My Three Rs: synergy and their stupid systems

Have you ever tried to deal with Synergy? They send the bills for electricity use. They don't actually supply the electricity they just charge for it.

So we own a rental property in Katanning. The tenant leaves. We -- as owners -- are now responsible for paying the synergy bills. With so many rental properties in the state, this must happen every day. Probably many times each day. The process will be simple, eh. Wrong.

Go to the synergy website -- as directed in a letter from synergy -- and there is no "change account owner" option. The closest is, "Create a new account" followed by "Moving in"... What rubbish. It's a rental property, I rent it to tenants. I do *not* want to move in.

What the heck, there's nothing better, I try it. First thing it asks is, Do you already have an account with us? Well yes, I do. So why don't these idiots use that same account? You know, one account -- simple to manage -- many properties. Nope. One property, one account -- and I still need to identify my existing -- non-rental -- unrelated -- account. Idiocy.

Pick a tariff option, the simplest of three. It includes a $66 charge for meter reprogramming! What? There is a meter, it worked for the tenant, why should I pay $66 to reprogram it?

So I start the online chat.

Choose "moving in" I'm told. Okay, so I do. Choose an option, I'm told. So I choose -- again -- the simple option.

Why is there a $66 charge for the meter? I ask. There is no meter charge, I'm told. Yes there is, I reply. I don't know why, I'm told.

Well that was a waste of time, a waste of 30 minutes. Except that the online person does give me a phone number. It's very hard to find a phone number on the website.

I phone 131353.

After several tries -- selecting a series of options which do not really cover my situation -- I find a combination which gives me a real human being...

We work our way through the ridiculous steps of the synergy system. Am I the only owner who has ever wanted to have a rental management agent get synergy bills? It would seem so. Certainly, the synergy system does not cater for my simple requirement.

Finally, we appear to have set up bills to be sent to the management agents.

Who is the contact person? I'm asked. I read and spell the name off the bottom of the latest email. I've never met her, she is one of several people -- changing over time -- that I deal with.

Next stupid question: What is her date of birth? How would I know? It's a business relationship with an office full of rental managers. I don't send birthday cards to any of them.

Just send the blasted letters, I say.

We finally seem to get somewhere. The phone fool says, All done, have we satisfied all your requirements for today? Give it time, I reply, I'll see what happens next.

Well, "next" is two minutes later. An email arrives from synergy saying -- as far as it makes sense -- that I have just wasted 20 minutes on the phone. (Yes, plus the 30 minutes on the website. Where at least I could tell that I was getting nowhere.)

So I phone again. Get -- of course -- a different phone fool.

Another ten minutes and I have the promise that yes, bills to the rental property will actually go to the rental management agents. Well, that failed the first time. Who knows what will happen this time. And yes, I'm told, bills for our home address will continue to go where they went before.

I fully expect that synergy's next step will be to cut off electricity to our home address.

Have we satisfied all your requirements for today? Again, the rote repetition of a scripted question. I won't know, I say again, until I see what actually happens next.

Have a lovely day, chirps the phone fool. Grunt, I reply. As tactfully as I can.

Here are some questions that synergy may like to ask themselves:

q1: Other than me, are there any people who own properties, who rent them out, who need to cover the electricity bills when the properties are vacant? (My guess: thousands.)

q2: Are any of these people wanting to have bills sent to the people who do the everyday management of these properties? (My guess: thousands.)

q3: Why do the synergy systems make no allowance for these owner non-occupiers? (My guess: because synergy doesn't care about their customers.)

My suggestion to synergy: Ask those questions. Consider your customers. Write a billing system which works for your *customers*.