Origin Energy back-pedals on power bill to flood-destroyed household

When a heartbroken South Lismore dog groomer copped a letter of demand for electricity she never used she saw red. She’s not alone.

A South Lismore flood victim who got whacked with a bill for electricity that she never used - and in fact couldn’t use - has received a payout from the red-faced power retailer.

For the past six months Janet Goodwin has been living in a caravan on a concrete slab where her home used to be on Terania Street before it was destroyed by a wall of water.

Across that time, Ms Goodwin’s sole source of electricity has been a power cord trailing through the caravan window.

“I lost everything, literally, the only thing I ended up with was six dogs close on my back,” she said of the February mega flood.

Janet Goodwin, South Lismore resident and owner of Totally Dogs.

Ms Goodwin also operated a dog grooming business, Totally Dogs, from her home - and it too relies now on that single power extension lead.

The one thing that she didn’t lose from her business in the flood was the bills.

Despite being off the grid for six months after floodwater wiped out her electricity meter, she received an estimated bill from Origin Energy for $468.32 for the period of March 8 to June 7.

Electricity she knew she hadn’t used.

“They were charging us for electricity from meters that they were randomly reading, estimates, even though they knew we were in the flood area and we had no metre boxes – we have nothing!” Ms Goodwin said.

But whenever she rang Origin to dispute the bill she said she was redirected to overseas call centres and her issue was dismissed.

“We have to keep fighting and fighting and ringing them up and telling them we didn't even use any bloody electricity,” Ms Goodwin said.

“This has been the toughest time of my life,” she said. “Especially when we get these bills coming in.

Janet Goodwin’s shop, Totally Dogs, was ruined in February - underneath 14 metres of floodwater in Terania Street, South Lismore.

“We're constantly reliving it, the stress that we’re going through. No one realises what we’re going through. It’s just relentless, heartbreaking.”

The push to pay up from the power retailer was a near final straw.

“The fights that we've had to put up with ... they still wouldn’t listen to us,” she said.

The ante was upped when Ms Goodwin said she “got a threatening letter to pay” her bill in August.

“We were getting demands that they’re going to cut off (if we don’t pay),” she said.

“Well cut us off, because we don’t have any power anyway!

“We’re still on one – I stress one – power lead, one power point since February running from a temporary power supply … and we are trying to conduct our life off one power point.”

An Origin Energy spokesman confirmed that the letter was a disconnection warning notice sent “in error” and “which she should not have received”.

The spokesman said the company should have closed her account when Ms Goodwin contacted the retailer off the back of receiving the bill on June 14; “but we didn’t”.

The Northern Star reached out to Origin Energy about the issue on Friday (August 26) and Ms Goodwin was refunded $830 on Monday (August 29), after her initial call to the company in June.

“We are very sorry Janet hasn’t got the support from us she should have,” Origin Energy customer care general manager Jan Prichard said.

“We have processes in place to support customers who have been impacted by the floods, and to stop them receiving bills where their property has been damaged, but these weren’t followed in Janet’s case which is not good enough and we are sorry.

“We have apologised to Janet and offered compensation for any stress and inconvenience caused.”

But Ms Goodwin said the gesture was too little, too late.

“Why now? Why didn’t you do that at the time?” she said. “It’s just bring back all the memories.”

“I’m not the only one, there must be hundreds of others going through similar things.”

Ms Prichard encouraged any Origin customers in Lismore who have been impacted by the floods and in need of support to reach out to the company.

“We have a range of support available for both households and businesses, including providing bill relief to customers where their property has been destroyed or they are unable to live or work in their property for an extended period,” she said.