Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist

Seems likely that's going to be the update situation for the next few weeks now.

youravinalarrrf

I'd like to see someone on here report that they've successfully completed their transfer from Avro to Octopus so we know whether the closing Avro meter readings have been transferred over correctly and whether they've also been provided with access to their final bill from the Avro administrators.

My transfer is due to complete on Saturday 23rd October if all goes according to plan so not long to wait for me.

Consumerist

I don't really understand all this angst. It's not as if there will be any rush to transfer to a fixed tariff elsewhere and it looks as though our variable tariff will be lower (albeit slightly) than will be available elsewhere. There are bound to be glitches in the system but nothing can be done about them until they are known about - so why worry about them at this stage?

I am reminded of the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

wrongplanet

Got the "FYI: Your switch to Octopus is underway" email yesterday which suggests setting up a a password for my account. Problem is there's no link to do so in the plain text part, which a lot of email clients default to displaying including mine, although there is in the HTML one. Others can address this so why can't Octopus?

Consumerist

I got my email this morning, which  included:

We're expecting Avro's administrators to issue the final bill for any energy you used before September 26 over the next few weeks.

So it looks as though credit balances are going to take a bit longer to show on Octopus statements.

youravinalarrrf

I received the same message last Friday but ignored that particular sentence in view if the highlighted sentence in the update issued on Friday 8th October (below) so I'm still hopeful for access to my final bill on Saturday 23rd October. I appreciate that it will take a few weeks to complete the transfer for all ex Avro customers.

UPDATE 2PM FRIDAY 8TH OCTOBER

Yesterday's update is still most relevant today (copied below).

However, as we head towards the weekend (where we will continue to work 24 hours helping Avro customers and continuing the work to move them to our systems), a thank you from the Octopus Energy team to the Avro Energy team, who we were allowed to meet for the first time on Tuesday and who despite the tough times they've been through, have been incredible at learning our systems in super quick time, and helping look after thousands of Avro customers this week. Basically, you guys rock.

Next week, we will start to send, very slowly and carefully, final bills to every Avro customer to close down their accounts with Avro. These bills will be dated from the last bill they received from Avro, up to the 26th September (the day when Avro went out of business). These bills will use the rates that customers were on until Avro went out of business and the meter readings customers have given us over the last couple of weeks.

As these final bills are created and sent, we will start migrating Avro customers officially over to our systems. (So when a customer's final bill is triggered, this will trigger that customer being fully moved to our system.). Any remaining credit from Avro accounts will be moved to Octopus Energy accounts and will appear there. We will also confirm your individual rates (though Avro customers will be moved onto our Flexible Octopus tariff, which is currently £10 under the price cap. This is currently cheaper than anything else available from any other large supplier and also cheaper than the fixed prices we're currently offering new customers on our website).

This final bill and Octopus Energy account set-up process will take a few weeks to complete. It's a complex thing and involves both Avro and Octopus Energy systems to work precisely, and we are working hard to get it right.

Thesaltmustflow

Received my Octopus email this morning confirming? I'm now a customer of Octopus, reset the password and logged in. It showed a zero balance and no DD set up. Set up the new DD (quite easy) and it showed exactly what I was paying to Avro £140 on the 21st of the month. 

I know I've missed this months DD as it's already the 21st and I know it takes a number of days for a DD to go live too, not too worried about that as I have a credit of approx £300 with Avro and once the final bill is produced by Avro any credit will be put into my Octopus account. My tariff is Northwest region so I know (roughly, haven't run the figures yet) what I will be paying.

I think? I'll leave the payment at £140 (unless Octopus increase it which they could well do) and make manual overpayments as there is no way £140 DD will cover my usage over this winter but it is what it is.

Am I correct so far?

Credit to Octopus where it's due though, everything has been painless so far (apart from the stinging increase in cost) but that could just be me, hopefully it's the same for all of us.  

youravinalarrrf

It would appear that my hopes of receiving my final Avro bill on Saturday 23rd October have just been dashed.

Octopus are now suggesting it could be another 4 to 6 weeks before the Avro administrators finally get their finger out and provide the final bill but even that's not certain as it now appears it's out of Octopus' control and definitely not as the update Octopus provided earlier suggested. I do believe Octopus were telling porkies in their earlier update!

My Octopus dashboard has just been updated for Gas and it is now showing the following although it's still awaiting the opening meter readings to be uploaded. I expect the Electric to update to the same message shortly. I have no idea why the Electric seems to take longer for every stage of the transfer process?

All done! 🎉

We're officially your energy supplier from Saturday 23rd October.

You'll get a final bill from your previous supplier in the coming weeks.

However, since your old supplier is responsible for releasing your final bill, we can't say for certain when you'll get it, but from our experience it usually happens in four to six weeks.

Consumerist

I would think that as long as your balance is kept above zero, they would let you make additional payments each month to keep it that way and leave the DD unchanged. Perhaps you'll let us know how that works out further down the line.

Consumerist

youravinalarrrf said:

. . . I do believe Octopus were telling porkies in their earlier update!

I think it is more likely that they were expressing their hopes and expectations rather than telling porkies.