Back on topic....just for a moment
For the last 2-3 years I have been entering the energy bill data into a spreadsheet so I know exactly what is going on. I hadn't entered the Origin bills for the last 9 months until a couple of days ago.
Well they are certainly not exempt from the usual shenanigans of "How can we make this bill even harder to read for no good reason?". In fact, so desperate are they to achieve this that they fabricated two rate changes within a week on one electricity bill, and two so-called rate changes on another - except the rate didn't change AT ALL!
That is just in an effort to add two pages of irrelevant IDENTICAL numbers to the bill to confuse people who don't necessarily understand these things.
As for having a "Contract" with them, I really do wish that someone with enough money would take these mongrels on in court, because their behaviour is unconscionable. I would have thought that a contract means they will supply X product for Y cost for Z months or years, but I'd be wrong about that.
For those who are not numerically minded, please bear with me because the numbers tell the truth and show the attitude.
Origin Gas over the four bills of the last 12 months (and keep your eye on the first bracket in each bill):
Bill 1. 51 days of late Spring to early summer
0-1056 MJ at 3.70 cents
1057-2096 at 2.5 cents
Bill 2. 91 days of summer when gas usage is down......
0-1885 MJ at 3.70 cents
So you can see that because the usage will be low in summer they increase the threshold from 1056 to 1885.
Bill 3. 92 days of Autumn (cool up here)
0-1906 MJ at 3.70 cents
1907-3781 at 2.5 cents
3781+ at 2.4 cents
so that's another effective price increase that will earn them significant money over Bill 1 rates. 4% increase as it turns out.
Bill 4. 90 days of Winter, but with a rate change after 16 days
So 16 days of
0-331 MJ at 3.70 cents
332-658 at 2.5 cents
659+ at 2.4 cents
then 74 days of (and I think this is when Turnbull started barking at the Gas industry)
0-1533 at 3.59 cents
1534-3041 at 2.42 cents
3042+ at 2.33 cents
and the supply charge dropped by ~2c per day
So my bills were
1. $64.71 ($1.27/day)
2. $42.97 (47c/day for summer cooking)
3. $270.85 ($2.95/day for Autumn)
4. $530.21 ($5.89/day for Winter)
Noo then, because I have a spreadsheet I can really easily work out what the bills would have been if I had a PROPER contract on the same rates that I signed up for.
Standby.
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Bill 1 & 2 would be the same (because I used bugger all gas in summer for Bill 2 - which begs the question of "why then change the rates at all - nobody is heating?")
Bill 3 cost me $10.47 more than it should have. This is a 4% increase in one quarter.
Bill 4 was where there was a price drop. If it had continued at the Bill 3 rates it would have cost me $14.45 extra. At the original rates it would have cost me $4 extra.
The point being that overall there was no real price drop - a mere 0.75% over the original rates, but dressed up to look like 2.75%.
Furthermore, the "contract" says
"We change the charges from time to time, generally in July. We'll let you know if they change."
JOHN ELLIOT response again! Four times in nine months including twice in one quarter. And no, they didn't advise me (oh, except on the bill where the charges at the new rates are calculated).