Add your feedback on energy supplier Tonik

Parking_Trouble

How can an account being in credit be deemed profiteering by the energy co.?
I could have asked them to refund some of the credit. They should have perhaps reduced the monthly payment. The bills have been low for last few months. The nest emptied a year ago so energy use probably down compared to previous years.

UnclaimedEnergy

Parking_Trouble said:

How can an account being in credit be deemed profiteering by the energy co.?

It's not about profit, it's about cash-flow. The majority of suppliers aren't profitable. The only way they stay afloat is by using the cash from customers credit balances as a 'loan'.

If you have 100,000 customers all constantly in £100 credit then that's a £10m 'interest free loan' which you can use to keep yourself running at a loss.

inspectorperez

UnclaimedEnergy said:

Parking_Trouble said:

How can an account being in credit be deemed profiteering by the energy co.?

It's not about profit, it's about cash-flow. The majority of suppliers aren't profitable. The only way they stay afloat is by using the cash from customers credit balances as a 'loan'.

If you have 100,000 customers all constantly in £100 credit then that's a £10m 'interest free loan' which you can use to keep yourself running at a loss.

In Tonik's case it's also the £12M investment made by Mitsui in 2019 which has clearly been dissipated.

Mabel2012

I have had a reply from Octopus and my switch will go ahead tomorrow as planned. Good!

The auto reply to my cancellation of my Tonik direct debit shows a lower credit balance than I had calculated. I took the balance from the last bill produced at the end of June. added the direct debits deducted since then and there is £39 difference in the credit figure - in favour of Tonik Energy. Unless they produced my outstanding bills just before they went bust or are still working on our accounts (is that allowed) then I don't understand the difference.  But then I don't understand their multiple months billing since their upgrade.

inspectorperez

Mabel2012 said:

I have had a reply from Octopus and my switch will go ahead tomorrow as planned. Good!

The auto reply to my cancellation of my Tonik direct debit shows a lower credit balance than I had calculated. I took the balance from the last bill produced at the end of June. added the direct debits deducted since then and there is £39 difference in the credit figure - in favour of Tonik Energy. Unless they produced my outstanding bills just before they went bust or are still working on our accounts (is that allowed) then I don't understand the difference.  But then I don't understand their multiple months billing since their upgrade.

I moved from Tonik to Octopus earlier in the year, having escaped at the right time I think.

What I found with Octopus was that their customer communication was excellent particularly in the "handholding" which you may need during the course of the transition. They also kept me right in explaining why one of my closing Tonik readings was different in terms of the opening and closing readings which were used by both respective companies for billing purposes. This was due to the official "reading validator" overriding my own reading (even though it was right) based on the algorithms they use. It did work slightly in my favour even though I thought it was an unsatisfactory way of dealing with things.

I am sure Octopus will keep you right and provide you with a much superior customer experience than Tonik were able to deliver in the last 9 months of the company's short life!

Mabel2012

inspectorperez said:

They also kept me right in explaining why one of my closing Tonik readings was different in terms of the opening and closing readings which were used by both respective companies for billing purposes. This was due to the official "reading validator" overriding my own reading (even though it was right) based on the algorithms they use. It did work slightly in my favour even though I thought it was an unsatisfactory way of dealing with things.

I suppose it's ok provided you don't pay twice for the same energy. I have photos to back up all my readings going back to last May when I misread my electric clocks meter. That was changed for a normal digital meter this June but I have carried on the practice of taking a photo of both meters. It's easier to do that than carry a pen and paper outside for gas reading and upstairs for electrical reading.

Does anyone know if we will be allowed access to our Tonik accounts to view our bills and payments before the SOLR takes over.

LiGhTfasT

Got an email today from them about my cancelled direct debit, as others said it does include the value of your credit balance which seems correct.
I'm a little puzzled though the balance shows as -£xxx credit and always has the minus sign for credit on the bills so I assume it's credit not debt?

inspectorperez

LiGhTfasT said:

Got an email today from them about my cancelled direct debit, as others said it does include the value of your credit balance which seems correct.
I'm a little puzzled though the balance shows as -£xxx credit and always has the minus sign for credit on the bills so I assume it's credit not debt?

The presence of the minus symbol suggests you owe money to them. My bills with Tonik normally showed an amount (not preceded with a minus symbol) followed by the word "credit" indicating that they owed me money.

The way it is presented in your email is most confusing.

Malchester

I cancelled my DD yesterday and got an email from them with a ballance of -£126credit. This is the way that Tonik show their balances on their monthly statements. It is in fact a credit. Tonik never been the same since their IT overhaul shambles earlier this year

uk2009

Malchester said:

I cancelled my DD yesterday and got an email from them with a ballance of -£126credit. This is the way that Tonik show their balances on their monthly statements. It is in fact a credit. Tonik never been the same since their IT overhaul shambles earlier this year

I did wonder if there really was an IT problem or there was something else going on. It went on far too long. However I guess coronavirus didnt helped very much.