Origin embarrassed by flood bill gaffe
A 72-year old Grantham pub owner has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Origin Energy after the corporate giant wrongly charged two months worth of electricity bills.
Morva Richardson, whose establishment was destroyed in the floods that swept south-east Queensland, says power was completely cut from her business on the 10th of January.
Mrs Richardson says she received charges in the post-flood period until the 10th of March. She also received visits from debt collectors as well as threats of legal action.
“They kept billing me for power that I hadn’t used. No matter how many times we rang them up we couldn’t (get) any sense out of them,” the grandmother said.
“They wouldn’t take any notice (to) us. They kept on sending us bills (and) then all of a sudden it stopped.
“Now they’ve taken me to the small claims tribunal to try and get the money out of me.”
Despite the disconnection of power lines to the site, Mrs Richardson says Origin still managed to send bills totalling $4767 based on her previous payments.
“It was just all estimation. We didn’t have any power here from the 10th of January – the day the flood came through.
“I’m not going to let them get away with it.”
Origin has since backed down from legal action, issuing an apology to the Richardson family.
General Manager of Retail, Phil Craig says Origin is deeply regretful Mrs Richardson’s plight slipped under the radar.
“We’re very apologetic. Clearly we’ve gotten things wrong with this customer,” he said.
“We have been in contact with the customer today, and cleared her account including what was owing prior to the floods and made sure there is no impact in terms of credit agencies.”
