Kim’s power was cut off before the due date on her bill. She found it stressful not having power and wanted some compensation.
The issue
Kim called EWOV after her electricity company disconnected her supply at her rental property. Kim lives with five other family members and also runs her business from home. When Kim got a disconnection notice asking her to pay $1,200 by 15 September, she already owed $1,630. She’d paid around $300 in April, May and July.
Kim paid $400 the day she got the disconnection notice. She’d planned to pay $800 on 15 September, but her electricity company cut her power off on 13 September. She was told the disconnection related to an older disconnection notice.
Kim wanted her electricity company to reconnect her supply right away and put a $250 credit on her account. She said that because of the disconnection, some food spoilt and she needed to work from a café. Kim was not happy with the reconnection delay and poor service.
We asked the electricity company to reconnect Kim’s supply the day she contacted us. However, it wasn’t reconnected until the following day, the 14 September. The company said it couldn’t reconnect her supply because her mains switch wasn’t in the ‘off’ position. Kim said the company hadn’t told her she needed to do this.
The investigation
The electricity company said it wouldn’t charge a termination fee if she transferred to another electricity company. It said that EWOV didn’t tell Kim about putting the mains switch in the ‘off’ position, which led to the reconnection delay. The electricity company said Kim hadn’t provided any evidence of food loss.
The outcome
The electricity company agreed to apply a good faith credit of $250 to Kim’s electricity account to resolve the complaint. This was for the lost food, her out of pocket expenses and poor customer service. Once it applied this, her account would be $161.57 in arrears. However, if Kim paid $31.08 by 22 September, the electricity company offered to reduce her account balance to zero. If she didn’t make this payment, she would still owe $161.57. Kim was satisfied with the offer, and we closed the case.
Case number: 2017/19973
*Names have been changed