Mr B contacted EIOSA after he received a final bill from his chosen electricity retailer (Retailer A) and then a man came to his house and installed a new "smart" electricity meter he had not requested. Mr B contacted Retailer A to ask why his account had been closed and was told he had been transferred to Retailer B. Mr B advised he had not requested this.
An EIOSA investigation revealed he had been transferred to Retailer B, which had included his property in a marketing campaign to install new "smart" electricity meters. This installation automatically replaced Mr B's previous electricity meter and meant his chosen retailer (Retailer A) was unable to bill him as it had previously.
Investigations by Retailer B revealed it had incorrectly signed Mr B up to its campaign, thinking his property was for another customer. It then contacted Mr B, apologised, and arranged for Ministerial approval, as is required, to remove its "smart" meter and have a "basic" meter installed again. Once this process was completed, EIOSA assisted Mr B further by facilitating the transfer of his account back to his retailer of choice.
Mr B was not charged for electricity consumed while he had the incorrect meter installed and he was very thankful for the assistance.
Gas heating value
Mr Q was concerned about high gas bills for his property and initially contacted his energy company. It confirmed it had billed him for the wrong property and arranged to transfer the correct account so they could bill him. When the energy company did not provide new bills and the account reconciliation statement it had promised, Mr Q contacted EIOSA.
The matter was referred to the energy company at a higher level and the bills and statement were issued.
However, when Mr Q received the revised bills he noticed the figure for the Heating Value, which is used to calculate the number of MJs (megajoules), was different to that on the original bills so he contacted us again.
Upon checking with the gas distributor and the energy company, we found the energy company had incorrectly recorded the address in its system and the original bills were actually for an address in another suburb.
The gas distributor advised that the Heating Value was based on the quality of gas available in a specific area and it was different between suburbs.
Mr Q and EIOSA were satisfied with the explanation.
