A POINT Cook resident whose gas account was transferred to another provider without consent fears door-to-door marketers may have forged his details.
Last month, Jason Rhodes received a $181 invoice from Australian Power & Gas, addressed to ‘the occupier’. It advised that it had been his household gas supplier since September last year.
“By consuming energy, you’ve automatically entered into a ‘deemed contract’ with us for the supply and sale of gas and electricity,” it stated.
However, Mr Rhodes suspects dodgy sales practices could be behind the unauthorised account transfer.
“The invoice looked ridgy-didge, but I’d never heard of the company [Australian Power & Gas] or spoken with anyone,” he said.
“They didn’t have my name, but had my meter details…I suspect it was a doorknocker who has forged my details and authorisation.”
Australian Power & Gas did not respond before the Weekly went to print.
Mr Rhodes has since written to the company demanding his account be reinstated with his previous provider, Simply Energy.
All household electricity and gas meters are given an identifier number and registered on a national data bank.
To transfer customers, and set up new accounts, energy retailers must apply to receive billing rights for an address.
But energy companies can still obtain new accounts under false pretense.
In the year to March, the Victorian Energy Ombudsman received 55 complaints from Wyndham households about accounts hijacked without consent or due to company error.
This included 32 complaints of technical errors and 23 about account transfers without consent.
Consumer Affairs Victoria spokeswoman Rachel Tosolini said an account transfer without consent was a serious breach of the code of conduct for door-to-door salespeople.
She said anyone found to be involved in transferring an account without explicit informed consent from householders would likely be barred from selling energy.
Ms Tosolini said Consumer Affairs Victoria received more than 450 queries about unsolicited energy sales in the 2010-11 financial year.
“You have up to 10 business days to cool off.”
“Salespeople must have identification and immediately leave your premises when you ask them.
“If a door-to-door salesperson asks to see your energy bill, you don’t have to provide it.”
