Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

teddysmum

niktheguru, thank you for your description, which is very clear, but I don really care how the money is taken as you eventually pay for what you use. EON Next hugely underestimated my usage , as they made the estimate quite some time ago, so including winter 19/20. but excluding some of this year's cold months, when we used more fuel (reasons not of interest but atypical. I worked out my own usage, using my listed meter readings where no estimates were made (  I know the formula for turning gas units into kwh.)

I am the one being unclear, as I wanted to know whether if you sent Octopus a reading taken on 4th August (for example) billing at Octopus' rates would start the day after regardless of when the dd is set. i believe there is a way that any money overpaid to the old company would be sorted by only applying the  standard charge until the meter reaches the reading paid for, after which the new company's full price is used.
I was thinking that, if my surmise is correct, it is worth waiting to the last date by which the reading is required , to take more advantage of a current very low tariff.

[Deleted User]

teddysmum said:

niktheguru, thank you for your description, which is very clear, but I don really care how the money is taken as you eventually pay for what you use. EON Next hugely underestimated my usage , as they made the estimate quite some time ago, so including winter 19/20. but excluding some of this year's cold months, when we used more fuel (reasons not of interest but atypical. I worked out my own usage, using my listed meter readings where no estimates were made (  I know the formula for turning gas units into kwh.)

I am the one being unclear, as I wanted to know whether if you sent Octopus a reading taken on 4th August (for example) billing at Octopus' rates would start the day after regardless of when the dd is set. i believe there is a way that any money overpaid to the old company would be sorted by only applying the  standard charge until the meter reaches the reading paid for, after which the new company's full price is used.
I was thinking that, if my surmise is correct, it is worth waiting to the last date by which the reading is required , to take more advantage of a current very low tariff.

Provided both suppliers use the same reading to open and close accounts, then you are correct in that if you overpay your old supplier for, say, 200kWhs, then you will only pay the new supplier the daily standing charge until the meter index passes the opening reading. However, the true cost difference is negligible: it is only the difference in unit costs x 200. So if the old unit cost was 15p/kWh and the new unit cost is 16p/kWh, you would save £2.

teddysmum

Telegraph_Sam said:

In my own experience:(subject to correction)
1) No
2) The D/D is set up for a fixed date in advance.  Some days prior to that you get a summons to submit your readings. A day or two later you get an invoice. The interval between the invoice and the D/D is therefore variable. I usually square the account on the same day as the D/D gets taken.

I was wondering if it's worth the risk of applying about 10th June, (leaving 20  ie over 17 days for the process) to use more of my honoured ex-nPower tariff where electricity is half the price, if there isn't a new 24 month fix version, every first of month.  

bristolleedsfan

teddysmum said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

In my own experience:(subject to correction)
1) No
2) The D/D is set up for a fixed date in advance.  Some days prior to that you get a summons to submit your readings. A day or two later you get an invoice. The interval between the invoice and the D/D is therefore variable. I usually square the account on the same day as the D/D gets taken.

I was wondering if it's worth the risk of applying about 10th June, (leaving 20  ie over 17 days for the process) to use more of my honoured ex-nPower tariff where electricity is half the price, if there isn't a new 24 month fix version, every first of month.  

Can change switch date after sign up, more about that within welcome email, they could  withdraw current 24 month fixed rate, replace with more expensive 24 month fixed rate and/or more expensive 12 month fixed rate at any time. (They have added new more expensive 12 month fixed rates to list of current tariffs within last few days, standing charge has increased for both fuels again)

MWT

teddysmum said:

...if there isn't a new 24 month fix version, every first of month.  

There could be 3 different versions in one month, or the same one remaining unchanged for several months or even longer.

All that really matters is that once you take a fix you will stay on it until it expires or you decide to move to a different tariff...

As for the best time to send in a meter reading, it doesn't actually matter all that much either as the meter reading and date do not really determine very much, it is the actual date of transfer that will be used along with the date of your meter reading that will be used to estimate what the meter reading should have been on the transfer date...

orangesnaps

Has anyone with a fixed tariff received an email like this?
"We thought you should know that on 1st June 2021, you'll reach the end of your fixed term, and automatically moved to Flexible Octopus: our always great value variable tariff. "
my fixed term ends on Feb. 2022 so this is really frustrating as I've been dealing with a dispute on the opening meter reading as they didn't use that reading that I've taken with a photo for record purposes while my previous energy supplier used that. The amount is not a lot but it was the principle of the matter and then to receive this email this morning is just the cherry on the cake. 

[Deleted User]

orangesnaps said:

Has anyone with a fixed tariff received an email like this?
"We thought you should know that on 1st June 2021, you'll reach the end of your fixed term, and automatically moved to Flexible Octopus: our always great value variable tariff. "
my fixed term ends on Feb. 2022 so this is really frustrating as I've been dealing with a dispute on the opening meter reading as they didn't use that reading that I've taken with a photo for record purposes while my previous energy supplier used that. The amount is not a lot but it was the principle of the matter and then to receive this email this morning is just the cherry on the cake. 

Oh dear. You cannot just provide a photograph of a meter reading and expect both suppliers to use it. The gaining supplier manages the transfer so there is no need whatsoever to contact the losing supplier. Part of the transfer process is that you provide the new supplier with a meter reading and this is then sent to a data collector to be validated. The validated reading - which might be slightly different from the one that you provided - is then sent by an industry data flow to both suppliers to open and close your accounts. This process is designed to avoid disputes between suppliers.

https://octopus.energy/blog/handover-meter-readings/

And the longer version:

https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

The switching process is shown in this graphic (note the lack of a line showing customer provides old supplier with a meter reading):

orangesnaps

Dolor said:

orangesnaps said:

Has anyone with a fixed tariff received an email like this?
"We thought you should know that on 1st June 2021, you'll reach the end of your fixed term, and automatically moved to Flexible Octopus: our always great value variable tariff. "
my fixed term ends on Feb. 2022 so this is really frustrating as I've been dealing with a dispute on the opening meter reading as they didn't use that reading that I've taken with a photo for record purposes while my previous energy supplier used that. The amount is not a lot but it was the principle of the matter and then to receive this email this morning is just the cherry on the cake. 

Oh dear. You cannot just provide a photograph of a meter reading and expect both suppliers to use it. The gaining supplier manages the transfer so there is no need whatsoever to contact the losing supplier. Part of the transfer process is that you provide the new supplier with a meter reading and this is then sent to a data collector to be validated. The validated reading - which might be slightly different from the one that you provided - is then sent by an industry data flow to both suppliers to open and close your accounts. This process is designed to avoid disputes between suppliers.

https://octopus.energy/blog/handover-meter-readings/

And the longer version:

https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

The switching process is shown in this graphic (note the lack of a line showing customer provides old supplier with a meter reading):

Thanks for that useful info. I already know all about that. I only mentioned that the meter reading was confirmed with a photo plus including a screenshot of the final bill from the previous supplier using that reading so that the figure wasn't pulled out of thin air. There was only 1 instance of that happening before and the energy company I switched to honoured that.
Similar to this https://help.so.energy/support/solutions/articles/7000046447-my-opening-reading-is-wrong
That's not even my priority right now, it was just to highlight some of the issues I've encountered since switching back to them,  the fact that they've suddenly changed my tariff from a fixed rate to a variable one is more pressing.

Irish_Steve

orangesnaps said:

Has anyone with a fixed tariff received an email like this?
"We thought you should know that on 1st June 2021, you'll reach the end of your fixed term, and automatically moved to Flexible Octopus: our always great value variable tariff. "
my fixed term ends on Feb. 2022 so this is really frustrating as I've been dealing with a dispute on the opening meter reading as they didn't use that reading that I've taken with a photo for record purposes while my previous energy supplier used that. The amount is not a lot but it was the principle of the matter and then to receive this email this morning is just the cherry on the cake. 

Hi,

I was just about to ask the same question. I got that email too but I signed up for a 12 month fixed term contract at the end of Jan 21. Are they stopping it after less than six months, can they do that? I also appear to have a large sum in credit too

niktheguru

tlcgrantham said:

I joined Octopus a couple of weeks ago on a flexible E7 tariff till I get a smart meter fitted and can move to Go or Go Faster. So I’ve “expressed my interest in a smart meter” on my account. On previous  postings  I vaguely remember  a discussion on how to get an appointment without just simply waiting for Octopus to contact you.   I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

Just call them and ask them for a smart meter appointment. They should be able to book you in with a date then. Don’t complicate things by using Twitter if you aren’t used to it. I booked mine over the phone without any troubles.