Please Help. Moved Houses and Now Charged Ausgrid Disconnection Fee of $150 by Alinta

Ljeffcarras on 28/11/2018 - 16:51
Last edited 28/11/2018 - 17:14 by 1 other user

Hi my fellow friends. This is my first post here but I have been following the forum for moderate time now.

I will make my story short. I moved house a month and half ago, I was with Alinta Energy on the old house and call them like 5 days before moving telling them I am moving bla bla..they told me of course and helped me move the electricity to the new house. Both of them are rental.

Now, when I get the last bill I get a Ausgrid disconnection fee of $150. I called them telling them I did not ask to disconnect only to move. They just said there is no way and that i need to pay this fee.

Of course I do not want to pay for something I have not requested. Please forgive me if I am a dumb for asking this but it is my first time moving house since I arrived to Australia. So I do not know if this is a common thing to happen.

What would you guys suggest me to do?

Thanks!

Home & Garden

Comments

  • HighAndDry on 28/11/2018 - 17:03
    +2

    https://www.alintaenergy.com.au/nsw/energy-products/electric…

    Disconnection 148.90

    That's on their site.

    Of course I do not want to pay for something I have not requested.

    I mean - you did request by requesting to move the account from one property to the other. What did you think they would do to the electricity service at the old property? Just leave it?

    • jeffcarras on 28/11/2018 - 17:08

      Well, when i moved to the new place electricity was connected so I may say that some companies actually leave it…

      • HighAndDry on 28/11/2018 - 17:22

        That's unsafe because it means if the next occupant doesn't connect their own electricity service (which automatically disconnects yours), you might end up being charged for that instead. (and I'm sure you'd also complain about being charged for that then too.)

  • VegemiteKid on 28/11/2018 - 17:05
    +1

    Email ausgrid. Explain. If no satisfactory outcome lodge a complaint with the ombudsman

    • HighAndDry on 28/11/2018 - 17:26

      I'm not sure OP's provider even did anything wrong. Even the ombudsman's own site says these are common/standard fees, even if $150 is a tad high:

      https://www.ewon.com.au/page/suppliers/supplier-responsibili…

      Some market contracts provide that supply to the premises will be disconnected if the customer moves out during the term of the contract. In this case you may be charged a disconnection fee when you close your account on move out.

  • ThithLord on 28/11/2018 - 17:08
    +1

    Your name is in bottom right hand corner of the image, OP. Just FYI.

    • Forfiet on 28/11/2018 - 17:10

      Yeah he might wanna edit that out…..wake up jeff :P

      • jeffcarras on 28/11/2018 - 17:12

        haha, Newbie here…

    • dcep on 28/11/2018 - 17:11

      Thanks Jeffry

  • Daniel Plainview on 28/11/2018 - 17:52
    +3

    Each Energy 'contract' is for the SPECIFIC property any given consumer is at - so when you moved to a new property thats essentially a disconnection. Very normal practice and is basically an unavoidable fee as the utilities provider for that area has to go out and physically disconnect the power at the utlities box (thats the way it's always been that I've seen).

    Is a PITA but a legit fee - best thing you can do is to check this and ANY fees that might apply with the provider PRIOR to signing up - once you're with them you're going to have to pay what they charge.

    • decr on 28/11/2018 - 18:19
      +1

      as the utilities provider for that area has to go out and physically disconnect the power at the utlities box

      Are you sure? I've never experienced anything like that in QLD/TAS. 1 rental and house in QLD, two houses in TAS. I can't remember any disconnect fees in QLD (but might be wrong) but there was one, around ~$60 or so in Tassie. The agent for the rental in QLD provided a service to switch over your power/water/gas etc, I waited a month without any confirmation, rang them up and they never did it as "someone forgot". So saying when vacating a premise someone will physically come and disconnect a service might be inaccurate.

      $150 seems a bit high though.

      • ldstr on 28/11/2018 - 19:30
        +2

        That's because in QLD there is no disconnection fee.

  • qwerty on 28/11/2018 - 18:39

    https://www.clickenergy.com.au/energy-price-fact-sheets/ausg…

    You will be charged Ausgrid's "standard" disconnection fee of $166.02 (GST inclusive), when you move out of your property. This fee is passed through from your electricity distributor and is not a Click Energy fee.

    So its not excessive becuase others are doing the same

    Your only real way out of it is to check your original contract with Alinta

  • bigticket on 28/11/2018 - 19:59
    +7

    Normally, there is no physical electrical disconnection. The disconnection fee is an exorbitant meter read charge.

  • pernunz on 29/11/2018 - 11:21

    It depends if someone else took over the electricity ownership at the old property on the same date. If so, it's a 'transfer' where the only thing needed is a meter read.

    If not, then power stops being supplied to the property, and, like in your situation, you get charged a disconnection fee. The next person in the property will need to connect it up and be charged a connection fee.

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