Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

masonic

QrizB said:

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

That's very naughty. The change of supplier reading must be validated by the DCC and used by both suppliers. Final bill cannot be issued on a different reading.

But by the same measure, meter readings when you switch suppliers are validated - and can be adjusted - by Gerry1's "mysterious third party". It's uncommon but not unknown for the agreed handover readings to be different to the actual readings on the meters.

Yes, I've experienced this. If DCC considers the read out of bounds it will make a final determination.

Old but still relevant: https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

Chrysalis

masonic said:

QrizB said:

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

That's very naughty. The change of supplier reading must be validated by the DCC and used by both suppliers. Final bill cannot be issued on a different reading.

But by the same measure, meter readings when you switch suppliers are validated - and can be adjusted - by Gerry1's "mysterious third party". It's uncommon but not unknown for the agreed handover readings to be different to the actual readings on the meters.

Yes, I've experienced this. If DCC considers the read out of bounds it will make a final determination.

Old but still relevant: https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

Thanks for this link, this is what made my eyes widen.

Instead of using the previous 12 months data to give an idea of expected usage, they do something as silly as this.

Then, they take your estimated yearly usage (adjusted for seasonality) and convert this to a daily figure. They multiply the daily figure by the number of days between your last reading and your opening one to get your expected usage for this period.

The reason I consider that silly, is the mechanisms that estimate my annual usage, are all fairy tale stuff, they are more than double my actual usage.  Seen a reply in another thread only a few minutes ago from someone who experiences the same wildly inaccurate predicted annual usage.  However with that said they do accept any value between last verified reading, and the estimated value meaning it shouldnt really be causing issues when a reading is supplied, I guess the issue is when one isnt supplied?

quartzz

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

I mean, what I said via email (I was basically ending my contract with Octopus so it was a "goodbye" email exchange - this was October just been), was that I wasn't going to argue with 1 weeks worth of readings, and that they had made their extra £1 from me for that week, and that it had been useful in that Octopus had shown me what to look out for in future. I can find the email exchange. they described it as 3 different number sources being read. something like....the online numbers, the display numbers, and the half hourly reading numbers. and sometimes "some of these get missed, but they take the source which is guaranteed to be accurate". right. "whatever"

what they said didn't sound convincing at all - it was like someone describing buying a ticket and having transaction fees, admin fees and overhead fees. basically they sounded like they were just putting some words together

bristolleedsfan

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

That's very naughty. The change of supplier reading must be validated by the DCC and used by both suppliers. Final bill cannot be issued on a different reading.

New supplier opened with S/M reading 382,  numbers after . never count for changeover readings, only relevance about how much is involved had my usage been higher estimated reading would have been higher. I am very low user, used no gas between March 2024 and December 2024.

masonic

Chrysalis said:

masonic said:

QrizB said:

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

That's very naughty. The change of supplier reading must be validated by the DCC and used by both suppliers. Final bill cannot be issued on a different reading.

But by the same measure, meter readings when you switch suppliers are validated - and can be adjusted - by Gerry1's "mysterious third party". It's uncommon but not unknown for the agreed handover readings to be different to the actual readings on the meters.

Yes, I've experienced this. If DCC considers the read out of bounds it will make a final determination.

Old but still relevant: https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

Thanks for this link, this is what made my eyes widen.

Instead of using the previous 12 months data to give an idea of expected usage, they do something as silly as this.

Then, they take your estimated yearly usage (adjusted for seasonality) and convert this to a daily figure. They multiply the daily figure by the number of days between your last reading and your opening one to get your expected usage for this period.

The reason I consider that silly, is the mechanisms that estimate my annual usage, are all fairy tale stuff, they are more than double my actual usage.  Seen a reply in another thread only a few minutes ago from someone who experiences the same wildly inaccurate predicted annual usage.  However with that said they do accept any value between last verified reading, and the estimated value meaning it shouldnt really be causing issues when a reading is supplied, I guess the issue is when one isnt supplied?

It can be when a reading isn't provided or the reading is entered incorrectly by the supplier (as happened in my case).

quartzz

masonic said:

Yes, I've experienced this. If DCC considers the read out of bounds it will make a final determination.

Old but still relevant: https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

wow. honestly I lost the plot of that page about halfway through. which I'm sure was the intention. and that's after a coffee. isn't it weird, how reading inaccuracies always seem higher than they should be...

masonic

bristolleedsfan said:

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

That's very naughty. The change of supplier reading must be validated by the DCC and used by both suppliers. Final bill cannot be issued on a different reading.

New supplier opened with S/M reading 382,  numbers after . never count for changeover readings, only relevance about how much is involved had my usage been higher estimated reading would have been higher. I am very low user, used no gas between March 2024 and December 2024.

In that case the reading should be honoured. A reading will not be estimated upward due to validation.

It says it is an estimated read, so Octopus is just billing speculatively ahead of the final bill. Final bill should be for -9.6 units.

For my elec switch, they took a smart read the day before it completed and issued a bill. I am therefore just waiting for a final bill for my last day.

bristolleedsfan

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

masonic said:

bristolleedsfan said:

quartzz said:

I posted this somewhere else, but I switched from Octopus to British Gas. my last bill from Octopus didn't match what my smart meter display was showing (the bill was larger than the numbers [strangely enough.......], by about 20% for a week - in the region of £1 for a weeks worth -- or charging me £2 per day for a week for £1.70 used per day for a week). Octopus via email, gave me some incredibly vague/unconvincing text which basically said "sometimes the meter gets it wrong". [why? why does a digital system get it wrong?]

When I switched away from Octopus, new supplier opened Gas with S/M reading, Octopus closed Gas with its own higher estimated reading, I intend to lodge a complaint asking why they have adopted that policy.

That's very naughty. The change of supplier reading must be validated by the DCC and used by both suppliers. Final bill cannot be issued on a different reading.

New supplier opened with S/M reading 382,  numbers after . never count for changeover readings, only relevance about how much is involved had my usage been higher estimated reading would have been higher. I am very low user, used no gas between March 2024 and December 2024.

In that case the reading should be honoured. A reading will not be estimated upward due to validation.

It says it is an estimated read, so Octopus is just billing speculatively ahead of the final bill. Final bill should be for -9.6 units.

Final bill they recredited previous three gas statements,  new total was difference of 1p, not likely to have been a one off.

User_9826541

I look after my 90+yo mother’s finances including energy account using an LPOA.

Have a look at the letter received.

I think this concept is bad, and should be a campaign for MSE versus Octopus [whom I do admire].

Basically, to the financially less savvy, this is saying “we are a large multi billion Energy Co, we are going to take £260 extra from your bank account this year, just to keep your account topped up" 

If half a million people fall for this, they would have an extra £130mn in their bank, and on their balance sheet, at the expense of small customers.

I’ll be on the phone Monday morning to them.

User xxxxxx

User_9826541

Hey Forum Mods . . 

should I post this a new standalone thread?