I got an electricity bill for $80 bill for this month. Yes, I know, hard to believe, but it happened this way.

A few months back I saw the electricity company little Suzuki 4WD pull up nose into my gate. A little dark skinned man, who I later found has very poor English got out.

He leaned against the gate, peering left & right, apparently looking from the "Monster from the Black Lagoon". I don't know that he thought the gate would do, a determined cow can push through the 4 strand wire fence beside the gate.

He then got back into the car, & drove off. I watched this performance from my open shed door, 35 meters from the gate, where I & the dog were working on an old car.

Imagine my annoyance when a few days later I got a huge $700 electricity bill, $270 higher than for the same period a year ago. Not only that, the bill stated that the meter was read on the date of my little mans visit. Yes read, not estimated.

I almost felt sorry for the little lady who copped mt complaint. Unlike Telecom call centre staff, at least she spoke English I could understand. I did hear a sharp intake of breath when I mentioned taking action for fraud.

This may be why she told me they had many complaints about meter reading. When I suggested they should sack this useless twit, she explained they just can't do that, & they all ready have too many in make believe work. Besides our bloke was one of the better ones. Something told me this was one of those calls NOT being taped for "training" purposes.

The $80 corrects a years overcharging.

I am so sick of the bleeding heart brigade forcing this rubbish on our country. To say I would like to do something, with the sharp end of a pineapple, to the entire staff of the Equal Opportunity Commission, [or what ever they are called] would be putting it far too mildly.

Goooooo HASBEEN :)

Sickem boy.... give em hellllll !

unsure you got a win

one day they read the meter
then every penny due..is collected

its worth checking ya own meter readings
cause in the end..one brave soul..will read it anyhow

recently..a charity..got an adjusted bill
seems they had been gustimating his bill..under his actual usage

now he owes them..thousands

its funny..threats dont usually work
the cost of law is simply speaking too high..[and they know it]
try reporting it to cops..they simply laught..persist they call you vexatious litangant..and you wont even be heard in court

they know..all they need do..is cut off the power
they are in the drivers seat...read your own meter..before complaining

Are we to infer from Hasbeen's rant
(and ALGORE's puerile barracking)
that he attributes the meter reader's
failure to do his job properly to the
fact that he is "dark skinned" and
has "very poor English"?

If so, then I would suggest that the OP
is nothing more than a racist troll.

If the meter reader is not doing his job
then there are measures that his employer
can take, including dismissal. Hasbeen
hasn't explained what the colour of the guy's
skin or his poor English has to do with his
poor performance, undoubtedly because it
has nothing to do with it, except in his
apparently racist mind.

Shame on you, Hasbeen and ALGORE. And shame
on whoever approved this racist troll of
a 'discussion'.

Yeah, I have noticed the extreme increase in my energy bills compared to last year. So have we all.

I just can't fathom what this has to do with "dark skin" and "poor English".

Yup, talisman, another rather bigoted topic on OLO. Who'da thunk it?

I liked the “dark skin” and “poor English” and “pineapple” bits in the story, added comedy and interest to what would have been a really boring power bill complaint.

And I’m crap with accents so when I get thick accents along with poor English on the phone it drives me up the bloody wall and I don’t feel helped in any way. If a whole bunch of Scottish people moved here I’d be a mess, I find it the hardest of all accents to cope with.

And the dark skinned bloke didn’t make any attempt to read the meter and then lied about it. It might be acceptable practice where the dude comes from so him being from elsewhere might be important and the frustration it causes makes sense to me - even if Hasbeen seems to be willing to use fruit as a weapon which I strongly object to.

Why not just say sharp end of a fruit? Why Pineapple and not a guava? I accuse him of fruit favoritism!

I will now walk away disgusted, shaking my head mumbling to myself.