Jill’s Adjustments
Background
- Jill had been away from home for a Holiday, then Work Trips and realised her Electricity bills and direct debits did not take into consideration the times of lower usage.
- The bills followed the Estimates cycle, (where the monthly flow is: Estimate, Estimate, Actual) where the ‘Actual’ bill is intended to adjust for any over/under payments or charges, to bring the account a zero balance.
- The Direct Debit payments would theoretically show the account to balance to zero (because Bill minus Payment = zero).
- Jill wanted to know if she was ultimately only paying for what she used, and that the bills reflected this (and not always estimates).
Supporting Actions
- To assist Jill to investigate, is the ‘Actual usage’ meter data, which is available through the the retailer’s customer portal or by email request. (Customers can access the data dated back 2 full years for free, and further back for a charge). Ausgrid, Ausnet
- Before PowerBill™ , Jill would need to figure out how the charges are calculated and then work them out herself, which can be a time consuming and confusing task.
Resolution
- Jill uploaded the Actual Usage data and the Rates from her bill into PowerBill™ and quickly found the total amount payable was lower than the totals of the bills received, so she was owed money back (a credit).
- By providing the retailer with the supporting evidence, Jill’s Adjustments were made to her account so it balanced to zero.
- Whilst the direct debits were recorded, the overall account balance did not reflect Actual Usage and Actual Payments in relation to the energy she had used.