It has been reported that Contact Energy made over $230 million in their last financial year. If you want to know how they made so much money then this is part of the answer.
My wife and I are customers of Contact Energy and we have been since they closed down the Power Board in Timaru.
In May 2008 our power bill was $149.72
In June we received a bill from Contact Energy for $186.25 an increase of 24.3%
I phoned Contact Energy to find out why my bill had increased so much.I listened carefully to the instructions on their answer phone machine and pushed all the right buttons and after some time a female voice came on the phone that said. Where do you live, what is your full name and date of birth. What is your work phone and mobile phone who is your next of kin ect.
Finally she said how can we help you.
I asked why our phone bill had gone up over 23% and she said it was only an estimate because the meters only get read every 2 months. When I asked why I did not get charged the same as last month she said it was based on how much power we used 12 months ago and the prices had gone up since then. I told her your prices don’t go up until next month.
She asked me to go outside in the rain and read the meter and she would adjust the charges if we had not used that much power. I told her that I thought I was paying Contact Energy to do that job.
It’s a Rip Off
If Contact Energy treats all their customers this way by charging them for power in advance then it is easy to understand how easy it is for them to make $230 million by ripping their customers off.
My advice to all Contact Energy customers is if you have an account with an estimate read on it then only pay the amount equal to the last months bill then you wont be getting ripped off.
