Smart Living UK Facebook ad: “It was me. I'm Mrs Sutton.”

About this ad

Meta Ad Library ID

2084473399085125

Platforms

Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger and Threads

Relaunches

0

How we count

Ad text

"Hello love. My name's Beryl Sutton. I'm 69. I live in Sunshine West in Melbourne in the little weatherboard my Ron and I bought in 1974, God rest him. You might have seen an advertisement going around on the Facebook about a man called David and a lady called Mrs Sutton whose electricity bill came to $680. My grand-daughter Molly showed me. She was very excited. She said 'Nan, that's YOU'. So. Yes. That's me. Hello. I've been trying to work out for weeks whether to write this or not. Molly said I should. She's 24 and she's a nurse at Sunshine Hospital and she reckons more people ought to hear it from me directly because the advertisement is very dramatic and I am not a very dramatic person. So this is what actually happened. In my own words. If you're my age and you're reading this — please read to the bottom. I promise it's short. I don't do the long ones. On the 14th of November 2023 I opened my electricity bill. I do it at the kitchen table with my glasses on and a cup of tea. Ron used to do them but Ron passed in September 2019 so I do them now. The amount was $680. For three months. On my own. With one air-conditioner that I run maybe an hour a day when it's really hot, one fridge, one telly, and a heater that comes on in the mornings for the dog because she's got arthritis in her back legs. That's what I use. That's my whole electricity." "I sat at the kitchen table and I cried. I don't mind telling you. I cried because I'd already been paying $380, $400 a quarter and I couldn't understand where it was going and $680 meant I would have to cancel my church activities and possibly my dog's medication and possibly the bit I put aside every fortnight for Molly and her brother Callum's birthdays. When you're on the pension a $680 bill isn't a bill. It's a decision about what you stop doing. I rang the electricity people. The young woman on the phone was very nice. She said 'yes Mrs Sutton, the reading is correct. Would you like to discuss a payment plan?' I said no thank you and I hung up. I didn't want to be rude but I couldn't afford a payment plan either. All the payment plan does is spread the bill out — the bill is still there. That afternoon I put my coat on and I walked down to David's. He and Sandra have lived two doors down since I can't remember when. David used to work up at the utility, he did meter installations. I've known him twenty years. When Ron got sick David was one of the ones who came round with a lasagne. You don't forget that. I knocked on the door and Sandra let me in. I put the bill on their kitchen table and I said 'David, has something gone wrong somewhere?' He looked at it for a long time. Then he said 'Beryl, I'm going to come over this afternoon with some equipment. Is that alright?' I said yes." "He came over about 4pm. He had a big black bag with tools in it and something with wires that he clipped onto the meter box. He was there for two hours. He didn't say much. Sandra came over halfway through with a cup of tea for him and a cup of tea for me and we sat in the front room while David did his measuring. He came inside about 6pm. He looked worried. I remember thinking that was odd because David doesn't worry. He's one of those quiet Aussie blokes who's got a face for everything except worry. He said 'Beryl, your meter is reading a lot more than what your house is actually using. I don't know why yet. I'm going to look into it.' I said 'love, do you mean it's broken?' He said 'I don't think it's broken. I think it's doing what it's meant to do. That's what worries me.' I didn't understand that at the time. I understand it better now. He went off and did whatever he had to do at his job. I paid the $680 by taking money out of the account Ron and I had for renovations we never did, and I cancelled my Wednesday morning book club because I'd been shouting the cakes for the ladies for two years and I couldn't afford to keep doing it. About four months went by. David lost his job. Or he stopped going in — I wasn't quite sure at the time, Sandra was cagey about it. Every time I saw him he was working on something in the garage. He'd wave from the driveway." "On the 14th of April 2024 David knocked on my door with a small white box in his hand. About the size of a mobile phone. He said 'Beryl, can I plug this into a socket in your hallway for you? I want to see what happens.' I said yes. He plugged it in beside the phone table where I plug my dog's massage mat in. The little green light came on. He said 'that's it. Let's see what your next bill says.' The next bill came on the 12th of July. It was $89. From $680. I couldn't work out what was on the paper. I put my glasses on to read it again and I still couldn't. I rang the electricity company again — same young woman, coincidentally. She said 'yes Mrs Sutton, the amount is $89 based on your usage this quarter.' I asked her how a bill goes from $680 to $89 in three months when I haven't changed anything. She said 'I don't know, Mrs Sutton, but the readings are what the readings are.' I sat down at the kitchen table again. This time I didn't cry. I laughed, a bit, because I couldn't think what else to do. Then I rang Molly. Then I rang David. David just said 'well, Beryl, that's what I hoped for'. He wouldn't take a cent for the device. Wouldn't hear of it. I baked him a lamington slice." "So that's what happened. That's what really happened. That's why the advertisement exists. Since then I've told everyone I know. My book club — all six of them got one, all six of them saw their bills drop, and now I shout the cakes again on Wednesday mornings. My daughter in Adelaide got one for herself and one for my grandson's family in Werribee. The ladies at St Andrew's — I brought it up at morning tea after the service, three weeks running, until every last one of them had ordered one. Reverend Malcolm has one. He said his rectory bill dropped from $312 to $47 and he was going to preach on generosity because of it, which was very sweet of him. Some AU homes have seen their bills drop by up to 87% with OptiWatt.* Mine dropped 87%. Molly's little unit in Footscray dropped 78%. My daughter Karen in Adelaide dropped 84%. Reverend Malcolm's rectory dropped 85%. It works. It's called OptiWatt. It's $67 at the moment, half-price from $134. There's a 30-day money back and — Molly told me to make sure I mentioned this because she said it was the bit that convinced her — you don't have to send the device back to get the refund. You keep it. That means they're confident. That's what she said. If you're a pensioner or a widow like me and you're staring at a bill that shouldn't be that high — please. Just read the advertisement. Watch David's video. Order one and try it for a quarter. Worst case is $67 out of your pocket which yes I know is not nothing when you're on the pension but it might be $500 back a quarter for the rest of your life. That's what it's been for me. Love, Beryl. P.S. Molly's making me put this: *Results based on individual household reports; savings vary by home size, appliance mix, tariff, and usage. Not guaranteed."

Where the ad sends people

www.smartpower-uk.com

It was me. I'm Mrs Sutton.

Straight from London's tech hub, this engineer explains how to stop paying inflated electricity prices and slash your bills by 90%