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Thread: Victorian Smart Meter Charges

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    Default Victorian Smart Meter Charges

    What a ####ing joke this is.

    Got a letter with my bill the other day telling me that all Victorians are now being billed for smart meter regardless of whether they have one or not. It also states that we will get one sometime in the next 4 years.

    1. Why do we even have to pay for a smart meter ? We pay an equipment and supply charge , if they want to upgrade their equipment thats their problem not mine.

    2. With all the savings to these companies , why is there even a charge ? As they can read the meter remotely , there is no need to pay meter readers to come to your house anymore. You would think that saving would pay for meters , if not , it should subsidise them.

    3. This state labor government is ####ed in the head. Seriously , when are people going to start waking up to the fact we are getting ripped off in a big way in this state ?

    Forgot to also mention that charging us for non existant meters is law passed by the Electricity Regulator.
    Last edited by admin; 10-03-10 at 06:17 PM. Reason: Added regulator bit.

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    circuit (24-03-10),joezep (22-03-10),OSIRUS (20-04-10),pieces (10-03-10),SystemRat (11-03-10)



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    should start a class action for their charge for a service not being provided
    dont say linux if i wanted it id install it

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    At least you'll get a smart meter reader, Under Integral Energy in NSW we have delicate meter readers, 21mls of rain in 2 days and they can't come and read your meter so they take a guess at what power you've used.

    How much do raincoats cost these days?

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    Cool

    Yeah !? Well up here we're being charged for a $400 million dam that we don't want , don't need & in the long term will be piped to Sydney for them to use. They don't have to pay but we do , starting now & it hasn't even been given the go ahead yet. At the same time it looks like we will be slugged a levy on car rego to pay for Sydney's transport services. Makes you glad to be alive in NSW

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    A mate got a letter like that with his last bill .




    A letter im dreaming up .

    Because of work safe laws I can not allow your company employees to install a new meter on my house as its made of asbestos . I will not be put in a postion that I may be sued in the future .


    .
    Last edited by pieces; 10-03-10 at 10:21 PM.

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    This is following along the lines of an LPG bottled gas supplier who wrote to announce a rental fee on each bottle.
    What displeased me was that this new fee was being charged, according to their letter 'Because rental was Now becoming an Industry Standard'.
    Not because of costs or services but simply everyone else was charging and we want our share too.
    You can see this attitude speading across to others in 'the Fullness of Time' like your water meter where you pay for all water used.
    I bet Telstra is kicking itself that it centralised its meter reading and cant get on this Money for Nothing wagon.

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    I don't know the validity of this but it was suggested it is illegal to charge GST for goods or services without providing them. Thus the utility companies charging GST for a nonexistent smart meter maybe illegal. I am however sure our incompetent state government will spin its way out of that one.

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    So has anyone had one installed yet or been given a installation date . ???

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    Quote Originally Posted by pieces View Post
    So has anyone had one installed yet or been given a installation date . ???
    Nope , just a letter saying they are charging all Victorians for them from a certain date and that it will be installed sometime in the next 4 years.
    I will scan it and put it up here later ( if I remember )

    Anyone else predict disasters with these things ? Wireless hacking etc ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by pieces View Post
    So has anyone had one installed yet or been given a installation date . ???
    Read other thread.
    Yes, in western suburbs of Melb.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sanity View Post
    Anyone else predict disasters with these things ? Wireless hacking etc ?
    Those meters are actually good things if they are accompanied by correct tools. But then again, knowing our government way of running projects I doubt anyone (I mean us - end users) will benefit from them.
    I have few of those smart meters installed at work. With accompanying webtools where I can analyse power factors, useage etc logged on the supplier website we can safe more than 5% on our bills.

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    I think its about belting us around the head for peak peak.There dreaming up peak peak tariff to slug us on very high demand days .

    So now were going to end up with dead fragile people who cant afford to run cooling .

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    Quote Originally Posted by SystemRat View Post
    I don't know the validity of this but it was suggested it is illegal to charge GST for goods or services without providing them. Thus the utility companies charging GST for a nonexistent smart meter maybe illegal. I am however sure our incompetent state government will spin its way out of that one.
    I think you will find they have covered that by some rigmarole which will say along the lines of that because 'We are too incompetent to commence charges on installation and being greedy bastards, the charges will commence as soon as we can find someone who knows which button to push'.

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    Cant get my scanner to fire up , but this is the first paragraph.

    Important information about the smart meter charge on your bill

    The " smart meter charge " which appears on your electricity bill is one all Victorians will pay, as of 1 January 2010. As part of the state governments major upgrade to Victoria's electricity infrastructure, all households and small businesses will have their existing electricity meter replaced with a smart meter within the next 4 years.

    What a government.

    And this little gem : The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has determined that all Victorian electricity customers will begin paying for the new smart metering system from 1 January 2010, regardless of when each smart meter is installed.

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    Now thats a c@#ts act.

    Why we are even paying in the first place is beyond me, but to pay when its not even installed, thats just a complete RIP OFF

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    Quote Originally Posted by oceanboy View Post
    Now thats a c@#ts act.

    Why we are even paying in the first place is beyond me, but to pay when its not even installed, thats just a complete RIP OFF
    Your not wrong. I just found another little gem to top it all off.

    It is a quarterly bill. They have charged me for December at 16.79 c/kWh and charged January and February at 19.25 c/kWh ! Do they make this up as they go ??

    I think Origin Energy and can and get ####ed. I am off to change companies.

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    shows I will save 14% by switching to Red Energy , Red Energy here I come.

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    Here in NSW we had a price rise last june or July and we have another one due about the same time this year.
    The increases occur MID BILLING period which is a good lurk.
    Also this AER is the same ones who have decreed we are NOT paying enough for our electricity, NOT because the money will go for improvements etc, just this AER deem we are simply not paying enough.

    Sanity, be aware that a company called 'Greenjack' who were an 'Onseller' were recently forced out of the market place by Advance and Integeral they onsold for when the 2 companies undersold 'Greenjack' and they went under to the tune of $65 million and all their customers have been returned to their previous supplier,no doubt on the cheap rate offered UNTILL that contracted offer expires.
    With that competitor now out of the market, will they repeat the exercise on other Onsellers?
    I sincerly doubt they did this just for the fun of it.

    Question, if they can sell to an Onseller lower than they charge us, why cant we have that rate and if they offered LOWER again to undercut GreenJack, why dont we get those rates too??

    PPS, if the bloody supplier is now ESTIMATING your current accounts, how can you determine useage and how will an Onseller work out your usage as they need that information from the original supllier ??
    Last edited by gordon_s1942; 12-03-10 at 05:56 PM.

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    Be careful when changing as some look good and thats because they havent included this new round of increases yet .

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    I looked briefly at one such 'SAVE' offer and 'ESTIMATED' I would save about 10 cents a day IF those calculations were correct.
    I really didnt get into all the nitty gritty details but I cant see any 'OnSeller' bearing any increases that occur.
    I would guess that the OnSeller's rates would maintain a 'Parity' with the 'Supplier's' rate, ie 10% increase in supply rate, would equal a 10% increase in the Onsellers rates.

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