Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

littlemissbossy

Consumerist said:

littlemissbossy said:

. . . I've just amended my DD from £72 to £100, ouch!

I noticed from their Ts&Cs that it is the customers' responsibility to keep their account in credit; not really in keeping with evening out the cost over the year.

With winter looming, you may find you will need additional payments to keep your balance in credit.

Yes, I will definitely be making an overpayment or two.

youravinalarrrf

The Electricity on my Octopus Dashboard has finally updated this afternoon and now shows this

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.

Octopus have also amended the meter details to correctly identify that it's a SMETS 1 meter which should allow it to receive the update which will allow it to automatically send readings if and when that ever happens and be able to transfer between providers.

I'm still hopeful that 4-6 week delay before the final bill is issued by Avro is just another erroneous message from their software. If that turns out to be the case I will owe Octopus an apology for assuming they had previously told porkies.

I just need them to upload the final Avro meter readings to the Octopus system and I should be done.

MWT

Consumerist said:

I noticed from their Ts&Cs that it is the customers' responsibility to keep their account in credit; not really in keeping with evening out the cost over the year.

There is no divergence from that objective, as long as you start your payments at the right level from the end of winter, that way you will end up with a decent balance by the time you hit this point in the year to carry you through winter.

I would suggest you also take it as a degree of flexibility you don't find with many suppliers these days, Octopus are not generally prone to trying to force specific large payments onto their customers. As long as you demonstrate that you keep your account positive they are not likely to be chasing you to pay more.

It is not part of their plan to provide free loans over winter though, so expecting to pay 12th of your annual use starting with a zero balance at this time of year is not really reasonable to expect...

Consumerist

MWT said:

It is not part of their plan to provide free loans over winter though, so expecting to pay 12th of your annual use starting with a zero balance at this time of year is not really reasonable to expect...

It's not part of our plan to accumulate huge credits over summer, either, but somehow energy suppliers, in general, seem to mange it.

According to Ofgem, energy switches occur fairly evenly throughout the year so that it is quite reasonable, in my view, that suppliers should accommodate the debit balances as well as the credit balances providing there is a near-zero balance at the end of the year. It seems to me the suppliers want it both ways.

MWT

Consumerist said:

According to Ofgem, energy switches occur fairly evenly throughout the year so that it is quite reasonable, in my view, that suppliers should accommodate the debit balances as well as the credit balances providing there is a near-zero balance at the end of the year. It seems to me the suppliers want it both ways.

With some you would be correct, with Octopus, not so much.

As I've said, if you want to manage your account so you stay positive over the year they are not going to chase you to build up a huge balance.

They don't require you to build up a huge balance, they just want you to stay positive.

youravinalarrrf

Today's Octopus update for Avro customers

UPDATE FRIDAY 22ND OCTOBER

This whole week has been devoted to making two crucial steps for customers. First, we've been sending out final bills throughout the week. Second, we've been initiating more and more Avro customers' switches to Octopus, and emailing them to share next steps about their switch and tariff rates.

We're working through both of these steps bit-by-bit, because we know how important it is to get every detail in your bills right. If you've not heard from us yet, you should do very soon. For now, if you're eager to find out your tariff details, head to our FAQs.

I'm still waiting for someone to post on here and confirm that they've received their final Avro bill.

Consumerist

MWT said:

They don't require you to build up a huge balance, they just want you to stay positive.

It seems to me that the direct-debit system is not really fit for purpose for Avro customers switching now to Octopus. I am considering payment on receipt of the bill during the Winter months. It's anyone's guess what might happen in Spring when the tariff cap is reviewed again so I'll sort that out when the time comes.

MWT

Consumerist said:

MWT said:

They don't require you to build up a huge balance, they just want you to stay positive.

It seems to me that the direct-debit system is not really fit for purpose for Avro customers switching now to Octopus. I am considering payment on receipt of the bill during the Winter months. It's anyone's guess what might happen in Spring when the tariff cap is reviewed again so I'll sort that out when the time comes.

The DD method still works because Octopus let the customer set the level, so pick something that will cover your typical winter use and change it in the spring.

You can still top up with a one off debit payment if you get it a little wrong, or adjust it down if you start to build up too much of a balance for your comfort.

Ultimately though just talk to them  and you'll find they are reasonable people to deal with if you want a different payment method.

Consumerist

It looks as though a DD and manual top-ups is still the best option for most.

youravinalarrrf

If you've been managing your Avro account (I know it was extremely difficult to get any response or sense out of Avro) you should already have a credit balance built up which will transfer over to Octopus. As normal this credit balance will gradually reduce over the winter months before starting to build up again over the summer months. It's all about setting the correct Direct Debit payment based on your particlar annual usage so it evens things out for your monthly budget.