MSE News: Octopus Energy to take on Iresa's 90,000 customers - here's what you need to know

Nathan94

ShabbZ wrote: »

Hi Guys

Similar story to everyone else, received a letter from Octopus Energy a while ago informing me regarding Iresa Energy. I wasn’t too concerned as my place is on a prepay Electric-key and Gas-card (like that when I moved in and haven’t bothered changing it).
In the interim I have been topping up using the existing Iresa Key + card without any issues. However the new Octopus Energy Elec-key and Gas-card arrived a few days ago, unfortunately no information about the tariff they have put me on, so I called customer service to get the information-

Existing Tariff= Iresa Flex2 Prepayment Dual Fuel
Electricity= rate- 12.825p/kWh Daily Charge- 16.85p
Gas= rate- 3.28 p/kWh Daily Charge- 25.85p

New Octopus Tariff= no name given for tariff
Electricity= rate- 14.86p/kWh Daily Charge- 30.1p
Gas= rate- 3.82 p/kWh Daily Charge- 28.26p

I tried using Cheap Energy Club to do a comparison but the Octopus Prepayment Tariff doesn’t seem to appear- I don’t think they usually deal in prepayment.

I have a few questions, just wondering if anyone can help-
What happens if I don’t put the new Octopus Key and Card in my meters to update/switch to Octopus Energy? Can I stay on the existing IRESA tariff? (I topped up both electricity and gas using the old key + card and at the moment both are still working)

Also I’ve had a look at prepayment suppliers and can’t find a better rate then the one Octopus Energy is putting me on- anyone know of a better tariff (as stated Cheap Energy Club is not helping)

Any useful advice will be greatly appreciated, Thanks

I'm afarid I've some bad news for you.

In case you hadn't heard, Iresa stopped supplying gas and/or electricity on 31 July 2018.
Since 01 August 2018, you have been a customer of Octopus Energy.

Ofgem gave Octupus until about 21 August 2018 to complete all the switches.

You will have been on the tariff Octopus Energy have told you you are on since 01 August 2018.

Remember, PPMs are only a method of paying for your energy - they are not vending machines.

If you have somehow misled the PPM to continue to provide you energy, despite you not paying the correct supplier, the supplier will still pursue you for the money, perhaps by a debt collection on the PPM (and they may prevent you from switching to another supplier until it's paid off - depends on how much they deem you owe, and whether a new supplier will take you on with the existing debt)

If you are lucky, the money you have been paying to Iresa will still pass to Octupus to go towards the energy you have used since 01 August 2018 (but it sounds like it won't cover the whole cost)

If you are unlucky, the money you have paid to Iresa who have been in administration since 01 August 2018 may be lost forever.

Your best bet is to contact Octopus Energy and see if they can help.
If they can't, then I suggest you contact Iresa's administrators - you will be considered an unsecured creditor i.e the bottom of the list of creditors to be paid out. You might get say 1p for every £1 you've given them .... eventually, but that will all depend on (a) what preferential creditors there are and what they claim, and (b) if there is any money left after that..

I would urge you not to give any more money to Iresa - a company that has entered administration.

Btw, MSE (and all the other comparison sites) do cater for those customers with PPMs.

ShabbZ

Thanks for the feedback/advice, I’ll use the new Octopus elec-Key and gas-Card when I need to top-up next. Hopefully I won't have any problems with any outstanding amount owed when I switch- only received Octopus elec-Key and gas-Card last week so I had no other way of topping up except to use the old Iresa key and card.

I know MSE have PPM tariff comparison (have been using them for a while, that how I found Iresa) but as far as I can tell there is no PPM tariff listed for Octopus energy (which has the rates I was given over the phone).
Not a big deal I’ll just visit a few comparison engines, put in information as close to the rates I’m on and see if there is a better deal out there.

Thanks again for the feedback :T

brewerdave

So, another two weeks have passed - 10 weeks since I moved from Octopus after the SOLR transfer from Iresa - and my account is still hanging in the air - no final bill yet!!

matelodave

I had to give them a good prodding to get my final bill however I'm guessing that some of the delay was probably down to Eversmart not getting their act together either.

I've still got a 280kwh discrepancy between the Octopus final reading and the one Eversmart used to open the account.

Its a gap raher than an overlap so I'm not going to pay twice but I'm not sure who will eventually try to claim the missing units (Octopus has the correct reading so it's Eversmart who are missing out)

brewerdave

brewerdave wrote: »

So, another two weeks have passed - 10 weeks since I moved from Octopus after the SOLR transfer from Iresa - and my account is still hanging in the air - no final bill yet!!

Well here we are, a month further on, and still no final bill from Octopus. I contacted them ~ 2 weeks ago to be told that they were still finalising details of credits with Iresa!!!

pauldb_2

Would anyone like to share a view as to whether I'm wasting my time with this complaint, or how I can proceed with it:

I was an Iresa customer switched to Octopus. I have no issue with this happening under Ofgem's process and understand that if I want continued energy supply I will have to pay Octopus's charges or swtich again.

My final Iresa bill was £178. However it is my belief that Iresa's failure to supply me under contract has cost me £151 (the higher cost of Octopus' supply over my contract term to Feb19). I don't believe that Iresa's T&Cs exclude them from liability for this cost to me. Therefore I am unwilling to pay them £178 but would pay the net £27.

In theory my dispute is with Iresa but Octopus are the ones pushing me to accept an opening a/c balance of -£178. I'm not certain, but it appears that Octopus may have agreed, with Ofgem's agreement, to take on all the customer credit and debit balances from Iresa. If that's the case, it would mean they may be the losers if I don't agree the -£178. Octopus are telling me this is an Ofgem policy. I understand the mandatory customer move to Octopus is mandatory for me, but I don't agree that in the rules the balance transfer arrangement is proscribed by Ofgem, so even if Ofgem have okayed it (and involved it in their choice of Octopus as SoLR) it would seem to be at Octopus' risk.

As I see it, the transfer of balances to Octopus is, as they say, done for the convenience of the bulk of customers. But I believe it is costing me as it is effectively killing my chance of offsetting my claim against Iresa against the money I owe them. They're out of business so if they've got my £178, letting myself become an unsecured Iresa creditor for £151 is hopeless.

Octopus pointed me to Ofgem's helpline; Ofgem suggested writing to the Iresa administrators which I may do though I suspect they don't care if they effectively already got £178 from Octopus. Should I complain about the process to the Ombudsman - I actually feel a bit guilty complaining about Octopus as their service has been good and it feels more like Ofgem are at fault.