GloBird Energy Desperate for Cash Grab

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GloBird Energy

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  pao2x on 01/04/2020 - 20:04

  Meter reads can be as far as 3 months in between not monthly, also our billing is quarterly as well. Why not ask them to make it that way? It is an offer then do not accept it and keep status quo

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    DoctorCalculon on 01/04/2020 - 20:13

    You misunderstand.

    I am not talking about electricity here at all. They come with a smart meter at most homes which support remote reads. So, I don't have any issue with electricity being on a monthly billing cycle as the meter reads are accurate as per the meter.

    My concern here is billing based on usage, and not some estimate which the retailer can tweak to extract more cash to make their balance sheets look nice for their investors.

    Since gas meters are not smart (yet), it means the supplier has to deploy their meter reader contractors at regular intervals.

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      pao2x on 01/04/2020 - 21:09

      Who said anything about electricity? My gas readings are usually 90 days apart and so are my bills.

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        DoctorCalculon on 01/04/2020 - 21:12

        Sorry! I just checked your profile, and see that you are in NSW.
        In VIC, most distributors perform meter reads every two months.

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  JimmyF on 01/04/2020 - 20:30

  Important GloBird message: To minimise the spread of COVID-19, on-site gas meter reads will be restricted, in the mean time we will use monthly estimates to prepare bills. > Alternatively, provide your own meter read by sending a photo of the meter dial to [email protected] with your meter number and account number.

  Sounds fair, you do know AUSTRALIA IS ON LOCKDOWN and having someone walking around reading each and ever meter isn't essential?

  They also offer a way for you to do it yourself if you are really worried getting GASP an estimate bill.

  First of all, the retail agreement states bi-monthly billing for gas as per meter reads provided by supplier.

  Gov lockdown laws override this agreement. So to be clear, you're complaining they are going to send you a bill half the size but twice as often?

  Secondly, on-site gas meter reads are provided by the supplier not GloBird Energy (retailer). So, why are they so concerned about this? Do they employ the contractors who perform the reads? NO!

  You will find its the supplier who has advised the retailer they are not doing meter readings in your area. As your agreement is with the retailer not the supplier, they the retailer have passed this information on to you.

  If the supplier has not billed GloBird Energy, then why should GloBird Energy premptively bill the customer?

  Sorry, were do they say this? The supplier would have advised they are doing estimates bills until further notice and will be billing the retailer based on these estimates. You think when you get an estimate bill, the retailer get 'free' money? Not a chance.

  Furthermore, I have not seen our water supplier write a similar email or SMS about meter reads being restricted.

  Its only early days. How often is it read? Do they need to tell you in the first place they are doing an estimate instead of actual? No they don't have to tell you anything at all.

  I am planning to lodge a complaint with the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria) (EWOV). However, before doing so, I wanted to understand my rights as a retail customer.

  Get over yourself and stop wasting peoples time. Really you're having a 'breakdown' over monthly estimates. The retailer has given you a optional to send a photo of the meter for a actual bill reading IF YOU DON'T WANT ESTIMATES. Go do that.

  So save everyone's time for the real problems, and take a picture, send it in once a week or month. Issue solved.

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  DoctorCalculon on 01/04/2020 - 20:49

  Sounds fair, you do know AUSTRALIA IS ON LOCKDOWN and having someone walking around reading each and ever meter isn't essential?

  Real lockdown? You must be joking. I see people and families walking about freely. Construction work is still going on. Trains are still running. Roads are still just as busy.

  You will find its the supplier who has advised the retailer they are not doing meter readings in your area. As your agreement is with the retailer not the supplier, they the retailer have passed this information on to you.

  Yet, none of my neighbours who are with GloBird Energy receive a similar text.

  Gov lockdown laws override this agreement.

  In Victoria, we are not in real lockdown right now. Stop using this an excuse. If you want to use this as an excuse, then the government should suspend all bills and rates.

  So to be clear, you're complaining they are going to send you a bill half the size but twice as often?

  What if I quarantine myself elsewhere? How will they know my real usage?

  You will find its the supplier who has advised the retailer

  Absolute BS! If this were the case, a proper email would follow, which I would be more sympathetic to.
  I am happy to be proven wrong tomorrow.

  Its only early days. How often is it read? Do they need to tell you in the first place they are doing an estimate instead of actual? No they don't have to tell you anything at all.

  So, it is early days for water but gas gets special treatment, huh? Water falls under your rates. So, by law they need to inform you of any changes to their billing process.

  Get over yourself and stop wasting peoples time. Really you're having a 'breakdown' over monthly estimates. The retailer has given you a optional to send a photo of the meter for a actual bill reading IF YOU DON'T WANT ESTIMATES. Go do that.

  Yet you are the one shouting and having a mental breakdown.

  So save everyone's time for the real problems, and take a picture, send it in once a week or month. Issue solved.

  Photos can be forged.

  People who own multiple properties, they are supposed to go on every single site and upload photos of their meters?

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    JimmyF on 02/04/2020 - 13:33

    -1

    Yet, none of my neighbours who are with GloBird Energy receive a similar text.

    Did you ask them all!? and WOW you all use GloBird.

    In Victoria, we are not in real lockdown right now. Stop using this an excuse.

    Maybe go learn what you can and can't do atm

    What if I quarantine myself elsewhere? How will they know my real usage?

    You'll get estimates and then it will be 'corrected' when you get a actual reading.

    Water falls under your rates.

    Water doesn't fall under your rates, you know that water bill that comes, its not your rate bill

    having a mental breakdown.

    Yes I feel for you being unstable in a time like this over such a little thing.

    Photos can be forged.

    and they will be all be corrected when the meter person comes around again.

    People who own multiple properties, they are supposed to go on every single site and upload photos of their meters?

    So you live across multiple properties do you? Cool story.

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  ericb on 01/04/2020 - 21:14

  That bonus boost seems like a pretty good rate of return for a low risk investment.

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    DoctorCalculon on 01/04/2020 - 21:15

    Only if you are 100% certain the rates won't go up in the immediate future.

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      SBOB on 02/04/2020 - 07:51

      The entire world is 100 percent certain of that at the moment…

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  bdl on 01/04/2020 - 21:20

  I received both texts, I'm fine with them. I was thinking they are just preparing for the possibility that the gas wholesaler or Government may bring in restrictions on gas meter reads in the next few months.

  PS: Took a photo of my meter and Globird responded within ten mins and said thankyou

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    JimmyF on 02/04/2020 - 13:34

    -1

    Great to hear we have a 'sane' person here, the OP is just going mental over nothing.

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  netjock on 01/04/2020 - 22:04

  +3

  Gas company would not come to read your gas meter due to spread of highly contagious disease. Tells customers to either accept and estimate or send in photo of their reading.

  The outrage of:
  1. Gas company not putting their employees at risk
  2. Having to take a photo of their gas meter and send it in

  Meanwhile in Italy and the USA people are dying by the hundreds from the so said disease. Talking about misplaced sense of outrage over a few hundred bucks while Solomon Lew decides he is going to pay zero rent and zero wages running into millions.

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    JimmyF on 02/04/2020 - 13:40

    dying by the hundreds

    errr thousands I think you mean! Between USA/Italy & Spain we have ~28,000 people dead so far.

    But yes I agree with you, the rage and entitlement from the OP over getting estimate bills, even when they provide a method to get an actual bill if they wanted it.

    I can hear the EWOV people laughing now. Wonder if the OP will make it to the wall of tosser requests?

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  WreckTangle on 02/04/2020 - 20:05

  I tried to join GloBird, but they don't do my area. Large Sydney suburb lol.