ago about the guy who was sent a bill by his local gas supplier for $0.00.

Of course, he chose to ignore it, which then incurred threats of legal action from the gas company for not paying his bill. After a few weeks of toing and froing and fruitless phone calls to call centres he figured the easy way out was to just pay the bill. So, he sent them a cheque for $0.00. Only trouble was when his local Westpac tried to clear the cheque, the zero dollar and zero cents amount crashed their computer system for a day or two.

So, with their bill still outstanding, the gas company took the guy to court. Not surprisingly the judge found in favour of the defendant and the gas company had to pay the bloke a five figure compensation payout and then cover Westpac’s costs as well. Ouch!

’m not a legal expert but I believe that unless you have signed a contract with someone then you can tell them you no longer want the service and then stop paying.

Perhaps you could even ring them, tell them they no longer have permission to store their meter on your property, and that if they don’t remove it, you will be forced to invoice them $42 per quarter…

I like the idea of paying maintenance to EA.

Or perhaps I can swap to EA then halfway through the process (when I’m no longer on ACTEW’s books) decide that I won’t connect to EA afterall.

Tell them you’ve decided you’d rather pay the maintenance fee to Energy Australia.

Does energy Australia provide gas? Because might be a nice way out.

I avoided paying the telstra “reconnection” fee after forgetting to pay my phone bill many years ago. Simply rang up optus and asked what discount I could get for changing providers…

I got kinda pissed off with my previously local video rental place, when they closed the local store, then many months later the head office in Qld sent a bill for the $10 or so late fee that was outstanding. Pretty mean spirited considering they no longer had a local franchise, but I guess money is money.

I’m not a legal expert but I believe that unless you have signed a contract with someone then you can tell them you no longer want the service and then stop paying. It’s not illegal for them to send out bills but you don’t have to pay them.

Last year I paid $40 for a standalone email account from iinet for 12 months. A month ago I received an email which was a bill for another $40 for this year. I replied to say that the original service was for 12 months and to delete my account. Then I received a variety of messages from them saying that they have deleted my account, I still need to pay them, they will hand over to debit collectors, my credit card number was invalid and so on. I have had the same trouble with other organisation so I think this is their normal procedure to pressure you into giving them more money. Companies love regular payments.

Gungahlin Al3:08 pm 11 Feb 09

Oh and that “disconnection charge” – you don’t think that actually involves – you know – disconnection, do you? $42 for an entry on their database is all…

Tell them you’ve decided you’d rather pay the maintenance fee to Energy Australia.

What a coincidence, someone else having a shit-fight with ACTEWAGL!

I found this page which says “Note: If you require disconnection of your meter phone 131 886” which implies it can be done as they make the distinction between closing the account and disconnecting the meter.

I just rang to request a service on my instantaneous gas hot water only to be told that they can only service units with a pilot light – they are not trained to service electronic ignitor types.

Buffoons.

Ring up and say the account has changed – perhaps into the name of J Hargreaves? Or A Bolt?

captainwhorebags2:54 pm 11 Feb 09

Part of the usual ACTEW rort tactics.

Vacant block of land? Yep, that’ll be about $200 per year because there is a water and sewerage service available to you. Building a house? Oh well now you can pay to be connected to the service you’ve already been paying for.

I reckon if I stopped paying then after being disconnected I’d still draw the maintenance cost and just eventually have them set bill collectors on me.

Better yet, just refuse to pay.

Sounds like a ACTEW are passing on their maintenance costs to you even if you don’t use the service.

Yeah monopolies are good.

Just stop paying the bill till they disconnect you, then pay the oustanding amount but not the reconnection fee.

Sounds like a load of crap to me.

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