Second victim of defective smart meter
A second man believes he has fallen victim to the same faulty power meter that has generated exorbitant electricity bills for a Christchurch family.
Leon Austin lived in the Governors Bay house, now owned by Bradley Tuhi, for six months in 2011.
He said the power bills were always high – between $400 and $500 – but when the monthly bill peaked at $800 he refused to pay it. ‘‘When I got an $800 bill I was gobsmacked. That is not an easy bill to pay.’’
Austin said Contact Energy refused to get the meter checked at the time and told him he would have to investigate the issue himself. He was renting the property and did not want to spend the money investigating the problem. He moved out not long after.
But, for the next six years Austin said he was ‘‘hounded’’ by debt collectors and it affected his credit rating.
‘‘I was denied two rentals because I had that debt on my credit rating. Then I had issue getting a mortgage.’’
The debt was written off after six years. According to the Citizens Advice Bureau if a debt was more than six years old, people could not pursue the debt through the courts, unless some of the money had been paid back or the debt had been admitted to.
Austin said once the debt was written off his mortgage was approved.
While there was no way to know if the meter was the same as the one Genesis Energy took away for testing and deemed faulty, Austin believed it was because he had the same problem as Tuhi.
‘‘I feel his pain.’’
Austin has emailed Contact Energy and asked it to review his bills from that time, after testing by Genesis Energy found the meter was overcharging by 66 per cent.
He was also looking for compensation because of the inconvenience of being chased by debt collectors for six years.
Austin said it was likely multiple people had suffered because of an unwillingness by power companies to investigate his high power bills.
A Contact Energy spokesman said the company had never had any queries from the customer about large invoices.
Tuhi spent months trying to convince Genesis Energy it was not possible for him, his wife and step son to consume $1100 worth of electricity a month at their fully-insulated, double-glazed, 10-year-old home that was heated using gas.
After being contacted by The Press last month, Genesis Energy said it would install a new meter and test the old meter at an authorised test house.
Genesis said this week, the original meter, a 2008 Metec Day/Night smart meter, failed all tests and the company calculated Tuhi was overcharged by 66 per cent.
It would refund him $4393 and give him a $250 credit as compensation.
Tuhi said the compensation offered was ‘‘insulting’’ and he believed he was overcharged close to 80 per cent.
Genesis Energy has since upped the compensation offer to $878.00, or 20 per cent of the $4393.
Tuhi said he was not sure if he was going to accept the offer and he was consulting his lawyer.
Utilities Disputes commissioner Nanette Moreau said if people were concerned about their meters they should first get in touch with their electricity company. If they were still not satisfied they should contact Utilities Disputes, which provided a free and independent service to consumers who have complaints about electricity and gas companies.
Moreau said one way people could check if their smart meter was operating correctly was to turn the power off and check if the meter was still running.