We acknowledge that the garage mentioned by Alan Vella (September 13) was being charged at non-residential, rather than domestic, rates. Nevertheless, this rate was the one being applied since the installation of the original service over 15 years ago. This is presumably in line with the application made at the time by the garage owner.
ARMS cannot confirm this as it does not have access to the original electricity application since this dates back further to what is stored in Enemalta’s archives.
One needs to point out, however, that each and every bill issued on this account, even prior to 2010, when ARMS took over the utilities’ billing services, clearly showed the billing tariff being applied.
ARMS also acknowledges that the time lag to carry out the tariff changes required was excessive. This was due to the time needed to source the service from the respective utility company and also to the large amount of requests for such surveys brought about by the 2010 tariff revision.
Since 2010, customers have been more careful to check the information supplied on their bill and, subsequently, regulate their accounts or account data when they believe this is not correct.
Nevertheless, in all such cases, irrespective of the time it takes to carry out such a survey, interest is not charged for this period and bills are revised as from the date we are notified of the problem. I can confirm that this procedure has been applied for Mr Vella.
In the meantime, the procedure for a tariff survey has now been shortened.
Even though Mr Vella claims to have contacted us previously, and on numerous occasions by phone, this does not transpire in our telephone records. Our first recorded contact from this client was on April 12, 2011 and bills were thus made as of February 2011.
ARMS, therefore, cannot revise his bills before the date he informed us about this situation.
All this has been communicated to Mr Vella several times, the latest on September 4.
Our position regarding this case has also been communicated to the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority.
Over the past two months, 13 claims (out of a total of 250,000 bills issued in the previous two months) have been submitted by the MCCAA to ARMS, all of which have been investigated and settled. Only one was found to be justified.
ARMS assures its customers that all claims are taken seriously, as was Mr Vella’s.
One must note that ARMS, being a sole service provider in respect to utility bills, is obliged to work within a highly regulated environment, over and above being accountable to MCCAA and the Ombudsman.