Western Australian state-owned electricity gentailer Synergy has admitted to overcharging approximately 170,000 customers a total of $40 million since 2009.
Customers were charged varying amounts ranging from less than a dollar to thousands of dollars, according to the company’s chief executive officer, Kurt Baker.
Related article: Synergy to repay $2.29M after overcharging customers
“We’ve accepted payments to approximately 170,000 closed accounts, resulting in overpayments,” Baker told ABC Radio Perth.
“In many cases this has happened because Synergy’s allowed customers to continue to pay to their closed account, even in the absence of a bill.”
“Our systems should have identified or stopped these payments being made.
“This isn’t good enough, it’s not acceptable, we’ve let our customers down, so I do want to apologise,” he said.
Baker said Synergy would contact customers directly to issue refunds.
It’s not the first time Synergy has been found taking payments from customers whose accounts were closed.
Related article: Synergy reaches $30m settlement deal with WA regulator
In July, WA’s Economic Regulation Authority found 2,845 instances where Synergy had continued to take money from customers using Centrepay after they had closed their accounts.
Synergy said it would reimburse all customers affected.
