topic Re: Energy Australia in Community Spirit

Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 06:28:33 GMT

I have been a customer of Energy Australia for gas and electricity for several years, with separate bills for each.

The initial plan included a rebate of ten percent at the end of twelve months. At the end of the contract, it has always rolled over, and has the same plan name on the bills.

No written changes to the rebate have ever been issued.

For several months, I have called them as the rebate has not been applied. This has been the usual practice since the first year.
They have told me that there was a problem with billing on the plan, and the rebate had to be applied manually, and that there was a backlog. "It will be on the next bill". In previous years, it has been sorted out, quickly.

They have said no new customers are being put on the plan as a result, and offered to change it to a monthly rebate once this was sorted for 2013.

Today, after speaking with four representatives over the past months who all spoke to billing, and promised the rebates, I was told the plan rebate does not exist.

I have been strung along for four extra months, while they have promised to fix it.

Today the man I spoke with refused to let me speak to a supervisor.

He refused to give me the names of the other representatives I had spoken with, who all said I would get the rebate.

Legally, they are obliged to notify of any changes prior to their application. I told him this. He offered to send it out now.

It is now with the ombudsman.

I am in Victoria. Does anyone have a good retailer? As soon as this is over I am changing.

Re: Energy Australia

**meep** — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 06:34:24 GMT

Sorry, cant help

I've been with Energy Australia since......forever.

I get 12% discount off every bill. Haven't really had any problems with them.....AGL on the other hand.......

Re: Energy Australia

**meep** — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 06:44:25 GMT

Re: Energy Australia

boris1gary — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 06:52:00 GMT

we are with AGL for both gas and electricity, no problems yet. They also have some kind of rebate and are pretty good with bill extensions if you ever need one.

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 06:57:57 GMT

Thank you, both of you :), I will speak to AGL and check their plans, and also see how they are like on the phone.

Re: Energy Australia

cat_mioux — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 06:59:47 GMT

I'm with Energy Australia too. I stay because of the 16% discount if I pay on time but every time I pay a bill (both gas and electricity) they send me an overdue notice for the discount. I then have to phone them each and every time and each and every time they apologise and say it will never happen again. I laugh when they say that. It's been happening for over a year.

But I do love that 16% discount.

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:01:36 GMT

Well that proves they do have problems with their billing and rebates, at least for some plans.

Re: Energy Australia

purple_haize — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:06:06 GMT

We are with Energy Australia and have no problems, we are on a plan and pay fortnightly, only ever hear from them if we have too much credit, then they tell us not to pay so much and do a new plan.

Re: Energy Australia

lyndal1838 — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:39:45 GMT

I was with Energy Australia for 37 years until 5 years ago when I got talked into going to a different supplier....I was so dissatisfied that I changed back at the end of my 2 year contract. I was getting 12% discount but when I was again approached to change my supplier I rang them and asked if 12% was the best they could do. I was offered 15% and a new contract even though my current contract had 1 year still to run.

I will not be changing again without first ringing with Energy Australia first.

And they are far and away the best for customer service.

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:56:07 GMT

Today the guy was incredibly unpleasant.

Unfortunately my experience with them is that they are either just incompetent or worse...they know they are stringing someone along with no intention of fulfilling what they say.

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:59:27 GMT

Thanks everyone 🙂

Re: Energy Australia

purple_haize — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 08:12:27 GMT

@amber-eyed-girl wrote:
Today the guy was incredibly unpleasant.

Unfortunately my experience with them is that they are either just incompetent or worse...they know they are stringing someone along with no intention of fulfilling what they say.

Any time my husband has spoken with them, they have been very nice and very helpful.

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 08:19:26 GMT

Everyone was nice and apparently helpful until today, and each spoke to billing, and said it would be rectified (so had the latest information from billing).

The problem is today's refused to follow through with their promised action.

Sigh. Will change because of that you see, rudeness and someone sometime has been lying, and they have not fulfilled their legal obligations.

I know that there will be other bad ones. I know that if there had been no rebate issues, it could have happily rolled on for years.

You get the true feel of a supplier when there are issues, just like with sellers here 🙂

Re: Energy Australia

the_hawk* — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 23:12:38 GMT

@amber-eyed-girl wrote:
Thank you, both of you :), I will speak to AGL and check their plans, and also see how they are like on the phone.

I am not in Vic and only have electric and have been with AGL for many years and never had a contract so not tied to them, every now and again I do a search on better deals and when it tells me I can save so much I check the plan details of the sugested co and find that I now pay less than the promised plan that was suppose to save me money when I check the over all package of supply charge, plus the stepped usage KW actual usage making it dearer to change and go onto even a three year contract with so called discounts.

So be careful with what you sign uo for and dont get conned with smoke and mirrors

Re: Energy Australia

izabsmiling — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 23:52:02 GMT

Hope that you get that sorted.While we don't have mains gas or power a friend in Melbourne does...I'll find out who he is with....they haven't billed him for 8 or 9 months .................he keeps asking .I hope that he has his money saved for the bill when they do send it

Re: Energy Australia

izabsmiling — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:07:15 GMT

EnergyAustralia in $2.1bn refi: report

24 Jan, 11:46 AM

Electricity and gas retailer EnergyAustralia, a unit of Hong Kong-listed CLP Group, said it has refinanced $2.1 billion of debt in a deal that was significantly oversubscribed, reports said.

A Bloomberg report said the transaction was led by ANZ, Barclays, BTMU, CBA, NAB and Westpac, banks that were all among the company’s existing lender group.

EnergyAustralia said the refinancing would provide it with “financial security and stability”.

from the business spectator

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/1/24/debt-capital-markets/energyaustralia-21bn-refi-report

I don't know if that means anything ... possible need to tighten discounts to consumers ?

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 02:23:59 GMT

My little rebate would not even be a drop there!

Hawk, yes, it is very tricky trying to choose new plans, that is why by default I stuck with Energy Australia when they took over TruEnergy. The plan conditions rolled over automatically, I did have to ask a couple of times per year to get the rebates (once for each service). The 12 months were around June and October, so did not coincide either. But that was easier then trying to change 🙂

Update:

Called the ombudsman yesterday after Energy Australia told me rebate did not exist.

Received a call today from a guy in Energy Australia's Customer Resolutions Dept

He said I was on the plan, I was entitled to the rebate, it did have to be applied manually, he apologised for the guy yesterday, and said he was going to speak to that dept about this.

The rebate has been applied up to May 2013, and the bills will now coincide May-May.

So in June, I am to call them again, for the 2013-2014 rebate, and tell them to look at his note on the account.

So a successful outcome but it did not have to be that hard 😬

In May I will look around but as rude guy is going to get a talk, I think it would be OK to stay with them as it has been resolved.

But it did take the ombudsman.

Thanks again to everyone 🙂

Re: Energy Australia

*pepe — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 02:28:11 GMT

well done on standing your ground and going to the ombudsman - great result.

if you do decide to change maybe have a look at simply energy.
i have been with them for around 5 years and never had any problems with customer service and receive a 16% discount for paying on time.

Re: Energy Australia

amber-eyed-girl — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 02:42:13 GMT

Will definitely look at that, thanks 🙂