Bill anomoly

[Niximus]

Just got my electricity bill and am rather confused. For a started here are the previous 4 bills

Nov 2007 - $458.99 - 2316 kWh's
Feb 2008 - $419.69 - 2028kWh's
May 2008 - $464.28 - 2176 kWh's
Aug 2008 - $330.32 - 1565 kWh's

As you can see, it has been pretty steady (that pattern continues for bills prior to this also) apart from the last one that was a bit lower.

Now all of a sudden the bill is $667.40 and 3184 kWh's Our usage has barely changed, we haven't added any new electrical items and if anything have cut back on the dryer etc.

Could it be a mistake? and if so what recourse do we have? I'm happy to pay if true but just can't see where we could possibly have doubled our usage from last bill where we were using the heater etc.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Turn the computer off at night instead of downloading bulk material.

 

[Niximus]

Turn the computer off at night instead of downloading bulk material.

My computer/tv/video game use hasn't changed. With my net speed I don't need to leave it on to DL I get whatever in minutes.

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

Well its hard to find a fault in the bill when the meter is on the side of your house. Maybe the guy that comes to read your meter eveyr 3 months forgot to zero it after he read it the first time, providing an explanation why it has doubled.

 

[Flashhh]

Turn the computer off at night instead of downloading bulk material.

what type of "bulk material" are we talking about here?

 

[Niximus]

Well its hard to find a fault in the bill when the meter is on the side of your house. Maybe the guy that comes to read your meter eveyr 3 months forgot to zero it after he read it the first time, providing an explanation why it has doubled.

That's what I'm wondering, if something like that happened (or some other error) what recourse would we have?

If anything I would have thought it might go down as I used to leave the PS3 on all night but have since learned of the feature and it now turns itself off after an hour of inactivity resulting in it being on for about half the time it used to be.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

what type of "bulk material" are we talking about here?

Eskies.

 

[bigdroppunt]

ive had this happen......and it was that the meter guy could not get around to look at the box...so they only charged me via an estimate..... i got a nice shock $1200 bill when the slack ****er finaly came around.....

 

[Lucev23]

My mate just told me the other night this month his bill had gone from the usual under $70 to about $370

 

[ManWithNoName]

A) Check with the retailer that it was a Meter Read and not an Estimate
B) Check the rates (cents per Kwh) and see how much they changed by. It's EXTREMELY rare for them to change mid year.
C) Do you normally get a discount that's dependent on early payment or a certain payment method or anything like that? And did any of that change this billing period?
D) Did you change your Hot Water over from Gas to Electricity?

That's all I can think of for now.

EDIT: In fact hang on, you're in SA. Your rates are standardised. They shouldn't change at all. That won't be it.

 

[STFUJEFF]

stop putting so much CO2 in the atmosphere
My bill is $250

 

[LIONS then DAYLIGHT]

what type of "bulk material" are we talking about here?

Im not sure the type of material is relevant to the discussion, just the time spent downloading it.