Oh no! We just got a $2000 electricity bill!

[appletree]

What the?? How is this possible for 3 months? Our bills are always under $300, surely this is a mistake? DF is *****ting himself, and is blaming me because I am now at home and using the dryer I was expecting it to be around $6-700 but nowhere near this high! Last quarter I was using the dryer AND we had the air con on 28 degrees for 6-8 hours every day, and it was nowhere near this high!

[Enchanted]

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.

[~Lashes~]

id get the power company to look into it, it sounds like either you have a dodgey meter, wiering that is playing up and zapping more power then its ment to, or some one could be stealing your power. i would be calling the company and if your renting the agencey to get them to come and check it out, you shouldnt have tro pay for something your not using!
good luck.

[AwesomeFoursome]

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.

[feeb]

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!

[Life is Good]

We are very liberal users of power in this house and our bill was $1100. We have a pool, have an oil heater running the whole time in DS's room and use the dryer a whole lot. We are actually quite terrible about it all and it is my intention to change our ways! $2000, however, sounds totally ridiculous. I would definitely give them a call and possibly look at getting one of those power monitors (that will pick up if a particular appliance is guzzling too much power). A major culprit can be your hot water system and that may be worth getting checked out anyway. Also, try calling GoSwitch dot com and see if you can get a better rate from a different company. I just did that after our $1100 bill and got my existing company to match the rate of a cheaper one. They are all really competitive and if you threaten to leave one, they will often match a cheaper one or offer you a better rate. It is awful, I know. Good luck if you do call them

[Trillian]

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.

[ss_storm]

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

[nickle730]

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!!

[~Kim~]

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.

[~Hestia~]

Yep I'd be ringing them to find out what's going on. I hope it's a mistake!

[Visitor7]

I thought they could only estimate one bill per year?
$2000 is soooo much! I hope there is a mistake somewhere

[thepixie]

We have had 2x 1500+ electricity bills and a $1000 one. We have had 2 electricians come around and say they can't see any reason why our bills are so high. We are 2 adults and a 2 year old, we don't own a dryer, we hardly run the aircon, the only thing we have is an extra fridge but there is no reason why that should make it so high. Origin (our provider) has a high bill investigation service we have only just found this out, so they are currently 'investigating' our most recent bill. Unfortunately they are hopelessly inept and I'm not sure exactly what form this investigation takes. I feel your pain! I know the rates have gone up but this is ridiculous. hope you can find the problem.

[Laranna]

We had a big spike in our electricity bill as well. Whilst it wasn't as high as yours, ours is usually around 300 in the middle of winter. Our recent one was almost $600! Almost doubled. I couldn't work out why because I had not used the dryer or the aircon/heating over the past 2 months whereas the two months prior to that in the middle of winter when I was using those things liberally, our bill was only $330. I rang Synergy and all she said was that my meter could be running fast and that it would cost me $150 for them to come out and test it! Um no thanks. We've been monitoring our meter and it's definitely not running fast. We can't work it out. Must be some conspiracy happening!

[nickle730]

I thought they could only estimate one bill per year?

Nope, they can estimate as many bills as they please. Most providers will do you the 'courtesy' of trying to contact you after 12 continuous months of estimated readings to arrange an actual meter reading. The provider *should* attempt to gain at least one 'actual' reading per year. The onus is on the consumer to check whether the bill is 'actual' or 'estimated' and to contact the supplier should you believe your estimated reading is inaccurate. If you request a 'special' meter reading (ie. not the scheduled reading) in order to clarify whether the estimate is accurate or not, the supplier is entitled to charge you a fee (approx $60 to $100!).

What's more, if your supplier does underestimate your bill, there is no statute of limitation on how long they can chase you for payment. So if you live in a house for 6 years and don't realise you bills are being underestimated for the entire time you live there... the supplier can rightfully bill you for 6 years of their underestimation!! Apparently, it can and does happen.

I am in Vic and this information all comes directly from the Energy Ombudsman in my state - I assume other states are the same. As a consumer, it would seem to me that the rules and regulations are heavily stacked in favour of the supplier!! Don't we pay them to provide a service???

[Footsteps]

in the uk suppliers can only go back one year of charging x

[Muppity]

The bill should have the actual meter reading on it (unless they are estimating like others have said). Check this against what your meter is actually reading. I had a similar problem one and it turned out that the meter reader had mixed up the numbers and written an 83 at the start instead of 38 - made quite a difference. Hope that you can get to the bottom of the problem.

[~clover~]

I was going to say that my mum ran her cafe on about 1200 - 1500 a quater. thats unbelieveable!!