Faulty Hot Water Tank Causing High Gas Bills

Lhunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:14
Last edited 04/07/2024 - 13:24

My hot water tank failed over the weekend, I only noticed because my gas bill came in at $840 for the last quarter - last quarter was only $130.

I had the water tank fixed ASAP.

Has anyone had luck getting their bill for the quarter pro-rated/billed against typical usage in these scenarios in good faith?

Called Origin - the initial rep was not very helpful, without hesitation he refused to ask someone else if any kind of exceptions exist.

[EDIT]: Realised my hot water tank was faulty over the weekend due to the bill I received from Origin

Home & Garden Hot Water System

Comments

  • Bruceflix on 04/07/2024 - 13:19
    +14

    You used it, you pay for it.

    • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:27
      +3

      Yes I understand that, just wanting to see if anyone's had an experience with Origin for them waiving such situations in good faith.

      • SlickMick on 05/07/2024 - 09:48
        +1

        It's a valid question, so don't be put off by those saying suck it up.

        You decide whether my scenario is similar: I got a big water bill, and realised I had a leak. I contacted the water provider and explained the issue, and IIRC they refunded the tier-2 consumption, as we'd never gone over Tier 1 in the past.

    • HeWhoKnows on 05/07/2024 - 09:31

      Agreed
      The gas company is not responsible for user issues.

      Only for faulty meters or incorrect meter reads (highy unlikely)

      No wonder the gas company customer service gave up on OP's totally unreasonable request (LOL)

    • HeWhoKnows on 05/07/2024 - 09:33
      -1

      "My hot water tank failed over the weekend,
      I only noticed because my gas bill came in at $840 for the last quarter"

      Can see here that OP is slightly off track with this one

      If the HWS failed over the weekend how does that affect the bill for the last quarter?

      Its more like a hot water leak causing the high gas bill.
      or using gas heating!
      or a leak in the gas pipes on OP's property

  • spackbace on 04/07/2024 - 13:22
    +2

    My hot water tank failed over the weekend, I only noticed because my gas bill came in at $840 for the last quarter

    So did it fail over the weekend, or weeks/months ago?

    • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:25

      Sorry, meant it was broken for an unknown amount of time, just realised due to the bill coming in..

      There weren't any clear indicators that it was broken apart from the bill

  • Ryanek on 04/07/2024 - 13:25

    You tried and you failed. Not sure what more you can/should do?

    • djones145 on 04/07/2024 - 19:55

      trY again and again and again
      untill u get a massive phone bill then call you telco and send Them letters after letter after
      letters after letters, then get the aus post bill for postage so you go to your local mp and protest again and again and again
      then ur work fires you cause you havent showed up

      then thats game over dude
      GAME OVER

      • SlickMick on 05/07/2024 - 09:53

        I thought you were being helpful for a while there.

        Do telcos ever write-off "accidental" large phone bills?
        I know at least one water company that will write off excess water consumption after a leak.

        • BeamMeUp on 05/07/2024 - 10:04

          Remember the old 0055 services……and you contact ACA and claim your kid had your phone….hmmm
          Or you went to Bali and the Telco didnt tell you that you had to turn off roaming.

  • geekcohen on 04/07/2024 - 13:25

    My hot water tank failed over the weekend

    Okay

    I only noticed because my gas bill came in at $840 for the last quarter

    What? It failed over the weekend but your bill was high for the quarter? Just seen your other reply.

    Did you not notice it fail beforehand? How did a high bill make it fail? Was it just constantly heating?

    • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:28

      High bill prompted me to look into all my gas appliances, and thats when I noticed that my hot water tank was acting up.

  • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:26
    +2

    In the past I've had bill from different utilities been forgiven in good faith. Just was wondering if anyone had any luck with Origin in the past for a similar situation.

    • xuqi on 04/07/2024 - 14:40

      What were the reasons on these past occasions? Faulty appliances too?

    • askbargain on 04/07/2024 - 15:34
      +1

      you were forgiven probably because they made so much profit from you they are willing to trim a bit of fat to keep you happy.

  • holdenmg on 04/07/2024 - 13:28
    +3

    Look @ whether you can get an undetected leak waiver
    or
    https://www.aer.gov.au/consumers/have-your-say/make-complain…

    Just be civil and say the amount is inconsistent with prior use and billing.

    • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:32

      Yup, awesome thanks for the pointers, appreciate it!

  • CurlCurl on 04/07/2024 - 13:35
    +1

    Was the pressure relief valve leaking? Where did the water drain to from the leak?

    • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:41

      Yea it was just draining to the back of the house :(. Not a spot we typically go around to, so no one noticed any issues prior…

      • jv on 04/07/2024 - 14:41
        -1

        Yea it was just draining to the back of the house

        Just consider yourself lucky that you no longer smoke….

        • gomertose on 04/07/2024 - 14:56
          +4

          Cos draining hot water is highly flammable /s

        • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 15:41

          No longer smoke? I don't think I've taken up smoking before haha. Lucky my neighbour doesn't

  • PissLUR on 04/07/2024 - 13:44

    So who should foot the bill?

    I guess it only works for water.

    • hunbenn on 04/07/2024 - 13:45

      Of course I will have to. But seeing as it's quite a hefty uplift, trying to see if anyone's had luck in these scenarios.

  • foxmulder on 04/07/2024 - 13:52

    The problem is on hot water tank or origin equipment? If the former is the issue and owned by you, origin should be at fault.

    • foxmulder on 04/07/2024 - 15:15

      I meant to say, if the tank is owned by op and the issue caused by this, then Origin is not at fault.

  • jv on 04/07/2024 - 14:40
    -1

    You used it, you pay for it.

  • singlemalt72 on 04/07/2024 - 14:40
    +1

    I had an electric hot water system fail while i was on holidays and dumped $2000 of water down the drain - local council reimbursed me after I had a plumber fit a new unit and provide a letter explaining what happened - council billed me only on an estimate of actual water use based on previous years - so worth a try.

    • jv on 04/07/2024 - 14:42
      -1

      Why are you paying your water bills to the council?

      • singlemalt72 on 04/07/2024 - 14:47
        +2

        Because council supplies the water and bills you for it - I could try and pay the Electrical retailer, but pretty sure they won't know what to do with it.

        (In much of NSW council supplies water and wastewater services, not like eg. Water Authorities in Victoria or Sydney Water in Sydney)

        • jv on 04/07/2024 - 14:48
          +1

          YLSNED

  • Indomietable on 04/07/2024 - 14:40

    You are out of luck. I had a similar issue but with electricity.

    I shut down my mining farm before I left for a long holiday.
    Unfortunately, we have an outage one day after I left the country and my farm got powered on ( the default state is set to power on when connected to power)

    The electricity company does not forgive and waive the bill :(

    • jv on 04/07/2024 - 14:43

      The electricity company does not forgive and waive the bill

      Did you at least pay the bill using bitcoin ?

      • Indomietable on 04/07/2024 - 14:46

        Paid with tears & sweat. It was during crypto winter

  • xuqi on 04/07/2024 - 14:45

    "Called Origin - the initial rep was not very helpful, without hesitation he refused to ask someone else if any kind of exceptions exist."

    Probably gets a few of these dialy/weekly…

    Forget the quater before (no idea what else uses gas in your house for e.g heating), what was your bill for the same period last year? You need to compile addtional info to use when contacting the utilities company.

    You could try a couple more rep's to see whether they offer something different, but you're the only person I know of that's mentioned debts being forgiven on a number of occasions in good faith by multiple service providers.

    "In the past I've had bill from different utilities been forgiven in good faith."

  • JimmyF on 04/07/2024 - 15:06

    Has anyone had luck getting their bill for the quarter pro-rated/billed against typical usage in these scenarios in good faith?

    LOL Why? It wasn't their fault.

    Another one of those not my fault people. You did did use the gas…. You'll also most likely get a higher water bill coming too. Pay up.

  • Dollar General on 04/07/2024 - 15:12
    +1

    The greenies gonna send you a bill for the emissions you emitted

  • askbargain on 04/07/2024 - 15:33
    +1

    should have used monthly billing

    • JIMB0 on 04/07/2024 - 15:36

      They don't read the meter every month, it's just estimated.

      • geekcohen on 07/07/2024 - 08:28

        If you are with AGL, you can submit a meter reading and then get an accurate bill. That is what I do. Not all providers have it though, I am only aware of AGL and its why I chose them.

  • JIMB0 on 04/07/2024 - 15:38

    You should be paying them for alerting you to a faulty water heater. They have saved you money on your water bill.

  • Iwantthebestprice on 04/07/2024 - 16:37
    +12

    I use to work at Origin in the ombudsman complaints team, this is actually very common and no one knows until the bill comes that there is a leak (rarely does a person replace or maintain their hot water service until it breaks). I would receive maybe 3 calls a week on average for this issue and bills would average $1000. The water company will usually reimburse you, it’s not that expensive for them but no way will the gas company, it happened after the meter and your responsibility starts from the pipe that leaves the gas meter and goes into your house. If Origin started to cover your bill then what stops them from having to cover the other 500 people a year who call with this issue. Thats why when I worked there we were always told straight out say no and leave it at that, it would be extremely rare to have them change their stance because then that sets a precedent.

    • SlickMick on 05/07/2024 - 10:04

      It's your responsibility with water too, it's only compassion or whatever term you want to use that the water companies refund.

      In a way, whatever water you waste ends up back in the system, so it doesn't really cost the water company anything. That's the only reason I can thing of for Origin not showing the same consideration that water companies do.

  • hazzad on 05/07/2024 - 08:25

    Your increase in usage could simply be part of the cut over from autumn to winter. My last bill was only $130 odd. Expect my next to be over $500 due to pretty much starting using my gas ducted heating from mid may onwards. What have your previous bills for this period been in years gone by? That's a better gauge than one no winter quarter to a winter quarter.

  • Tigercjn on 05/07/2024 - 12:57

    Don't assume it's right. Check your bill and see if it's an estimate of the gas used or if they actually read the meter. Mine was over the top, and we had not used much gas. I took a photo of the meter and uploaded the picture to the self-read section of our retailer. They reissued a lower bill, its happened over the last few bills, it seems they are not reading the meter as much as just estimating the result.

  • kmwa on 05/07/2024 - 18:20
    +1

    We had the same thing, fortunately the hole in the tank was near the bottom so we were only losing lukewarm water instead of hot water from the top. We noticed the increased water bill instead of increased gas bill.
    The gas water heater was 25 years old so we replaced the entire thing instead of patching the tank.
    But the root cause - the reason that the tank leaked - was that the sacrificial anode inside the tank had expired. The anode prevents the tank corroding, and should be replaced every 5-10 years.
    Replacing the anode is a lot cheaper than having to replace a gas water heater - and our 25 year old gas water heater would still have been going good. Just some ozbargain advice.

  • clover on 12/07/2024 - 22:31

    I can see why gas company doesnt want to waive the bill. They wouldnt know this is really a faulty gas heater or you just decide to turn your gas heater to the max 24/7.

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