Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

QrizB

Sorry @masonic this got lost in the thread.

masonic said:

Is it a problem that R2 did not change at all when I was on the E7 tariff? I am inferring that if I ever came off a smart tariff or moved to a different supplier this register would remain static, based on my experience prior to moving onto a smart tariff.

With a smart meter, the times at which the meter switches between registers (and, for E7, the time when the ALCS activates and any E7-only circuits are energised) are all configurable by your supplier.

If you switch from your current tariff to one that requires different timings, this will be set up by your supplier when they send the new tariff data to your smart meter.

(Yes this can fail, and BG in particular seems to have extreme difficulty with E7 and smart meters, but that seems to be a BG issue and not an inherent fault of the system.)

Alnat1

They do seem to be struggling recently and their customer service is not what it used to be.

Umiamz

Alnat1 said:

They do seem to be struggling recently and their customer service is not what it used to be.

Seems to vary a lot. I emailed hello@ a couple of days ago and got a response within an hour, confirming that they'd got the email and were now looking into it. It wasn't an automated reply - it was actually from one of the agents who then emailed again the next day having solved the issue.

masonic

QrizB said:

Sorry @masonic this got lost in the thread.

masonic said:

Is it a problem that R2 did not change at all when I was on the E7 tariff? I am inferring that if I ever came off a smart tariff or moved to a different supplier this register would remain static, based on my experience prior to moving onto a smart tariff.

With a smart meter, the times at which the meter switches between registers (and, for E7, the time when the ALCS activates and any E7-only circuits are energised) are all configurable by your supplier.

If you switch from your current tariff to one that requires different timings, this will be set up by your supplier when they send the new tariff data to your smart meter.

(Yes this can fail, and BG in particular seems to have extreme difficulty with E7 and smart meters, but that seems to be a BG issue and not an inherent fault of the system.)

Thanks, that's reassuring.

Umiamz

New fixed tariffs today. 12-month fix is now (East Midlands)

Electricity: 53.9p/kWh (SC 44.8p/day)

Gas: 17.8p/kWh (SC 27.22p/day)

Not particularly encouraging…

SJMALBA

Re. the (mad!) new Octopus Loyal Fix, does this mean that they think SVT will be above even this, or is it just an extremely poor offer/tariff?

Or, some other explanation?! A reflection of extremely high and ever rising future contract prices?

QrizB

SJMALBA said:

Re. the (mad!) new Octopus Loyal Fix, does this mean that they think SVT will be above even this, or is it just an extremely poor offer/tariff?

Or, some other explanation?! A reflection of extremely high and ever rising future contract prices?

I would go with the latter. I think Octopus advance-purchase energy for their fixed tariffs; the rates they've just published reflect the current market price of gas and electric for the next 12 months.

Currently at The ICE, wholesale gas for Q1 2023 is 448p/therm - around 15p/kWh.

[Deleted User]

Telegraph_Sam said:

This contradicts the info I was given previously.
I can see no logical reason why billing on a half hourly consumption cycle should conflict with the consumer being provided with the (secret) meter readings used in the invoices as a simple cross-check that things are in sync. So obvious you would think that it hardly needs stating!

I have taken this up with Octopus on a number of occasions and, as yet, I am not content with the response that has been given. When manual data pulls are needed (after the all too frequent data losses), their billing system usually produces a meter reading. Sadly, in my case, this reading is deceptively wrong. Octopus is giving the total index reading when I have two registers in use. I only found out that this was the case when Octopus started showing index readings in its App. To complicate matters further, after a ToU tariff change, R1 has become offpeak and R2 peak.

None of the above matters until a change of supplier is attempted. On switch, the new supplier needs readings from all the registers that have been used previously: not just the register in use. To access these readings, the consumer is often required to get into the meter sub-menus. 

 I have suggested to Octopus that their failure to show the current register readings on bills could result in a raft of Agreed Readings Disputes when people switch away. Intuitively, consumers will provide the total index reading. The matter is still under consideration. The more people that express a concern the better.

Telegraph_Sam

I concur with your last para.

I fear however that introducing the problems associated with living with multiple registers raises the topic to a new level of complexity which hopefully doesn't affect too many of us. The danger is that in the debate attention  is drawn away from the key underlying relatively simple issue and this gets buried. Namely the failure to display monthly meter readings in the monthly invoices. 
At this moment it time I am in discussion with Octopus to clarify why the monthly opening and closing meter readings now no longer appear on my monthly invoices. Deliberately or otherwise they seem to be confusing this with providing meter readings for each half hour consumption period which is not necessary for most purposes. A world in which local meter readings are never ever cross checked with the central billing database is obviously an invitation to the Agreed Readings Disputes which you refer to.

I don't know if I am alone in demanding this simple change. If not then like you I would urge any other like-minded consumer to make their feelings known to Octopus. It is not a big ask and the cost of each kWh now makes the exercise all the more worth while.

[I am toying with the idea of calculating my own monthly meter readings (by simple addition) and asking Octopus to agree or disagree with them as a way of making the point]

[Deleted User]

Telegraph_Sam said:

[I am toying with the idea of calculating my own monthly meter readings (by simple addition) and asking Octopus to agree or disagree with them as a way of making the point]

Octopus billing using 30 minute data rather than index readings is always spot on. The problem is that is faced with something of a dilemma. For Agile, they use one of the 4 smart meter registers and they set an equivalent/average unit price to the meter. They resolved a long time of ago not to update Agile tariffs on a daily basis as far as meters were concerned. 

Dual rate time-of-use tariffs have over the last 4 years have used one or 2 registers. Using 2 registers, allows Octopus to send out the correct dual rate tariff to the meter whereas using a single register does not. As far as billing is concerned, Octopus’ billing system is agnostic as it does not use meter readings. It gets its usage data from an XML file that accompanies the meter reading. Octopus then uses this 30 minute data to calculate the 30 minute unit cost.

I am not sure what you hope to achieve by offering Octopus your calculated meter readings?  Octopus already have these readings: they choose not to display them on statements. You can access these readings on your smart meter. The only problem is when you come to switch when your new supplier needs to validate all 4 register readings to set up its billing system. Consumers need to provide those readings: not just the total index reading shown on the IHD or in the meter display.