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Consumer issues
Systemic issues raised this year
Systemic issues typically affect a number or a particular group of customers. Our Policy and Research team is responsible for coordinating EWON’s response to the systemic issues identified through customer complaints. The team provides information and works with providers, government, regulators and community groups to address these issues. In doing so EWON encourages improvements to benefit consumers and to prevent or reduce similar complaints in the future.
Systemic issues identified this year include:
- Disconnection of supply and inability to access hardship programs
Despite new regulations requiring retailers to provide alternative payment arrangements and hardship programs, the number of customers contacting EWON who have been disconnected or are facing disconnection has increased over the last year.
EWON was also contacted by customers experiencing financial hardship who should reasonably have been referred by the contact centre to their retailer’s hardship program in the first instance.
EWON continues to work closely with the Department of Water and Energy in monitoring the impact of new disconnection regulations. We will continue to advise providers of any barriers faced by customers in trying to access hardship programs and identify potential areas for improvement in dealing with disadvantaged customers.
- Failure to accept reasonable offers from customers who can’t pay their bills
EWON continues to receive complaints regarding the failure of contact centre staff of some energy retailers to accept what appears to be a reasonable offer to pay a debt by instalments.
- Delays and errors in billing
Customers complained about electricity billing errors and large catch-up bills issued by one retailer to customers undercharged for long periods. Some delays and errors were caused by factors such as physical meter data extraction problems or an error during the conversion of meter data into the consumption data used to generate bills.
- Failure in business-to-business communication
Over the last year EWON has identified an increase in complaints where customers have been adversely affected by failures in communication between retailers and distributors. We also saw a significant rise in errors (eg disconnection) related to customers transferring between retailers.
- Failure to act on customer cooling-off requests
Customers complained that they had cancelled energy offers during the ten-day cooling off period only to find that their cancellation had not occurred. This indicated that some energy retailers did not have the necessary administrative checks in place to ensure all requests by customers to cancel an energy offer are acted on in the regulated period.
- Poor customer service in new gas connections
Customers complained about poor levels of service, inconsistent quote information and delays following requests for a new gas connection.
- Feed-in tariffs
We received complaints from some home owners who installed photovoltaic cells on their premises with the aim of feeding back any electricity they do not consume onsite into the electricity grid via a bi-directional meter.
Some customers were disappointed to learn that they were limited to being a customer of their standard retailer. They reported that no other retailer was able to offer bi-directional billing. In some cases, customers were already signed to a second-tier retailer when they installed a bi-directional meter and photovoltaic cells, and this meant they had to cancel their contract, thereby incurring a fee.
Other customers complained that the tariff they paid for electricity they fed back into the grid was not proportional to the tariff they paid their retailer to buy electricity.
Policy submissions
As EWON moves into its second decade, two critical areas of policy that will impact on energy providers, customers and EWON are the move to national regulation and the introduction of carbon pricing. EWON will continue to contribute to these debates to ensure that the outcomes provide adequate consumer protection, particularly for disadvantaged customers.
Our individual and joint submissions this year included:
- ANZEWON submission on the Ministerial Council on Energy’s Cost Benefit Analysis of Options for a National Smart Meter Roll-Out (Phase Two – Regional and Detailed Analyses): Regulatory Impact Statement
- ANZEWON comments on the Australian Energy Regulator’s proposed Electricity Distribution Network Service Providers: Service Target Performance Incentive Scheme
- Comment on the Review of Prices for Sydney Water Corporation’s Water, Sewerage, Stormwater and Other Services: Draft Report and Draft Determination
- ANZEWON submission to National Framework Energy Community Service Obligations
- ANZEWON submission to Productivity Commission’s Review of Australia’s Consumer Policy Framework: Draft Report
- Response to IPART’s Review of the Last Resort Supply Fee for Small Retail Customers (Electricity): Draft Report
- Response to the Ministerial Council on Energy’s Cost Benefit Analysis of Smart Metering and Direct Load Control: Phase 1
- Water Industry Competition Act 2006 Regulations Consultation Paper
Our submissions are available at www.ewon.com.au
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