‘I’m sick of the silly games power companies play’

Some days being a Grumpy Old Woman is a good thing. It came in very handy recently, when my husband brought in our latest electricity bill to show me what he had discovered in the fine print.

So fine was the fine print on our bill that we needed to turn on a light to see it. However, hidden in the verbiage about two-thirds of the way down the second page was the news that our power contract was changing without any discussion or warning. Now we would only receive 10 per cent off our bill if we paid on time. We had been previously receiving 14 per cent, which we had negotiated with the supplier when we signed up.

Our acceptance of this change was implicit if we did not respond to their very, very, fine print negotiation. Gathering up my best Grumpy Old Woman persona, I reached for the phone and dialled the number of our power supplier.

I think the first person I spoke to was offshore. She could not answer my questions. She passed me on to the next person, an English speaker, who was a charming lady and who explained that what we pay for power is totally at the discretion of the power company. When I asked what date our supposed contract expired, explaining that I did not want to incur any fees when I transferred to another company offering a better deal, the tone of the conversation changed. We are now on a 12-month contract, which isn’t really a contract because the power company can change it at any time. However, until that time we are receiving a 25 per cent discount when we pay on time.

What I find really interesting — and what I want to know — is why couldn’t the power company just give us that rate in the first place. Why did it take me phoning up and answering a bunch of awkward questions to get to the 25 per cent, especially when we have been long-time customers. It seems that the days of loyalty programs, where you are rewarded for staying with a company, are gone.

Maybe in this brave new world we should all phone our power suppliers on a regular (monthly?) basis, just out of principle, to see if the going rate is the best deal we can get. Sure, we might be retired and we might have a bit of extra time, but the power suppliers are wasting our time by playing silly games so it only seems fair we do it in return.

Have you found yourself in a similar circumstance? Does this sort of activity cause your blood to boil?

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