Jemena is sending letters out to people within their distribution network who have rejected their “offer to replace the old meter with a smart meter”.
Click here for a copy of the letter: Jemena Letter
The letter from Jemena seems to imply that people who have not consented to installation of smart meters have refused Jemena general access to their meter. People have ONLY objected to providing Jemena access to the meter for the purpose of REPLACING the meter.
A supporter of Stop Smart Meters Australia has written a response to Jemena, encouraging people to use it as a template if they wish. He believes if people do not reply to Jemena’s letter, they are conceding that they have not given Jemena general access to the “old” meter.
A copy of this response letter can be found at:Response to Jemena’s OFFER Letter
Stop Smart Meters Australia 
I am in the Jemena area. Tonight I returned home from the gym at 6:15pm in the dark to find my power has been disconnected. A note on the door said “Following on from the previous two customer notices that were left at your premises, your electricity was temporarily disconnected while our technicians installed the new meter. Before reconnecting your electricity supply, our technicians need to access the switchboard inside your premises to conduct a safety test”.
I received no prior notification at all. I am the property owner. I keep all my bills and letters – no letter was ever received. Neither did I receive and notifications left at my premises.
When I phoned to arrange a time to have the power reconnected, I asked why they didn’t advise me prior. They said this was planned work and I had refused access on three occasions & if I had of made an appointment I wouldn’t now be in this situation!
When the technician arrived several hours later he said they had done the whole area, no one had appointments. I spoke to others in my block of townhouses & they did not receive notification either!! No one denied access to the property, they just failed to contact us to advise they were doing the work. Im angry & amazed this smartmeter is being done like this. Cant believe it!!!
What the sewer rat lawyers from Jemena have done in their second “offer”/entrapment letter is that they’ve tried to bamboozle customers who are fulfilling their obligations and facilitating for “the” meter to be read by throwing in a claim that they require access to the switchboard and point of attachment to which they quite clearly are not even attempting to claim ownership of.
“Under the terms and conditions of supply to your premises, you must allow us access to the meter box, switchboard and point of attachment at all times.”
They have ceased from playing the “refusal” card as they know that customers now know that they can deny and know how to deny this false accusation of theirs which was part of their first letter to a first mailout group of customers (three mailout groups in total, now one more to go)
Fact of the matter is Jemena are given access to all “the” equipment at a premises for all purposes that fulfill section 3.3 of the Electricity Distribution Code which does not include the installation of a “smart meter”.
Why would Jemena play the “refusal of access” card to one group of customers and not to another. It’s because it’s not about any valid content that they put in their letter. It’s all about entrapment. These letters are nothing other than an attempt to entrap the customer. It’s got nothing to do with any letter content. None of it is valid, it’s all P1$$ and Wind. Entrapment is the name of the game.
I believe Jemena are doing three mailouts to a different group of objecting customers each time. The letter they send will be different for each mailout and becomes more craftily worded with each new mailout as it takes in to account customer responses from previous mailout. The second mailout has just taken place with customers receiving their letters on 01 April 2014 addressed to fictitious entity “to The Occupant” this time round. This tact is also used to try and invalidate any standard reply letters being utilised in responding to the previous mailout letter(s). In essence, the wording becomes craftier but nothing has changed. I suspect legal self incrimination entrapment by non response is their game. They haven’t stipulated a response time in this latest letter. I suspect a standard statutory period allowed for responses applies. Not sure if that is 28 days or not. I need to check. Sending their mail back to them (preferably unopened) is a legitimate way of countering their entrapment ie. totally avoid putting your foot into their trap. Keep your meter boxes locked.
One more thing though it goes without saying, make sure first and foremost that your meter box is SECURELY locked.
Please peruse the following as you can see from the Canadian situation what Jemena (& Co)
are trying to do.
http://bc-freedom.com/2014/02/11/legacyfeedocs/
I refer you to some of the comments
No, of course not, and in reality, if we look at what BC Hydro etc. have done, they are really doing the same, and they have no right to do it at all. Otherwise, they would not be bullying, changing the rules, changing terminology, lying, de-frauding and more to try and make this alleged ‘legal’ “mandate” happen.
Now you understand, the lies, the bullying, the changing of terms or making them up as they go, the threats, the coercion… everything. BECAUSE IT IS ABOUT ACCEPTANCE, and they are doing everything they can think of to get you to accept.
In the end, what does this mean? You are holding all the Aces in this hand! It also shows to us that they, by their actions are NOT the “Power and Authority” Instead, that distinction belongs to you and I the PRIVATE OWNERS of our property, which does include… our signature, our consent, our approval… our acceptance under terms that are safe, with lies, harm and all the rest.
Jemena are deceptive making you believe that you only have the option of either accepting their offer or accepting their terms and condtions.
They don’t tell you that you also have other options.
You can also not accept their offer and not accept their terms and conditions by replying to them and telling them so OR
You can also avoid all these options by sending their letter back to them unopened. It’s like you never received it.
Jemena are still sending these “offer” letters out to customers without smart meters. In essence what you are receiving are terms and conditions of a contract. People have been receiving them today and on this occasion they have addressed “To the occupant”.
These letters are loaded with legal entrapment. If you open their letter you signal that you have accepted what they have presented and thus become obligated to engage in contractual process ie.accept, stipulate your own terms and conditions, negotiate, object or waive
If you fail to respond they ASSUME you have agreed to the things stated in their letter
such as their false accusations against you using legal terminology that you who are not lawyers (in Commercial Law) would not realise incriminates you. They would accuse you of “refusing”. Somehow in commercial law if you have “refused”, you are guilty. Jemena have set you up for a fall. The other thing they assume you agree to pay presently unstipulated non existant fees of an amount of their choosing. They also give you the deliberate impression that you do not need to respond in order to trap you.
Best way of handling this offer is to not accept the presentation of it ie. do not open and therefore the envelope because as soon as you open the envelope you are trapped to engage. You blank out the name and address to stop Australia Post from redelivering this letter to your place and next to the name and address you write “Return to sender” and elsewhere on the envelope you write “Without cause and without dishonour” and you send the letter back to them in the post. That way there is no obligation for you to reply to an offer for which you have not accepted it’ presentation. It’s an offer you never received and therefore are not subject to it’s entrapment. If you start to receive registered letters from these people, you must not sign for them. That is the stunt that United Energy tried on their customers.
And if they ring you up and ask why did you return the letter, you hang up the phone even before they get to ask you that question or any other question. Don’t engage with these people who are sociopaths. They are desperate people and desperate people do desperate things remember.
I would not pay even a nominal amount to keep my analog meter because the whole agenda is immoral. Even with me keeping my analog meter the majority of Victorians are being exposed to these carcinogenic transmissions that will surely cause devastation to the population both old and young in the process due time. I object to the fees no because I don’t want to pay more money but because I don’t go along with the immorality of this agenda and the criminality of those seeking to EXTORT money from us.
Another point or two
“we will honour you request”
United Energy honour nothing, they are just snakes
“We believe all relevant information has been provided to address your concerns in relation to the smart meter installation process”
Why don’t you tell us if smart meters radiation will ever cause anyone to get cancer ?
Why don’t you tell us if smart meters will ever make me sick in the light of the fact that many people have already reported becoming sick after smart meter(s) were installed
Folks, I think you should not give your consent to installers who have made it onto your premises who ask if they may take a photograph of the meter box supposedly to show that they attended the job. Remember, no installer is your friend FULL STOP. I believe the reason they take photographs of your meter box is so Jemena can use those photographs against you as evidence down the track when they are targeting those persons stand for their rights and do not give consent to the installation of their carcinogenic device. Given their play on words in their “offer” letter, I believe they are particularly interested in the wording that is used on your signage.
Even the installers themselves would not know that some appointments they are given are merely a deliberate surveillance exercise and that they are unwittingly part of a mere surveillance exercise where they are gathering the evidence for the campaign ahead to be used against those prepared to stand for their rights.
Jemena’s “offer” letter is trying to bring about a situation where they can supposedly get away with being able to stand over us and demand that we either agree to pay them extortion money to not have our health destroyed, or we have our power cut off. That is the position they are trying to play themselves into. There is no “offer”.
Please give consideration to the wording that you put on the signage on your meter box. We do not give our consent, we do object to the installation of a smart meter.
Be careful of words such as “refuse” or “reject” as I am told they have implications under maritime law ie. if you refuse an officer you are in contempt
I am not an expert on these things but I just say be careful and tread warily because Jemena are seeking to entrap you and not just through the words in their mail but by the words on your own signage. They have the sewer rats in their organisation who are there just to sniff these things out.
Jemena have deliberately put key legalese words into their so called “offer” letter.
Words such as offer, refuse, decline, necessary access. Tread carefully and review the wording on your signage and make sure you are satisfied. Remember, we cannot refuse that which we never gave consent to and that which has no legitimacy to begin with without consent having been first given. We are doing the right thing therefore we don’t want to fall into the self incrimination trap that Jemena (&UE) are trying every which way to force us into by taking advantage of our own innocence and an unintentional lack of understanding on our part of possible legal implications when using specific English language terms.
And no more photographs for the installers. Tell them just to leave. Do not entertain them at all. They are out to do you harm.
And………YOU MUST NOT AGREE TO ANYTHING THAT JEMENA PRESENTS BEFORE YOU AS BEING TRUE AND CORRECT………INCLUDING IMAGES
Yeah it makes sense now, their offer letter is actually a charge sheet.
Paul Adams, I know that you are reading this.
You can be very very assured that your day is coming.
Notice down the very bottom
Penalty: Imprisonment for 2 years.
Really good work here guys. Here’s something I’ve been made aware of.
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/criminal/legislation/criminal-code-act/using-postal-service-to-menace-harass-or-cause-offence/
Jemena’s letter (and the earlier UE letter) are deliberatly COERCIVE in their intent.
They purposefully COERCE the customer into not responding to try and bring about an apparent admission to the false insinuations that they have set them up with
ie. they are coercing customers to self incriminate to trumped up accusations
They intentionally COERCE the customer into not responding to get them to unknowingly agree to pay charges that are illegal and unlawful
Their “offer” is an empty offer but it is also a private offer.
The ACCC should be made fully aware of this very blatant COERCION that they are employing and fine Jemena $1.1 million every time for every single offer letter that they have posted out. They should also fine Jemena’s Stakeholder Relationship Manager Erin Chain the individual penalty amount of $220,000 each time for every single one on these coercive letters that she has been prepared to put her name and signature to.
Jemena (& UE) have deliberately gone out of their way to totally avoid two things in particular when they got their corporate lawyers to draft up this letter
1. The use of plain English
2. Full Disclosure
AMI Delivery Manager for United Energy should also be fined $220,000 for each and every one of these letters of COERCION that United Energy has sent via Registered Post and to which she has been prepared to put her name and signature to
I hope you are reading this ****** *****. The letter is nothing if not an extortion notice!
1. Defend yourself against what you have been accused of
2. Object to their terms and conditions
3. Say no more than that
4. Get out of jail
5. Cease from accepting further charges, contractual terms and conditions and so called “offers” from them which is what their future mail will consist of and don’t engage if rung up. Return unopened envelopes (“without cause and dishonor”) and refuse to sign for anything such as registered letters.
Scumbags Jemena have sent their customers a sweetly letter that give’s the impression of being some sort of offer favorable to the customer but which is completely bogus. What they have really done is that they have brought charges upon their customers. It’s no different when you are charged with a crime and you are forced to defend yourself. Even if the charges are just false accusations, once those charges are brought against you it is not possible to just forget about those charges and be done with it even if you know fully well that you are innocent. And if you don’t take affirmative positive steps of action to sufficiently defend yourself, what happens ? Inevitably you will be found guilty regardless of whether you have actually committed a crime or not.
What contempt does Jemena have towards it’s own customers in that it would dare to bring a charge against them in a slimy and gutless way where they would try and conceal what it is that they are contriving against their own customers who are the one’s that feed their filthy mouths.
And Jemena’s identically filthy sister United Energy has acted with the same identical contempt towards it’s customers by bringing a charge against them.
the letter is quite funny, especially after the reciept of United Energy’s letter. Maybe Jemena think that people in the Northern suburbs are dumber and more likely to “give in” to this kind of harrassment.
Smart meters “may save you money”….you can take that guarantee to the bank eh.
great response letter. Tell Jemena they are “dreamin”…!!
Could the ‘Response to Jemena’ letter go in a category with all the other ‘Actions you can take’ / ‘Letter samples?’
So it is easier to find?
I think other people that are not with Jemena or United Energy, should start to look into what they will do as I suspect the other distributor’s will follow the same path. Be ready and learn from what has happened to others. If they don’t need legislation for extra charges then we don’t need legislation to charge them ten times the amount they want to charge us.
ESSENTIAL SERVICES COMMISSION, VICTORIA
Code of Conduct for Marketing Retail Energy in Victoria
January 2009 Page 5
2.3 No contact lists4
Retailers must keep records of consumers who have requested that they not be contacted for marketing purposes at all or in a specified medium (ie. in person, by email, by telephone or by post) and, at the request of the consumer, must provide written confirmation that the consumer has been placed on a no contact list maintained by the retailer. Each no contact list must contain the name and address of each relevant consumer and the marketing media to which the no contact request relates.
Retailers must not contact a consumer for the purpose of marketing in the medium specified on the no contact list maintained by the retailer in respect of that consumer.
If a consumer changes address, the retailer may remove that consumer’s details from the no contact list.
Retailers must respect no canvassing signs.
Does the ESC Marketing Code apply to Electricty Distributors ??????
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”
How appropriate is that here
Also tell them not to send any more offers because I’m sure they will bombard you to try and get you “contracted” to their terms and conditions where you agree to pay them what is purely EXTORTION money
If they want to dispute what you tell them, give them 10 days to do so by providing affidavit and proof otherwise they honor what you statements
How can the consumer decide whether or not to bear the additional cost of reading an analogue meter if the seller refuses to disclose an estimate? This is yet another example of the smoke-and-mirrors tactics used by both government and merchants to mislead consumers. I might well be happy to bear a reasonable additional cost!
Who is Jemena to set a 10 day limit? The only thing they need to worry about is a fully funded class action against them. Hopefully they will have enough money to pay.
With compressed air technology around the corner companies like Jemena will be history.
We already pay various service charges for the current system so why an extra charge for
absolutely nothing? The letter contains the same old lies that we are familiar with and similar scare tactics.
As I stated in a previous comment to an SSMA member who received one of these letters, it is important to provide a written response to Jemena (preferably registered with Australia Post). The letter should clearly state that you are not denying access to the existing meter, however, you are denying them access to install a smart meter.
Please note that anyone who comes under the Jemena banner is not under contract with Jemena. Your contract is only with the billing company. Nowhere in any ‘contract,’ electricity regulations or anywhere else is there a requirement to accept a smart meter.
On another point, my existing analogue meter clearly has written on it PROPERTY OF HEIDELBERG CITY COUNCIL, as such, Jemena cannot claim that they own it and therefore if somehow manage to remove it, then that is theft!
I suggest that other SSMA members, particularly those who reside in the Northeastern suburbs, check their existing analogue meters for similar signage.
Paul, you’ll notice that Jemena’s letter refers to “the meter” and not “our meter”. They know that they don’t own the meters.
I am so sick of sneaky companies getting away with all this. Mr Abbott wake up to this! This is why we should keep these operations owned by our government and not the sneaky Asians, taking our money overseas. Please heed.
You may want to reword this letter.
“for all legitimate purposes, excluding the installation of a smart meter for which you do not have my consent to do”
can be reworded to
“in accordance with the Distribution Code which does not require me to give my consent to the installation of a smart meter”
The English provided is not very good. You don’t want to give the mistaken impression that the installation of a smart meter is in any way legitimate and that it’s you that is excluding it.
I think it’s better if people are comfortable with what they are writing and if you are unsure of something in the letter this person has provided you can always reword it to something you are comfortable with.
Remember, the very thing that Jemena want you to do is to self incriminate yourself. As you may have seen in another post “here’s a noose now go and hang yourself”. That’s Jemena and UE’s game.
We cannot refuse that which we are not obliged to allow. It’s the same as you can’t opt out of that which you never opted in to in the first place.
They are trying to get us to admit by implication a the false legitimacy of their rollout.
“You have refused !!!” No, I never agreed in the first place. I never gave consent.
It’s probably better in any letters to replace the term “it’s equipment” as “the equipment”
Remember even Jemena themselves in their own letter refer to “the meter on your property” and not “our meter”. They have given themselves away here on the meter ownership issue.
When duress is established common law permits the victim to escape their contractual obligations by rendering the contract voidable. According to the Oxford Dictionary the meaning of Duress is,threats, violence, constraints, or other action used to coerce someone into doing something against their will or better judgement:
What we have done is not refused at all, we have just not given consent to the installation of a smart meter to which we are not obligated to do.
For the last few months Origin was not reading my electricity meter at all, they were just guessing how much power I used. I complained about my over inflated bills, and the amount that Origin were debiting from my bank account. I said that I wanted to have my meter read, the last bill showed a massive dip in the claimed amount of electricity I was supposedly using for the last year, apparently based on an actual reading. I still cannot figure out how or why my previous electricity usage was so much higher. I really can’t see what they are doing, oh and yes they charged me $16 for the meter to be actually read, since I do not have a so called Smart Meter. And I am adamant that I will not have one. Does anyone know what redress I have to recover the previous over charging of my account. I am an Age pensioner and I find all this very frustrating and have no idea what to do about this. Any suggestions would be gladly received.
Where the hell is the government in all this rubbish? What are they doing?
– corporations must not be allowed to use force. Governments must not be allowed to hide behind corporations to use force and deny citizens their civil rights to refuse.
Very correct and why it’s important that each of us educates our neighbor that it is us who run the government rather than waiting for them to run us. Once the mindset changes then life around us changes with it.
The government are the ones who have actually directed them to do this. This is the Australian Mafia.
Odd, as UE has sent us a letter stating, basically, that we have been put onto a list of persons who stoically refuse to have a meter, and that they will leave us alone. Hurrah! My box remains locked as ever…..
To their credit, UE have not drawn this somewhat obtuse conclusion that we have wholly refused access to their equipment located on the site.
I suggest a genuine last ditch try-on from Jemena is taking place here. The letter of reply above, or similar, should be sent immediately via registered mail within the 10 day request limit for all Jemena customers.
Gerald, we have all been duped by the UE letter. It’s exactly the same rubbish as Jemena. ie.An enticement to not reply and hence accept their terms and conditions. And both of them them are trying to get us to confess to refusing. Don’t use the word refuse, it’s legalese.Under maritime law when an officer “refused” he was held in contempt. We should have and still must reply to UE letter. We all smelt a rat when those letters were sent out by Registered Post. When people signed they said “yes, I’m prepared to enter into the contracting process with UE and negotiations began, it’s up to us to object to their terms and conditions
To Gerald, the word refuse means you have not complied, not consenting to a smart meter, because you are not obligated is different. There is no mandate,you can only get a mandate from the people of Victoria, this has not happened. The letter states that you have continually refused a smart meter, yet you have not refused, you have not given consent. United Energy states that they believe all relevant information has been provided to address your concerns. Have they provided all the correct information?
The letter also states that they will honor your request to not have a smart meter installed at this time.That does not mean forever..They have also stated that you might incur additional charges. This letter is a contract if you did not reply and formerly object to this offer, you have agreed to there terms. Which are that you might have to pay extra charges. You don’t know how much you are even going to have to pay. That they will not install a smart meter at this time. That you have refused.
It is only the first letter, if you get anymore you are seriously going to have to decide if you want to accept there offer or go down the path of the Jemena letter. They have not disclosed the costs, nor actually stated that in the future you will not have to have a smart meter.
could someone who is an expert in letter-writing please write a similar response that we need to send to UE therefore? as i received a letter from them as per your comments Max and now that i think about it, you are right it was entrapment that we were made to sign for the letter. It is indeed a well-disguised trap. They really are a piece of work these evil companies. So everyone who received the UE letter should be responding to it as well. But it would need to be different to the Jemena letter. A template would be much appreciated
Cheers,
Chris
Dear Chris. I am not an expert, but I will look into it and hopefully have some information to give you on the process involved. Hopefully we can sort this mess out so you and other people are not shackled to U.E,
Awesome, thanks. We received their legalese letter and were waiting to see if anyone could come up with a good response. This fills the bill nicely.