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Thread ID: 70037	2006-06-20 02:56:00	power and money	jonp (7517)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
464636	2006-06-20 02:56:00	it this old cluttered memory of mine i seem to have a recollection that one of the power or lines companies give you $50 back on your power bill if they do not respond to a fault or restore power within 4 hours of the failure. Anybody shed any light on this - tried the power companies but my ear got sore from being in a queue for too long !!!	jonp (7517)
464637	2006-06-20 03:15:00	I think you would find that any such offer would carefully and specifically exclude anything the company can't help. ;) "Acts of God" have been around for a long time. I doubt if your church will cough up either.	Graham L (2)
464638	2006-06-20 03:19:00	it is my understanding Graham that it is not an offer but is their policy - one they tend to keep the lid on as much as possible for obvious reasons	jonp (7517)
464639	2006-06-20 03:43:00	terminology: an offer would be embodied in the policy, surely . ;) Example: the Buller Electricity policies (the first one I found in fast search) include a Service Standard . They will attempt to restore electricity "within 6 hours (urban) and 18 hours (rural) of fault notification between the hours of 5AM and 10PM excluding where the cause is a natural disaster such as snowstorms, high winds, lightning, floods and earthquakes (in which case the Distributor will work 24 hours a day to remedy all faults) . " They offer a refund of $20 to small consumers if they can't perform to that standard . I'm sure other distributors will have similar policies .	Graham L (2)
464640	2006-06-20 06:16:00	They offer a refund of $20 to small consumers if they can't perform to that standard. I'm sure other distributors will have similar policies. But, Graham, the Distributors do not have the billing relationship with the consumer (except for one small area of NZ), only the Retailers do. So while the Distributor may credit the Retailer, the nature of the rebate may be different by the time it reaches the consumer. One Retailer has informed me today that they intend crediting consumers even though they have no "policy" or legal requirement to do so, and even though they will not be getting a credit from the Distributor. Force Majeure conditions in many Distributor - Retailer agreements would exclude such acts of weather induced faults. But I think you will find many Retailers will still offer some compensation, for those affected for long periods. Then the price will go up to compensate for that I guess...	godfather (25)
464641	2006-06-20 06:48:00	"Acts of God" have been around for a long time. I doubt if your church will cough up either. Did you see a "The Man Who Sued God" with Billy Conolly, especially Billy in the Cafe on crutches ! Hilarious. Yes, your church may have to cough up !! :D Misty :lol:	Misty (368)
464642	2006-06-21 02:42:00	GF: I was quoting one reference to refunds I found in a very quick look . BEL supply their consumers . They are distributer, and retailer . They have a lot of "outages" caused by lightning . They had a survey of their (28!) large consumers asking if they wanted more reliability, with the extra costs that would involve . Unanimously, they were happy with reliability, and they knew that the supplier wasn't causing the lightning strikes . They also didn't want to pay more . ;) It was a very interesting document, down to the age of the poles and the fuses; and the problems with pole transformers obtained in a range of years . As I said before, I'm quite sure that all retailers and wholesalers will have an exclusion cause for As of G . Whatever retailers do in the way of "offers" will be because of their need to improve their public perception . It seems from the radio news this morning the National Party would like something like the NZED with priority on reliable supply, rather than profits . ;) We knew that "deregulation and the market" didn't work when the idiotlogues imposed it on us .	Graham L (2)
464643	2006-06-21 02:52:00	BEL supply their consumers. They are distributer, and retailer. Sorry, not correct. It is illegal to be both a Distributor and Retailer since the passing of the Electricity Industry Amendment Act (EIRA) in 1998 (unless exempted, but that's not the case anywhere of note) In the Buller region, TrustPower are the "incumbent" Retailer and Meridian probably have a reasonable presence also. Probably Contact and Genesis have a minor presence, by the look of the disclosures. But BEL have no Retail Electricity activity whatever. Their published "tariffs" are just the line charges.	godfather (25)
464644	2006-06-21 03:09:00	The point I have been trying to get through is this: ANY SUPPLIER OF ELECTRICITY WILL HAVE AN EXCLUSION CLAUSE FOR SUPPLY FAILURE DUE TO EXTREME CONDITIONS . Right? Any refunds will be because of a "trying to apear nice" policy, not a legal promise . Right? The Buller document might be an old one . . . I was looking for an example of such an exclusion clause . I found one .	Graham L (2)
464645	2006-06-21 03:50:00	The point I have been trying to get through is this: ANY SUPPLIER OF ELECTRICITY WILL HAVE AN EXCLUSION CLAUSE FOR SUPPLY FAILURE DUE TO EXTREME CONDITIONS. Right? 101% right. Which is exactly the point I made also in post #5 I have created some of these exact UOS agreements, and operated under others .... They may choose to make a refund in these cases, but are seldom required to do so. It is possible for a Distributor to insure against these events, but not sure if it's a widespread practice these days.	godfather (25)
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