“I am a student living alone in a studio apartment, and I am concerned about my high electricity bills. Over the last three months, I have paid over $500, which seems excessive for my minimal usage. And they charged me over $150 for 31 days in July and I am quite not happy about that ! I cook for only 5-10 minutes each day and charge my phone and computer. I hardly ever use the air conditioner. Additionally, I work in the evening from 4:00 to 9:00 pm, and in the morning, there is no reason for me to use electricity except for cooking briefly.”
“I became a new Origin customer & had to call to fix some initial bill errors. I found the contact hours atrocious. 8 till 6pm weekdays only, which means the majority of customers have to call during their way to work, give up their lunch break, or call on the way home. I tried for 2 days doing this trying to get thru. When I did manage to talk to people, they didnt really care and very unhelpful.
And then I spoke to Sam who was everything I was looking for. Sam was polite, helpful & dealt with my initial anger with empathy. My experience with Origin hasnt been great, but Sam is the only reason Im giving a 3 star review rather than a 1. Thankyou Sam.”
“THEY ARE A TERRIBLE COMPANY, they take advantage of the consumer and never provide a solution. Their rates are abusive and far above other providers, I called to improve the offer to which they said they could not even though it was more than 20% above the other providers. I decided to withdraw and transfer to another provider. When they received my withdrawal request they called me to offer me a better rate and offered to keep it for a year, to which I naively agreed. I then received a debt collection message because I had a overdue bill (never received on my email) from a previous account. They never informed me that when I agreed not to withdraw they would create a new user so I never knew I had to make another separate payment. That bill was never received. When I called to solve and with all the intention to pay and review why they were charging me ($300) for 27 days in a house where only 2 people live and work outside full time, which is outrageous, they tell me that they can not do anything because that account is already in debt collection. NEVER JOIN THIS COMPANY THEY ARE ABUSIVE AND TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I SHOULD HAVE LEFT THEM WHEN I COULD !!!!”
“A complete scam. We received a bill of $1400 for a quarter (we are two people living in a small 3 bedroom house). This was almost double our previous bill. When we called to ask for an investigation they essentially said that we can take all of the risk on paying for an electrician to test the meter, there will be a 3 month wait, and even if the meter comes back faulty we will receive no discount on the bill anyway. A complete joke, stay away if you value customer service or value for money. The customer service rep who spoke to us was also extremely arrogant and rude.”
“ORIGIN ENERGY ARE SCAMMERS.
Just came across to you on the promise of saving on average $150 per year on my gas bill.
Have not recieved a gas bill yet but today get a letter saying your gas bill will increase by $130 a year but based on our records of your previous use you are on the best plan??? I've been with another supplier for 5 years.
Glad I kept all your previous letters as a record of your broken promises to me.
I'LL GIVE THE ACCC & THE OMBUDSMAN A CALL & SEE WHERE WE GO FROM HERE.🙂”
“I have phoned 4 times and they have disconnected me 4 x. I believe they deliberately do this when they can't solve a problem. I asked to speak to a supervisor and the request was denied. They also told me by birthdate was wrong. Now phoned the ombudsman and while waiting for answers, I got a second bill for 4 days. They are also estimating bills, put in a smart meter and the bill went up by $1000. No common sense and no-one seems to want to help. No-one answers complaints as well.”
“I’ve been with origin for over thirty years I have found them to overpriced and unwilling to help they want to charge me if my smart meter is wrong over 1000 to to investigate the meter if I’m wrong I’ve never seen such greed of humanity from this company since smart meters were brought in and are they estimating the cost from Covid pandemic shame on you Origin this is how you treat a long term tenant while using your power it’s called greed simple the power of money I will be looking for a new supplier asap your team from we’re in helpful and only what to inflict more cost on humanity to have these meters read or checked I give the worse possible review I have ever done shame on you and your company”
“SCAMMERS ALERT ORIGIN
Never show up for meter reading, they just slap you with random bill. And every winter season the bill goes up double automatically. I booked for meter reading and paid extra service charge, took a day off, no one turned up. The other day I called them and they said someone already did meter readings yesterday. These are Robbers.”
“So basically no one came to read my meter on the due date (I was available all day) but now they want to charge me $15 to send someone out???? And that I am being unreasonable????? I had the day off to help/give access but 💯 no one showed up and they won't reply to my emails anymore”
“Horrible company which is verging on a scam. They weezle money out of you and do not conduct their operations properly. It would not surprise me if someone took them to court over their processes and won.”
“Upon trying to move the electricity back into my fathers name as the tenant was leaving, we got the royal run around. First my dad called they said he can't do it because he doesn't have the bill in front of him, even though I gave him all the details.
Then I called upon his request, and was told only the owner whose name will be on the bill can do it. I explained he just called and was refused. I said he's old and deaf and I am the power of attorney anyway and he said well it's easier if he calls.
I managed to message him as he can't hear the phone ring and he called me back and I said you have to call again. This time he got a person with a strong foreign accent and being as deaf as he is couldn't understand him and was struggling and when he said I can't understand you please put me through to someone else. They refused.
After the call he called me and said that was the worst experience on a call of his life and he'd like to off himself because of how he was treated!
My father has never said that. And in a society with such little regard for older people and when he asked nicely please let me speak to someone else, and he wouldn't, is disgusting.
Customer service is no longer service it is entitled people that think it's ok not to listen to the customers at all.
It's not ok.
Shame on him and honestly he should be fired.”
“Origin deserves no stars. Their billing system is a disgrace. Repeatedly not taking actual reads, do not record start and finish reads on bills. Forever re-issuing amended bills to the point where it’s impossible to understand the bills. Don’t apply solar credits in a reliable and timely way and refuse to allow the customer to supply photos of actual reads so solar credits can be claimed and paid.
In preparing now to switch providers, my concern now is we won’t get solar credits owed to us from Origin.
Been to the ombudsman at the beginning and got initial problems sorted with the ombudsman’s help. Looks like I’m going back to the ombudsman again if I’ve got the patience to persevere with it all.”
“Worst company for power . My bill is always around $500-$600. Last one was $773 which is fine . This Bill is $930 because the last one was estimated so they put the extra on. It’s never ever been that high and nothing has changed . I called to ask what the ad on was and what was the bill before the ad on.
We can’t tell you that sorry . What do you mean you can’t tell me that . It’s a simple request. The second girl just kept talking over me and talking off topic and had no idea what she was doing . I added up my bill and deducted etc and the numbers don’t match the bill but apparently I’m wrong .
Who do I contact to complain about them and get this resolved ? Apparently I can do an internal complaint 😂 seriously ? Why would I trust you idiots to be impartial . I can’t stand being ripped off . Life is hard enough . Can anyone make sense of this bill?”
“Very poor loyalty and customer service. We moved home and was late in paying our old house account. They sent debt to collections even though partial payments had been made. They will also constantly send you text messages reminding you of payment upcoming even though we were on time every time for years.”
