Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

masonic

Umiamz said:

I know some people here (myself included) moved their gas to Zog. If Zog ceases to trade because of the current crisis, would a SoLR require both gas and electricity moving to them or would they only be allowed to take over gas? I wouldn't be happy if I had to move my electricity elsewhere as it's currently around half the cost of many tariffs out there.

The SoLR is only entitled to take over accounts from the failed supplier. If you have a different fuel with another supplier that would not be affected. I do not believe a SoLR has ever been appointed that required all customers to have two fuels supplied by them, and if such a supplier were to make a bid it would probably be rejected on the grounds that some customers only have one fuel supplied to their property.

Based on recent failures, the best course of action would be to monitor events closely and start a switch away as soon as it is confirmed that one of your suppliers has gone into administration, thereby avoiding the lengthy process of being switched to an uncompetitive tariff. There is generally only a small window of opportunity before the SoLR is appointed and starts the process of claiming the supply. While it comes with annoyances - in some cases the SoLR has repeatedly tried to claim the supply after customers have switched away - blocking these through your new supplier is a small price to pay for getting onto a desirable tariff quickly and not having to deal with a company that inevitably has its customer services put under considerable strain by those moving across.

[Deleted User]

I would assume that if a gas only supplier failed then the Ofgem appointed SoLR would have to agree to take gas only customers, as the sole rationale for the SoLR process is continuity of supply.

Will Zog fail: I haven’t a clue. I hope not as I am a Zog customer. What Zog has in its favour is market experience as it has been in business now for quite a number of years. Zog is also focussed on just one commodity.

Umiamz

[Deleted User] said:

I would assume that if a gas only supplier failed then the Ofgem appointed SoLR would have to agree to take gas only customers, as the sole rationale for the SoLR process is continuity of supply.

Will Zog fail: I haven’t a clue. I hope not as I am a Zog customer. What Zog has in its favour is market experience as it has been in business now for quite a number of years. Zog is also focussed on just one commodity.

That's what I was thinking but was checking to see if anybody knew for sure.

I'm also hoping they won't fail. I managed to get in a few weeks ago at 3.16p but their prices today do not look that competitive any longer, so I wonder who would choose them over some of the large companies.

masonic

Umiamz said:

That's what I was thinking but was checking to see if anybody knew for sure.

It would be safe to assume that in virtually every instance of a supplier failing, there will be customers who have another fuel supplied by a different supplier. I've been through two SoLR processes and in both cases there was never any question of those with different suppliers being forced into switching from an operational third party supplier with valid licence to the SoLR. I don't believe there are any provisions in the consumer contracts that would permit such a seizure to take place and any such switch could be stopped at the customer's request (as can a switch to the SoLR if you are in the process of another switch or have already switched away). IMHO it is far more likely you'd face such a scenario because Octopus and Zog go bust around the same time and share a SoLR, and I'm pretty confident that's not going to happen.

Umiamz

masonic said:

Umiamz said:

That's what I was thinking but was checking to see if anybody knew for sure.

It would be safe to assume that in virtually every instance of a supplier failing, there will be customers who have another fuel supplied by a different supplier. I've been through two SoLR processes and in both cases there was never any question of those with different suppliers being forced into switching from an operational third party supplier with valid licence to the SoLR. I don't believe there are any provisions in the consumer contracts that would permit such a seizure to take place and any such switch could be stopped at the customer's request (as can a switch to the SoLR if you are in the process of another switch or have already switched away). IMHO it is far more likely you'd face such a scenario because Octopus and Zog go bust around the same time and share a SoLR, and I'm pretty confident that's not going to happen.

Yes, this makes sense.

The other thing that's occurred to me is that you're going to be pretty limited once you're gas-only with a SoLR. There are not many companies you can switch to without switching your electricity too. I guess if the worst came to the worst you could always switch it back to Octopus where your electricity still is.

savers_united

Umiamz said:

masonic said:

Umiamz said:

That's what I was thinking but was checking to see if anybody knew for sure.

It would be safe to assume that in virtually every instance of a supplier failing, there will be customers who have another fuel supplied by a different supplier. I've been through two SoLR processes and in both cases there was never any question of those with different suppliers being forced into switching from an operational third party supplier with valid licence to the SoLR. I don't believe there are any provisions in the consumer contracts that would permit such a seizure to take place and any such switch could be stopped at the customer's request (as can a switch to the SoLR if you are in the process of another switch or have already switched away). IMHO it is far more likely you'd face such a scenario because Octopus and Zog go bust around the same time and share a SoLR, and I'm pretty confident that's not going to happen.

Yes, this makes sense.

The other thing that's occurred to me is that you're going to be pretty limited once you're gas-only with a SoLR. There are not many companies you can switch to without switching your electricity too. I guess if the worst came to the worst you could always switch it back to Octopus where your electricity still is.

There are certainly only a limited number of suppliers who will sign you up for Gas only. When I signed up for Octopus Go I kept my Gas with Octopus as very few other options, EDF and ZOG the only ones at the time offering Gas only switch at a decent rate. So if ZOG do go to the wall there will be less options to OFGEM when finding another supplier, and suppliers know that no one is gas only, so will want both supplies.

ZOG is a concern by the increase they have made recently, are they trying to claw back some losses on earlier tariffs. 

QrizB

My electricity is with Octopus, so if Zog go under I guess I could move gas to Octopus too.

savers_united

QrizB said:

My electricity is with Octopus, so if Zog go under I guess I could move gas to Octopus too.

I don't think it will be a problem moving your gas to Octopus if you already have electric supply with them, the biggwr question is the tariff they would put you on, officially they only do dual fuel unless you opt for smart electric tariff. They allowed me a smart electric tariff alongside their variable gas tariff when my fix ended with them. Their fix tariffs are not the cheapest and looking at their website this morning they are not a offering the variable tariff. 

Umiamz

savers_united said:

QrizB said:

My electricity is with Octopus, so if Zog go under I guess I could move gas to Octopus too.

I don't think it will be a problem moving your gas to Octopus if you already have electric supply with them, the biggwr question is the tariff they would put you on, officially they only do dual fuel unless you opt for smart electric tariff. They allowed me a smart electric tariff alongside their variable gas tariff when my fix ended with them. Their fix tariffs are not the cheapest and looking at their website this morning they are not a offering the variable tariff. 

They are in my area (East Midlands):

Flexible Octopus October 2021 v1

Electricity

Unit rate:19.74 p/kWh

Standing charge:23.76 p/day

Gas

Unit rate:3.76 p/kWh

Standing charge:23.85 p/day

spot1034

If there is an avalanche of refugees from failed suppliers I'm sure there will be a bit of additional flexibility with some of the larger suppliers happy to amend their rules to suit the circumstances.