By XAVIER SMERDON
IT IS not every day that people are found to be begging their electricity providers to send their bills to them, but one Wyndham resident is encouraging people to do exactly that.
Craig Spicer told Star he had waited four months to receive a bill from Energy Australia, formerly Tru Energy.
He is still waiting on a bill from October last year, despite calling Energy Australia on three occasions to request that they send him the bill.
Mr Spicer, a community worker, said he was worried that some people in Melbourne’s West would struggle to pay bills that arrive extremely late.
“This is something that is effecting a lot of people, there are hundreds of people in the same situation,” Mr Spicer said.
Mr Spicer also said that he had installed solar panels and because of the late bills he was unaware if he was receiving the benefits.
He contacted the Victorian Energy and Water Ombudsmen to discuss his concerns and claims he received a call from Energy Australia the very next day.
According to the Ombudsmen, electricity providers can only issue bills as far back as nine months if the reason for the “backbill” is something the company did or did not do.
“I just want to let the community know that there are options out there and they don’t have to just take it,” Mr Spicer said.
A spokesperson for Energy Australia said the company had apologised to Mr Spicer.
“We have contacted Mr Spicer and are investigating his case. We have now issued his most recent bill. The service experienced by Mr Spicer was not good enough and we apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson said.
“We have put in place a new billing system, and while it has worked well for most of our 2.7 million customers, for some customers it has not.
