A Queensland family is baffled as to why their electricity bills suddenly became astronomical when they were doing nothing different.
When Kylie Hill, who lives with her husband and four children, received a quarterly electricity bill for $1,774.79, she was shocked and called her supplier, AGL, to dispute it.
‘I said, “Are you sure you’ve got the right house?” “Yes,” they said,” said Ms Hill, who lives in Brisbane’s southwestern suburbs. A current issue.
‘I immediately felt confused… as if I didn’t have a big factory!’
He initially attributed the bill to using too many appliances and made changes, including turning them off when not in use.
When Kylie Hill (pictured), who lives with her husband and four children, received a quarterly electricity bill for $1,774.79, she was shocked and called her supplier, AGL, to dispute it.
It worked, more or less. Her next bill was much cheaper, but the mother said it was still quite a bit more than they expected.
‘That was $750. Even that is a lot,’ she said.
“Then in the next few quarters, the biggest bill was $1,000, $2,000, $3,000…$3,900,” he said.
He still didn’t know why so much energy was being used to make his bills skyrocket, and the family was paying thousands of dollars more than they thought they should.
Despite his efforts to reduce consumption and no one being home during the day, his electricity bills have risen to $15,000 in the past two years.
Ms Hill concluded there was something wrong with her meter and asked AGL to run some tests.
When the tester arrived, he discovered that “the watts were so high that we had enough electricity here for about five houses.”
But there was nothing running constantly except the refrigerator, so AGL suspended the family’s account while it investigated the cause of the high energy bills.
But they didn’t find any solution and started billing again. The last two bills have reached almost 7,000 dollars.
Electrician Justin Czarkowski did an independent assessment and said that although the cost of his bills was concerning, the meter figures appeared accurate.
“We measure the actual current with the fluke meter and then compare it to what the meter says and those measurements are comparable, they’re within a milligram of each other,” he said.
But he couldn’t find any particular problem within the home that would lead to such large bills.
“There’s not much to do in this house as it is, and it doesn’t really explain why you would get a $3,000 bill,” Mr. Czarkowski said.
A Current Affair sent the family’s details to financial experts to see if they could find the answer.
Richard Foxworthy of Bill Hero, a service that breaks down and compares energy bills, found that the Hills were using more than five times the average consumption.
“It’s certainly possible to consume that amount of energy, but it would be unusual if that were actually the case for Kylie and her family,” he said.
The $1,774.79 bill (pictured) came as a shock, but even higher bills followed for the Hill family.
AGL said it was “committed to working with customers” but that Hill’s usage bill is accurate.
“We want to help our customers understand the safe and simple changes they can make around the home to conserve energy and reduce their bills,” AGL said in a statement.
So still no answer for the family, just a bunch of very expensive electricity bills.
“We have done the right thing with AGL and paid for everything they have sent us except the last one… they need to give us a break,” Mrs Hill pleaded.