Crazy / dodgy / unexpected bills

[GXL078]

Anyone get a shock when they have opened a bill recently?

Firstly, my phone bill is usually $60 - $80 pm for home and mobile combined bill. My last bill comes out and its for $228. There is a call on there for almost 3 hours to my grandmother's number that I didn't make and its for $187
My wife is very good and was able to convince Telstra it was a mistake and they were willing to delete the call which was a relief.

That was OK, I get home yesterday and open my water bill to find it has jumped from the usual $120-$140 per quarter to $484!!! I thought about where the leaking tap might be, or that they have read another unit's meter by mistake. Once again I got my wife on the phone and gave them the correct meter reading. Turns out the guy who read the meter recorded 635 as 835ML. It should have rang alarm bells that my average daily water usage had jumped from 160 to 2300L, but no, they just issue the bill.

What bothers me is that I have all my bills paid by direct debit because I often go away and so I don't have to remember to pay them.

I just expect these companies to do the right thing. Am I being overly optimistic here? I always check my bills and statements wherever I am in the world via the internet. Just how common is this random overcharging? They keep putting the price of everything up as it is and they have EVERYBODY'S money!

I should have got into a business that everybody depends on when I was young. Oh, wait I did, Education, but that doesn't make any money. The CEO's of these utility companies are on megabucks, Is that Yank still running Telstra? An essential service, they allow competition and then privatise it! What a joke, but hey, if you disagree just pass it off as my usual banter because everything is great and we still live in the best country and all that bullshit.

[Peuty]

My Telstra bill was $750.00 once. Boy I wished that was a mistake but it wasn't.

[brenx]

I never pay anything for direct debit apart from car insurance and internet access. Even that gives grief at times. The worst instance I've had is Vic Roads debited my credit card 3 times for the one car. Thats $520ish per time. That took me 2 months to sort out. They told me via phone that I could just leave it and keep the rego in credit. I said "thats all well and good if a) I had the $ in the 1st place to do that (remember credit card payment) and b) I kept cars that long. After a pile of paperwork and a few fax's it got sorted.

The only other people that frighten me is Telstra mobile. I recently switched to a cheaper plan as the prior plan had hidden charges paying for a handset. I own it, no need to pay for it over and over. They decided it'd be nice to bill me for 1 month in advance? I didn't bother ringing as I know it's normal practice but all I did was change to a cheaper plan! I've had the same phone and phone no with Telstra for 10 years or more. One day I'll give up my mobile. I hate the bloody thing anyway. I never get any peace!

Car insurance places are generally the worst with direct debit. You cancel in writting via fax and of course the fax never arrived according to them. It's even worse as I ring before I send the fax to get a name of a person to send it to. Then I ring back to see if they got it. RACV is the worst for this!

Another one I hate credit cards that are cancelled and have been cancelled for a long period of time. The amount of times I've got a bill for a credit card I cancelled 6mths or more ago it bloody annoying. All because they say they can't stop the debit?!?!?! The cards cancelled aint it? It should just deny the debit as the card should no longer exist due to being canceled. Bloody annoying!

I'm no longer a member of a union due to their useless admin. They kept debiting accounts I no longer had yet they were notified the only way you can notify them which is via fax.

Argh?!?! I could go on but I wont

[pb02]

I've had constant problems with my wife's mobile phone bill and Telstra. The last problem we had they tried to bill us from the day that we signed up until the present day. (about 6 months in total)
She is on a $40 plan and the bill was about $200+. When I called Telstra they just said, "yeah, we've had a few of these problems recently. It's to do with the billing system." When I asked if they have solved the problem they claimed they had not but it wasn't a big issue.
Perhaps not for them but it was for me!!!

[GXL078]

That Vic roads one is a joke, keep your account in credit? great!
My direct debits are: Water, electricity, Telstra, council rates, Shannons, Internet, E Bay seller fees, basically all except my Strata fees as they don't offer it. The only time I have had trouble was a fraud through Paypal, multiple debits in US dollars and I didn't even have a Paypal account.
Christ it costs a lot just to live, all these companies make a bomb because they take, take take from everyone, and then add GST as well! I 'spose they gotta pay for all the crime, fixing gunshot wounds, extricating power poles from Commodores etc, so much for doing the right thing all one's life, hey but we just got our $4133 for the kid in under 10 days, I have heard it can take 5-6 weeks for people who actually need it (first thing I ever got BACK, never even had a tax "return"). I think I forgot to take my (legal)tablet this morning.

[4.9 EF Futura]

Got a shock once when opening an electricity bill that they'd done an estimated reading on. Call to AGL and a visit to check the meter and was all sorted.

Had a life policy once that id cancelled during the cooling off period, but they still helped themselves to the direct debit. Needless to say that transaction was reversed rather quickly.

[GXL078]

I hear gyms like FF are pretty bad with cancelling direct debits, but I must say mine which is run by my local council does the right thing (with cancelling), only trouble is they keep putting the prices up.
LOL at Telstra for saying "it's not a big problem", if you owed them money, they would be charging interest, and take your phone away.

[TheSneakiness]

Went over my Vodafone cap once thinking I'd have to pay the full tilt... which would've been $250+

Bill came in at $60.

Rather unexpected I think...

[|||]

the biggest bill i ever got was for child support!

[Bax]

Telstra each time, I complain about having 55 dollars of WAP charges on my account, even though I was told it would be free for a few months. I complain, and suddenly I have 55 dollars worth of Service Fees.

Even though I'm on a 49 dollar cap, my mobile bill is always above it, no matter what.
Here I am thinking I'd save money, I guess I am but it's never 49.

Commonwealth bank, checked my statement the other day, 30 dollar overdrawing fee, I can take that. $100 CR my way for a Reimbursement for something they did (the 100 did not effect my balance at all), then another 30 dollar fee for not cashing a cheque which I did not receive.

[sgt_doofey]

Moved in to a new rental property in Feb last year and got the electricity going with Origin. Got the first bill and it was a little bit shy of $11,000! First thing I did when I read that was pick up the remote for the split system R/C air con and turn it off.
Next thing I did was ring Origin and go through the bill. Turns out the guy had written down the wrong meter readings. The bill ended up being about $350.

[Jesk]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

Moved in to a new rental property in Feb last year and got the electricity going with Origin. Got the first bill and it was a little bit shy of $11,000! First thing I did when I read that was pick up the remote for the split system R/C air con and turn it off.
Next thing I did was ring Origin and go through the bill. Turns out the guy had written down the wrong meter readings. The bill ended up being about $350.

My housemate needs a scare like that for the bills, I'm forever turning stuff off after him, (like TV at 2am cos I cant sleep with his damn TV going while hes sleeping, even worse on a DVD title!)

[brenx]

Originally Posted by |||

the biggest bill i ever got was for child support!

Agreed. It's my 2nd largest bill. 1st is rates.

[5tumpy]

Hehehe... Notice a theme here... Get rid of Telstra! They are rip-off merchants! Give AAPT a ring, no lock-in contracts, and a price guarantee! "Tell it like it is"....

Wait until june the 4th though, they are unveiling a whole new product range!

[dave351cid]

i have had so many hassels with telstra over the last 10 years that i swear i will never have another account with them while ever there is another option to go with. i do have a telstra CDMA mobile for when i`m travelling in areas that dont get digital reception , but it is a prepaid one so they cant stuff up the account.

TELSTRA SUCKS

[Yellow_Festiva]

Scanned my sisters service recipt for the last log book service on her Echo.

$34 or there abouts for a tyre rotation thankyouverrymuch........ (bill was itemised)

They also changed the front pads without calling first... I think those were also over the $150 mark.... my other brother drove straight back there and said i would like the old pads back.

They refunded the pad cost and replaced the old pads (funny they didnt look all that worn either) wouldnt budge on the wheel rotation fee however.

Now how many people are out there who dont fully understand how bills or costs are broken down and just pay what ever is on the bottom line???? Geeze there must be hundreds and thousands of customers across all lines of undustry getting ripped on a daily basis!

[Keepleft]

Well, in NSW at least - owing 'green' crap, our electricity bills will soon jump 'dramatically' per year per kilowatt hours, you get a feel for this by all the pre-education on the matter, a hint here, a story threre about the need to increase cost to enable green activity etc.

Water follows the same methodology.

Cost of living in AUS is certainly high, insurance etc.

Phone: happy to use VOIP.

[fordxrtfan]

Have to say electricity, every time we get a bill its gone up, even though I am very thorough with checking lights etc are all off

[bob^]

Last year I decided to upgrade my phone, so I rang optus to see what sort of deal they could do for me because I was with them for 5 years, and I had found plans a bit cheaper from other companies.
She asked me which phone I was after, so I told her I wanted a k800 which was meant to have a $20/month handset repayment. She talked to her boss, and then informed me that I could have it for $10/month. I thought beauty sign me up.

2 days later the phone arrives, I open the box, and inside I find my new phone. An LG KG800.

She miss-understood me and never bothered confirming on the phone exactly which phone I was after. A quick phone call got it all sorted out, and they were nice enough to let me keep paying only $10/month(they originally knocked $5 off the handset repayment because the LG was only $15/month).

Anyway I got my new phone, gave the old one to the truck driver, and thought that was it.

The next bill comes and they charged me $10 for my K800, and $15 for the LG. So I rang them up and they sorted it out, next bill came for $450 odd dollars. They claim they never got the phone back, but I had the paper work to prove it, so they took my word on it and said it was sorted out.

I kept getting the same bill for the next 4 months, with the same story that it was sorted out. I was going overseas for Christmas so I needed them to sort it out before then. I rang just before I was meant to leave, and the chick on the phone told me it had already been sorted out.

Whilst I was overseas, they sent another bill for the same amount PLUS late payment fees. My brother ended up ringing them up on my behalf and threatened to cancel the contract - next bill came in at $99 and it has been the same ever since.

[charles_wif_xf]

I have framed my craziest bill and it hangs in my home office. Several years ago, I received in the mail a letter from Blockbuster stating that I owed them $0.00 and that payment was to be made immediately. I called up the store that sent it and asked, why have I been sent a bill for zero dollars and zero cents. The person on the other end of the line said that was a mistake and he'll fix it up.

Three days later, I got another letter, this time stating that I face legal action if I don't pay the $0.00 owing. I didn't waste my time by dignifying that with a response. Never heard from them again (since I cancelled my membership when I got the first letter).

[Yellow_Festiva]

hmmmm,

I own a place out at Bathurst. I got a water usage bill that was for a whole 50 cents. haaa wonder what would have happened if I didnt pay it??? Letters of demand for 50 cents lol.

You would just think they would wait till it came to 5 or 10 dollars before sending out a bill.....

[XR8 Uterous]

My dad got quite a shock after taken us kids on a holiday to America last year, we were there for 3 weeks, before we went dad bough us all phones on a contract so we could use them over there. 1st bills came after coming home... over 2 grand worth of calls made in that 3 weeks overseas... woops

[mitch_lx]

Originally Posted by Jesk

like TV at 2am cos I cant sleep with his damn TV going while hes sleeping, even worse on a DVD title!

Hahahaha !!!!!

I have a sick addiction to stargate SG-1.... i usually watch a dvd at night time, and usually fall asleep on the second episode.

It then repeats itself ALL night, and sticks on the dvd title for a while.
the dvd welcome screen on a stargate movie sounds like a lightsabre or something.

Brother was visiting from overseas, he was sleeping in the room next to mine and he was forever bitching about my all night dvd loop themes !!!!!! hahahaha

Im sorry but your comment sparked a huge amount of laughter from me, thanks mate

[GasoLane]

We had a gas bill for about $450 at our last house a few years ago. The only problem was that gas wasn't even connected to the street!

[kraddy]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

hmmmm,

I own a place out at Bathurst. I got a water usage bill that was for a whole 50 cents. haaa wonder what would have happened if I didnt pay it??? Letters of demand for 50 cents lol.

The debt collectors could come around and get a postage stamp off you... lol

[GXL078]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

hmmmm,

I own a place out at Bathurst. I got a water usage bill that was for a whole 50 cents. haaa wonder what would have happened if I didnt pay it??? Letters of demand for 50 cents lol.

You would just think they would wait till it came to 5 or 10 dollars before sending out a bill.....

Knowing what Bathurst cops are like they would probably lock you up, make you pay and then "run you out of town" like in the movies. My dad used to get run out of town by them when he came up to visit us as kids. Horrible place Bathurst, full of strange people.

[[Tonko]]

I got my samsung phone last year on the $79 supercap, basically $350 worth of usage for $79... anywho, its around the $300 mark usually, but instead of it getting changed back to $79. it goes down to $30ish so im not going to complain... they are always suprising bills....

[MITCHAY]

I went in for a 50000km service expecting to cost $800 but it ended up costing me $1600 for my WRX. Bout the only crazy bill I have had.

[charles_wif_xf]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

We had a gas bill for about $450 at our last house a few years ago. The only problem was that gas wasn't even connected to the street!

That's nice.

[banarcus]

Originally Posted by xcgxl

Knowing what Bathurst cops are like they would probably lock you up, make you pay and then "run you out of town" like in the movies. My dad used to get run out of town by them when he came up to visit us as kids. Horrible place Bathurst, full of strange people.

The still run people out of town. But not a bad town though.

I had a very long protracted dispute with telstra that went for nearly 18 months. I had their first broadband product, the good ole 256k 500mb with FREE access to telstra bigond sites including SELECTED playstation 2 netplay games. I played those SELECTED games and still used to go over the monthly download limit, even with my PC turned off!! After calling them, quoting their policy etc, I was forced to get help from the telecommunications ombudsman. My rewards was some hefty refunds and an eventual release from the dreaded 2 year contract. A big win for the little bloke.