{"id":561092,"date":"2026-08-06T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561092\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:06:10","slug":"high-power-bills-complaints-how-to-get-help-from-utilities-disputes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561092\/","title":{"rendered":"High power bills complaints: How to get help from Utilities Disputes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Powershop said it had lost customers in the past couple of months,<\/a> although those numbers had stabilised.<\/p>\n

Powershop customer Zakiyyah Maqbool said she\u2019d tried to get hold of her provider multiple times about her high bills, difficulty understanding which rates were being applied, and what she believed was solar rebates applied inconsistently.<\/p>\n

She still hadn\u2019t heard back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly frustrating,\u201d Maqbool told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have young children, so our power usage is naturally higher during winter, and I\u2019m currently on parental leave, which means our household budget is already tight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to manage every dollar, not being able to clearly understand your electricity bill or verify that the correct discounts, rebates and promotions have been applied just adds unnecessary stress. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent hours trying to reconcile my bills, and I shouldn\u2019t have to manually analyse invoices just to work out whether I\u2019m being charged correctly. If I am paying more than I should be, I have no easy way of identifying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallon said that was where he could come in, as a mediator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are experiencing those issues and they are struggling to get through to their retailer, they can absolutely come to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll get a real person on the end of the phone and what we will do in the first instance is try to connect them into the correct team at their retailer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if we can\u2019t get through on the phone, what we\u2019ll do is package up their complaint in writing and get it through to them really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Powershop spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely gutted that some of our loyal Powershop customers are having a tough experience with the new app.<\/p>\n

\u201cPowershop exists to give people more control over their power and help them save money,\u201d they told the Herald.<\/p>\n

The company said some of the problems were not an \u201ceasy fix\u201d, but it was listening to customers, taking feedback seriously, and making changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we haven\u2019t resolved everything, but we\u2019ve already made improvements, and more are on the way,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are absolutely confident that the usage and cost on the app is accurate, but we\u2019re sorry for any stress that the changed layout has caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u2019ve brought in new staff, wait times have come down, and we\u2019re helping more customers understand how to get back shopping and saving money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Commerce Commission took longer than necessary over the Manawa takeover. (Image: NZME)<\/p>\n

The Commerce Commission said that since April 1 it had received eight \u201cconcerns\u201d about Powershop.<\/p>\n

\u201cKey themes include billing issues and high\/inaccurate pricing,\u201d a commission spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

No action was taken on six, while two were still being assessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that a concern being reported to us does not necessarily mean a business has done anything wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make several considerations when deciding whether to take a concern further, including whether it raises issues under the laws we enforce, the potential for consumer harm, availability of resources, and an assessment of the comparative priority of the various cases being investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ComCom says high prices are not illegal under the Fair Trading Act, but the law prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct, and false representations.<\/p>\n

\"UtilitiesUtilities Disputes Commissioner Neil Mallon.<\/p>\n

Mallon said it was even harder in winter when prices spiked and line charges increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely true Kiwi households are doing it tough, and we\u2019ve heard anything from 12 to 17% price increases. The price increase for that customer will depend on a number of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those things should be really clearly communicated to the customer, and a lot of them, they should be able to see on the bill itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallon stressed power companies should be making bills easy to read and understand.<\/p>\n

The Electricity Authority is bringing in changes in October that will make bills even simpler.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf customers aren\u2019t really able to see what the usage is for, where they go to correct things, that causes problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom October, those things are going to be spelled out a lot more clearly on the bill, which is going to help. But it shouldn\u2019t be hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utilities Disputes acts as a mediator but does have the power to order payouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest thing to compare us to is an ombudsman service. Our approach is to try and mediate and resolve it, but we have real power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I see something\u2019s gone wrong … then I can order up to $50,000 compensation. Typically, it\u2019ll be a lower level than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

If such a decision is made, it is binding on the company.<\/p>\n

Of the 13,500 complaints received last year, 90% of those were resolved \u201cquickly\u201d. About 2000 went into the \u201cdeadlock process\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mallon said some companies were better than others at dealing with complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time last year, we saw customer service complaints go above bill complaints, and that was due to not being able to get through.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome retailers don\u2019t have a call centre. But [customers] should be able to get through to their retailer and have all of those things explained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other mandated changes coming in October will mandate clearer invoices, limit unexpected back-billing to six months, and require power companies to proactively help consumers find cheaper plans.<\/p>\n

Mallon says limiting back-billing is a good move.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will no longer have a catch-up bill if there\u2019s an error or an estimate that goes back longer than six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were seeing over the past year or two real inconsistencies between companies. You come back to fairness, and it should be one standard for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Bradford is a senior correspondent at the Herald. She has been a broadcast journalist for more than 20 years and was based in the press gallery for 10 years. She specialises in politics, business and Auckland issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Powershop said it had lost customers in the past couple of months, although those numbers had stabilised. Powershop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[682,26695,16640,138,30701,16579,4381,6846,1686,71,1333,5838,2959,221,111,139,69,10112,10057,24559,6492,1436,666,165,61,11226,31634,23644,102],"class_list":["post-561092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-being","tag-bills","tag-bites","tag-business","tag-complaints","tag-contact","tag-customers","tag-disputes","tag-electricity","tag-from","tag-get","tag-help","tag-high","tag-how","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-power","tag-problems","tag-resolve","tag-retailers","tag-rise","tag-struggling","tag-their","tag-to","tag-urged","tag-utilities","tag-winter","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}