Hi All,

I was reading a few articles online last week and came across an article on ComputerWorld about Christchurch Tech companies and how they were responding to getting back to work after the Christchurch Earthquakes (It’s over a year old now).

The photo in the article was the thing that caught my eye, I recognised the photo. It was taken the day of the February 22nd earthquake as I exited the building on my journey home. There was no reference to who took the photo. I looked through my photos to confirm, and sure enough, I had taken it.

I decided I’d reach out to Computerworld, as this picture must have been taken from somewhere I posted it. I filled out the webform on the contacts section on the ComputerWorld website to ask Editor about the photo. A week later, I had no response (people can be away, busy etc.) so followed it up with Direct Message via Twitter yesterday.

I would have to say that I was somewhat disappointed in this response for a number of reasons including:

1. The age of the article isn’t relevant.

2. Simply taking it down doesn’t excuse taking others property (If I was asked, and acknowledged that would have been fine).

3. How can an publisher not have an audit trail/process for tracking these types of things?

4. Thanks for the apology…

Hi All,

I always find these types of situations interesting. I’ve been a Mercury Energy customer for around 5 years (since I moved back to Christchurch from Auckland). I really had no dealings with them other than receiving my monthly bill/paying the monthly bill.

After the September Earthquake, my house had a fair amount of damage which meant that I had to move out for ~20 weeks while repairs commenced. Three months into the repairs I received a phone call from Mercury suggesting that I should close my account as I hadn’t used any power and I was still receiving a monthly bill for 'access’ to it. I explained my situation and as such, my account was closed (temporary power was on while repairs were going on for the builders etc.) – That’s great customer service in terms of them contacting me, not sure why it takes 3 months of 0 rated power to trigger this however.

When it came to reconnecting power, you’d expect this to be a no brainer, right? My house was fully rewired to bring it into current day compliance and I had the meter moved outside (why wouldn’t you if you had the chance). The sparky did 99.999% of the work and I had to pay a $195.50 fee for a contractor from Mercury to come and ‘check it’. This was a very very quick job. The first bill I received included the ‘relocation fee’, plus the temporary power bill from the building company which was overdue. This left a foul taste in my mouth as I couldn’t understand why I was liable for their bill (took me in excess of 3 months to have that refunded), and for the amount of time and effort, $195.50 to ‘check’ my meter was installed properly seemed over the top.

This brings me to current day. I received a letter from Mercury a few weeks back detailing how Mercury had maintained pricing for x years and they were putting it up prices (we all have to earn a living). I’ve had a few friends talk to me about Powershop, the rewards for ‘referring’, the ability to buy power today for tomorrow, being able to login to a website to understand your usage etc. so decided to sign up yesterday.

My phone has rung a few times today from a ‘private’ number, Mercury eventually got hold of me today. They were letting me know that they had received a request from Powershop on my behalf to change. They offered me a $200.00 rebate if I was to stay. Their records indicated I had been a customer for 6 months (incorrect, clearly no history is kept when you disconnect power) and the requests to have the spelling of my surname corrected on a few occasions has been ignored). It’s not just about money, it’s about looking after the customers you have today so they will continue to be yours tomorrow. If you take a step back and look at what’s beginning to happen in Christchurch with recovery/repairs on houses, this scenario is likely to become more common. I understand the requirement to check meter installations etc. on houses (Heath, Safety, looking after the power grid), I wonder if the $200 rebate would be a better way of rewarding exisiting customers vs. trying to wave a carrot when some have decided to move away.

Interesting…