I would give them a call tomorrow and see what has happened.
Do you have an old fridge or something that could have chewed through the power? I still don't think it should be that much though. We had a takeaway shop and each quarter for us was roughly $2500-$3000 and we had A LOT of stuff running all day, every day. I know prices have gone up but surely that is a mistake!
Hope you get it sorted.
Registered User
I would call them asap. That would have to be wrong surely. I use the air con and the dryer and our last one was around $800.
Registered User
We received an enormous gas bill of $1100 and when rang to ask them to look into they basiclly said thats the bill deal with it!! So we changed providers!
Registered User
Our last quarter bill was $1200 and that was over the coldest part of winter using reverse cycle heating and using the dryer more because of all the wet weather we had meaning I just had to finish off drying clothes because they weren't 100% dry on the line. I'd definitely call and ask them to check your usage because there could be an error. Not sure who your provider is, but we're with Country energy and they only let you pay it off over 6 wks - so 3 f/n installments. ********s. It might be a good idea to get an 'audit' done on your home to see what it using all your power so you know what you need to use less of.
Registered User
Something must be seriously wrong, I'd be ringing them too! Our last bill was about $1200, but lately they've always been around the $1000 mark anyway (and I still have a mini heart attack everytime we get the bill!). If you do end up having to pay it, make sure they give ample time to pay it off...Country Energy direct debit about $50/fortnight from our bank account and I make additional payments on top of that, otherwise we would never pay it off, but it's still usually only just paid (or we have a few weeks) before the next reading is due. They haven't disconnected us yet
Registered User
Check your recent bills to see if they have been 'actual' meter readings or 'estimated' meter readings. Your supplier is required by Aus law to state on the bill which it is. Possibly they have underestimated your last few readings and now have an actual reading - meaning you have to pay for the amount they underestimated. Does that make any sense??
We have just been through exactly the same thing with our gas bill. Went from about $300 to a bill of $1500!! Huh??? Turns out they had been estimating our bill for a whole year. If you are not satisfied with the response of your supplier when you query the bill, contact the energy ombudsman in your state. They will act as an intermediary between you and your supplier to investigate the bill on your behalf. We had the ombudsman investigate and (after a whole lot of confusion and argument!!) we did not owe the gas company the amount they had stated (they sent the $1500 bill based on their 'estimation' that they had 'underestimated' the original bills... they still hadn't taken an actual meter reading!).
Good luck, I hope you get the bill sorted and you don't owe them so much money!!
Registered User
no way.....but I was going to say what nickle said....they could have estimated your last few bills a bit (alright a lot) low and this one was a reading to make up for it.
Registered User
Yep I'd be ringing them to find out what's going on. I hope it's a mistake!
Registered User
I thought they could only estimate one bill per year?
$2000 is soooo much! I hope there is a mistake somewhere
Registered User
Yeah that ^ we had the same thing happen.
Registered User
Thanks everyone for the replies, i will def be calling them tomorrow to see what on earth has happened. I did a check of the meters and they all look right, and DF called last quarter to make sure they had done an actual read as it seemed low for winter and they assured him they had. Hopefully there is some other error on their part, there was an article in our local paper recently warning everyone to check their bills carefully if they had a sudden spike as people had been having issues so hopefully this is related! DF is still being an absolute PIA about it, he even turned the tv off mid-show on me and said we need to be more careful about our electricity consumption...!
Registered User
I was going to say that my mum ran her cafe on about 1200 - 1500 a quater. thats unbelieveable!!
BellyBelly Member
Have you had one of those new peak-use meters installed? They've been rolled out over Sydney, I don't know about other areas but they're disgusting. They're designed to read when everyone is using the most electricity and then you get slogged a tariff on top of the cost for using electricity during that time. It's meant to be an environmental initiative to try and get people to reduce their power use, but it's really just another money grab.
Registered User
we had a huge jump our last quarter from just under $500 to just under $800 this quarter. We are low income, so that was a HUGE bill for us to pay off. $2000 sounds seriously ridiculous though, I would definitely be calling them! That does not sound right at all. It's just not fair, and apparently prices are going to increase again! Grrr.
Registered User
Did DF appologise for accusing you of wasting that power?
Platinum Member. Love a friend xxx
My latest ecletricty bill is $500 plus $80 as im changing companies.
i had a problem like that once a $900 bill and i said its not right they looked into it and found to a dodgey meter reading...
Registered User
DF called them today and they are sticking to the $2000!!
So PO'd about it, but a bit resigned now. According to them our last read was an estimate only and this bill is correcting the previous estimate, despite the fact that DF called them last bill to ensure that it WASN'T an estimate as we didn't want to end up with a high bill this time round. Bah to them.
Registered User
basically we had the exact same thing and when I grilled them about why there was an estimated bill when I know they had access they couldn't give me an answer which really peed me off!
I had a massive fall out with them again last week, spent 15 minutes talking to some twit trying to explain something and him talking to me like dirt to be put onto someone else I said the exact same thing to her and she goes "no problem mrs xyz, anything else I can help you with?"..... FRUSTRATING!!
Hope they are giving you time to pay it off!
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