Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

[Deleted User]

Octopus Energy customer support is fantastic compared to Scottish Power who I was with for the last decade +
They reply same day and are consideably cheaper than SP! 
So it's win win

Telegraph_Sam

Optimism.- or realism in the face of possible altermatives of which there are few.
Can one get a more up to date trend line from Guy Lipman?
I'm having no joy with communications via Twitter. May be it depends on the question being asked how quick a response you get.

niktheguru

Telegraph_Sam said:

Optimism.- or realism in the face of possible altermatives of which there are few.
Can one get a more up to date trend line from Guy Lipman?
I'm having no joy with communications via Twitter. May be it depends on the question being asked how quick a response you get.

I really don't understand what sort of trend line you actually desire? Prices are going up. Thats the long and short of it. Both elec and gas. I don't think the search of a trend line will do anything to say anything else. Just look at the prices in the last 6 months.

I don't think anyone has this magic answer you're seeking of when the prices will start reducing again as there are so many variables involved. Guy lipman just lists the historic prices and up to date prices, there are no future predictions. (its exactly the same as the octopus graphs, just without the completely unrealistic forward predictions!) Just have a look at his website.

[Deleted User]

niktheguru said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

Optimism.- or realism in the face of possible altermatives of which there are few.
Can one get a more up to date trend line from Guy Lipman?
I'm having no joy with communications via Twitter. May be it depends on the question being asked how quick a response you get.

I really don't understand what sort of trend line you actually desire? Prices are going up. Thats the long and short of it. Both elec and gas. I don't think the search of a trend line will do anything to say anything else. Just look at the prices in the last 6 months.

I don't think anyone has this magic answer you're seeking of when the prices will start reducing again as there are so many variables involved. Guy lipman just lists the historic prices and up to date prices, there are no future predictions. (its exactly the same as the octopus graphs, just without the completely unrealistic forward predictions!) Just have a look at his website.

I agree. Industry watchers have already indicated that they expect the Ofgem Cap to increase by £115 at least in October. A total increase of c.£200 in a year.

pchelpman

I agree too. Well put.

I am a believer in the balloon principle.....squeezing one part of an inflated balloon simply ensures that other areas of the balloon expand thus ensuring the overall balloon volume remains constant.

The basic theory of economics dictates that, whatever happens, energy providers will always squeeze maximum profit out of us consumers somewhere along the balloon!

bristolleedsfan

masonic said:

Doshwaster said:

Dolor said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

Judgement on smart meters has to include change of supplier / address hassle depending on how well organised the supplier(s) are or are not, as reported in numerous threads.

I confess that I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. A meter is a meter whether it is smart or not. The supplier switching process is the same for smart and non smart meters. Octopus has an exceptional smart meter team. Suppliers are now required to install SMETS2 meters that are independent of any particular supplier,  and these meters will remain smart after a transfer of supply.

Do you have any information on how Octopus' smart meter rollout is going? I registered for one a few months ago but haven't heard anything from them. They don't seem to be pushing customers to get one as much as the other suppliers.

They seem overwhelmed by customers pro-actively trying to get a smart meter installed to be pushing customers. Have you tried requesting via Twitter? That seems to be a way to queue jump, first thing in the morning is probably best as they only seem to book appointments a few weeks ahead. Note that they've been having issues with their system recently, so installations have been carried out, but meters could not be provisioned.

O.E.S system seemed to be offering appointments 3 weeks ahead, however yesterday they were offering earliest appointments in my region 4 weeks ahead.

niktheguru

bristolleedsfan said:

masonic said:

Doshwaster said:

Dolor said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

Judgement on smart meters has to include change of supplier / address hassle depending on how well organised the supplier(s) are or are not, as reported in numerous threads.

I confess that I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. A meter is a meter whether it is smart or not. The supplier switching process is the same for smart and non smart meters. Octopus has an exceptional smart meter team. Suppliers are now required to install SMETS2 meters that are independent of any particular supplier,  and these meters will remain smart after a transfer of supply.

Do you have any information on how Octopus' smart meter rollout is going? I registered for one a few months ago but haven't heard anything from them. They don't seem to be pushing customers to get one as much as the other suppliers.

They seem overwhelmed by customers pro-actively trying to get a smart meter installed to be pushing customers. Have you tried requesting via Twitter? That seems to be a way to queue jump, first thing in the morning is probably best as they only seem to book appointments a few weeks ahead. Note that they've been having issues with their system recently, so installations have been carried out, but meters could not be provisioned.

O.E.S system seemed to be offering appointments 3 weeks ahead, however yesterday they were offering earliest appointments in my region 4 weeks ahead.

I agree, Octopus don't need to beg their customers to get smart meters, its usually the other way round as its currently the way to get the cheapest tariffs with them. People are proactively switching to octopus so they can move onto go and go faster. 
The best way I found of getting a smart meter was just giving them a call and the operator had access to the appointments and i was booked in for 4 weeks later. Others have had joy with messaging them on twitter, some have had joy with emailing the smart email address, though ive always found the email route slow with them.

[Deleted User]

niktheguru said:

Telegraph_Sam said:

Any advance on this?
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/data-portal/all-charts
Depending on interpretation this seems to confirm that we are at present way above the trend line, but may be more sophisticated calculations are possible.

The ofgem data only goes to january, so already out of date.

I see your forever optimism about tracker isn't waning sam!
I calculated todays gas price as closer to 3.86p, though i may be wrong. I suspect what you're seeing on the tracker graph is a mistake again for today.

Guy Lipman's Tracker page should be updated later today as Octopus has just updated the information via its API.

Telegraph_Sam

The following data from Guy Lipman seem to answer my statistical forecasting query far more comprehensively than I could myself:
https://energy.guylipman.com/forecasts
My interpretation is: Latest actual wholesale electricity price = 74.55 equivalent to 16.835 retail for my region, compared with forecast 48.83 = 13.63 retail for me.
GL obviously takes a whole range of factors into account when putting together his figures, and yet there is this large discrepancy between forecast and actual. One would really need to see this divergence in a longer historical context in order to come to a view.
Forecasts are but forecasts.  My "take" on what  I read is simply that the downside potential looks to be greater than the upside, and that if the actual prices were to revert to somewhere near the forecast the Tracker tariff would revert to being very competitive.
I will be interested to hear from those with greater experience of these statistics than myself.

niktheguru

Telegraph_Sam said:

The following data from Guy Lipman seem to answer my statistical forecasting query far more comprehensively than I could myself:
https://energy.guylipman.com/forecasts
My interpretation is: Latest actual wholesale electricity price = 74.55 equivalent to 16.835 retail for my region, compared with forecast 48.83 = 13.63 retail for me.
GL obviously takes a whole range of factors into account when putting together his figures, and yet there is this large discrepancy between forecast and actual. One would really need to see this divergence in a longer historical context in order to come to a view.
Forecasts are but forecasts.  My "take" on what  I read is simply that the downside potential looks to be greater than the upside, and that if the actual prices were to revert to somewhere near the forecast the Tracker tariff would revert to being very competitive.
I will be interested to hear from those with greater experience of these statistics than myself.

Given your findings, what's your plan?


I would suggest given your low usage for elec and gas, and knowing your preferences about suppliers and smart meters,  in your situation it would be prudent to stick with octopus tracker given the low standing charges and the obviously low gas use in the summer months.

In an ideal world if you wanted to make a saving you would go with Symbio (very low standing charge and unbeatable unit rate.....though this tariff may soon be unavailable), or you would bite the bullet and get a smart meter and go on octopus go, locking your unit rate at 14.99p (which is very competitive) for 12 months (plus any off peak saving as a bonus) and then if tracker does go down and become "competitive" you can switch straight to that with no exit fee, and the smart meter will give more accurate tracker costs/usage for you.

But given you don't want to take a budget supplier (completely reasonable!) and have an aversion to smart meters (less reasonable but still valid) tracker is still your best bet, and you still get the joy of looking at the graphs and forecasts daily to see if you're winning or losing!