Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

MWT

Suezectn said:

I was switched from Avro to Octopus last year. I have been sent an email saying that direct debit payment will almost double.

We all know that prices are increasing, but this is much more more than I expected. 

When I checked their figures, Octopus are basing the new payment on electricity usage around 7 times my historic and actual (since moving to Octopus) kWh usage.

Something doesn't add up there, if they were using an estimate 7x your historic use, your DD would have gone up a lot more than 2x, but moving from a cheap Avro deal to the current prices could legitimately cause your DD to double...

If you want some help with this I'd suggest starting your own thread and posting some meter readings a year apart as a start...

DPicard

Suezectn said:

I was switched from Avro to Octopus last year. I have been sent an email saying that direct debit payment will almost double.

We all know that prices are increasing, but this is much more more than I expected. 

When I checked their figures, Octopus are basing the new payment on electricity usage around 7 times my historic and actual (since moving to Octopus) kWh usage. 

Has this happened to anyone else?

Something wrong there with the consumption estimate.I take that they've offered you a fixed tariff & DD fees?

I have been with them for a year on a fixed term and the renewal came at a disproportionate increase (something like from £85 to £230 a month) with kwh prices far above April's caps. Consumption estimate was only slightly over the actual.

I have switched to Flexible now because at least you can always control your consumption.

Regards,

masonic

Suezectn said:

I was switched from Avro to Octopus last year. I have been sent an email saying that direct debit payment will almost double.

We all know that prices are increasing, but this is much more more than I expected. 

When I checked their figures, Octopus are basing the new payment on electricity usage around 7 times my historic and actual (since moving to Octopus) kWh usage. 

Has this happened to anyone else?

They have my "recommended DD" at about double what it needs to be, but I have left it set lower. I manage my credit using one-off debit card payments, and if I need a payment holiday I defer the direct debit using the link in the email they send ahead of each pull. I see no need for a credit balance in excess of my next month's usage.

Umiamz

Go and Go Faster rates have increased again. For East Midlands it's now 34.43p/kWh with a 44.48p standing charge.

The cheap rates are 7.5p and 8.25p depending on whether you choose 4H or 5H.

k_man

Suezectn said:

I was switched from Avro to Octopus last year. I have been sent an email saying that direct debit payment will almost double.

We all know that prices are increasing, but this is much more more than I expected. 

When I checked their figures, Octopus are basing the new payment on electricity usage around 7 times my historic and actual (since moving to Octopus) kWh usage. 

Has this happened to anyone else?

I was with Avro too. But Avro were very cheap (one of the reasons they went bust).

I was paying

13.4p/kWh for elec

2.36p/kWh for gas

So an increase of 1.5x to 2x is expected even before the price cap increase.
So 2.5x to 3x is about right now, as there are 2 increase levels here:
Avro cheap - Octopus SVT

Octopus SVT with latest price cap increase.



However, as posted above, something isn't right if DD is only doubling, but usage is 7x expected.

Petriix

Umiamz said:

Go and Go Faster rates have increased again. For East Midlands it's now 34.43p/kWh with a 44.48p standing charge.

The cheap rates are 7.5p and 8.25p depending on whether you choose 4H or 5H.

I'm so glad I managed to squeeze in to the 5p/24p with 24p standing charge rates. It's going to be painful when my fix ends in January 2023, but far less so than for those who are on the price cap. 

masonic

Umiamz said:

Go and Go Faster rates have increased again. For East Midlands it's now 34.43p/kWh with a 44.48p standing charge.

The cheap rates are 7.5p and 8.25p depending on whether you choose 4H or 5H.

Even at those prices I'd happily stay on, but sadly don't qualify. Come October, that will probably look really cheap.

Chrysalis

Oh boy.

Review incoming.

The good points.

Early on pre energy crisis they responded to emails reasonably quickly, and I also like their website.  Was pretty happy with Octopus up until about a month ago.

The bad points.

Recently emails usually go unanswered, if they are answered it can be multiple weeks wait for the response.  This suggests the energy crisis and probably especially them taking on all the extra customers has over burdened their customer services team, wait times on phone vary from, about 10 minutes up to about 30 minutes, so not the worst waiting time at least but not quick either.
I recently wanted my meter tested and they stonewalled me from the moment I agreed to pay the testing fee, in the end it didnt get tested and after discovering the replacement smart meter is giving lower readings for the same usage I may end up paying the price if they decide the bill is valid, wait and see on that one.  The in home display for the smart meter is still not working at one week past the install date.

Also they have a go tariff which gives super cheap electric at night, however for a undisclosed reason its exclusive to EV owners.  Basically a supercharged version of E7.

drphila

Website running slow at the moment. Probably get worse as the day goes on, so the advice is if you've got anything to do (online or phone), do it asap.

Umiamz

drphila said:

Website running slow at the moment. Probably get worse as the day goes on, so the advice is if you've got anything to do (online or phone), do it asap.

If you're referring to submitting readings then you need to do it tomorrow, not today. Octopus are raising their variable tariffs on the 2nd April, not the 1st.