WA’s Synergy overcharges customers $40 million on electricity bills
Western Australia’s state-owned electricity retailer overcharged customers by $40 million over 15 years.
Synergy said Friday that it has been charging customers for non-existent invoices since 2009.
The company says about 174,000 people, mostly residential customers, were overcharged, with the majority owing less than $100, but 467 people owing more than $5,000.
“We have a responsibility and obligation to quickly identify and return customer overpayments to accounts,” said Synergy CEO Kurt Baker.
“We will make this right for our customers and will take all possible steps to refund overpayments and remedy this situation.”
Mr. Baker said Synergy “allows customers to continue making payments to their closed accounts even if there are no invoices.”
The agency itself reported the overcharges to the Economic Regulatory Authority.
“I’m confident this won’t happen again,” Mr. Baker said.
This is Synergy’s second multimillion-dollar supercharger announcement this year.
In March Synergy revealed it had overcharged 2,845 Centrelink customers through direct debit Centrepay accounts, also since 2009.
The total of this Centrepay overcharge was $2.29 million.
“This is a matter of trust; the people of Western Australia should be able to trust that government departments are doing the right thing for them,” Opposition energy spokesman Steve Thomas said this week.
“And in this case, that trust is lost.”
