She noticed the bill had shot up in February and dropped in March for no apparent reason, so read the meter herself to discover it had been read wrongly. "But I was on to on to it" she joked.

The electricity retailer was "fantastic" about the meter- reading error and had no idea she was the chief sorter of electricity complaints.

The moral of the story is "check your meter".

Most complaints to the 18-month old Electricity Complaints Commission are about billing problems. Disputed bills are often between $1000 to $2000 and involve back bills for estimates of power usage that were lower than actual use.

stuff

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2003