Monday, April 27, 2009
[rhetorical] Just how incompetent is AGL?[/rhetorical]
Before Easter I received a grossly inaccurate estimated electricity account.
It was odd that it would an estimated a/c as I remember the meter being read. (The meter is inside and accessed by holding up the meter box door vertically which I did as the meter reader keyed in details.)
There are two sets of figures to be read and the estimates were as follows.
(1) Estimate. 92 Bill days. Current reading:- 100160 Previous reading:- 100160 Usage kWh = 0 (ZERO!!!??? I wish!)
(1) Estimate. 92 Bill days. Current reading:- 043802 Previous reading:- 042930 Usage kWh = 872 (roughly 5 times the average quarterly actual usage.)
I passed this information onto Rajiv at the AGL call centre in Mumbai and requested that an actual reading be done to rectify the stuffed up estimates. Rajiv informed me that, given the meter had actually been read and that estimate was so way out of whack, the Special Meter Read Fee would be waived.
Meter reader duly arrived on April 20th and as I held the meter box door aloft for him, he keyed in the digits from the meter. (Maybe? Maybe not?)
Revised bill arrived 4 days later replete with a $23.00 Special Meter Read Fee!
More perplexing is the first reading on the revised bill – “Reading type:- Estimate. Current reading 100160 – Previous reading 100160. Usage kWh = 0”
A halfways efficient meter reader would have seen (as I did on checking) that the actual reading is 100261 (it would have been slightly lower on the day it was allegedly read).
So I have received a revised bill for which I have been charged $23.00 (contrary to the advice given by my dear friend Rajiv in Mumbai) yet one of the readings still an estimate.
I still await a reply from AGL to my email. I was given an estimate of 2-3 working days, however given AGL's estimation history I am not holding my breath.
Perhaps AGL will suggest another meter reading be organised at no cost or for $23.00 or give me an estimated Special Meter Read Fee.
Labels: Places head between knees and takes deep breaths ... lots of 'em.
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