Octopus Energy Complaint Advice

MWT

Iiyama66 said:

Surely we can all agree that the Co-Op have to own part of this as they were billing for the wrong meter? 

Agreed, and according to your original post, Octopus took the hit for that one when they applied the back-billing limits to your account...

"Dates of period requiring write off: 03/03/17 to 15/10/18"

So they wrote off the additional charges that should have been made during that period.

The general advice that most give on here though still applies whichever supplier you are with, don't trust any of them to get your bill correct, use your own meter readings and calculate your own bill and never let them use an estimated reading if it can be avoided.

Iiyama66

It was the bill handed to Octopus that is on their site. I haven’t checked the readings but will have a look. 

NewbieJD

Well this thread is interesting as today I had the exact same thing. Never had any issues with Engie, payments on time, account neither in credit or debit. Octopus took over in January and fast forward fives months they're claiming I'm over £300 in arrears. I'm questioning this as it doesn't make sense.

Before furlough, my wife and I were working full-time, long hours. We were only home during waking hours for no more than 5 hours a day. Now they've decided we're using far too much energy. I've emailed them back so I'll see what they come back with, but I'm going to hazard a guess that I'll have no leg to stand on at they'll say the meter readings are right.

MWT

Easiest way to get a handle on this is to look at the meter readings, go back to the last point where you had a bill with an actual meter reading on it, not an estimate, and then take your own meter readings today and work out what you should owe for that period and deduct any amounts you have already paid in that period, the difference should be what you owe...

dogshome

Is this more than a problem of just screwed up accounting?

If it's the Gas meter that has had the 4digit / 5digit confusion, it's likely that the Co-op were charging on a 4 digit basis in the belief that it is an Imperial meter, when in fact it's a 5 digit Metric meter. This error would have increased the bills by 83%

Check the meter - It will be marked ft3 for Imperial or m3 for Metric

If it's Metric check the bills by dividing the Kw charged by the meter units used - The answer should be around 11.5, but if it's around 31.5 you have been overcharged on every bill, and that also affects the VAT

Interestingly, Octopus bought the Co-ops energy business Lock, Stock and Barrel and are responsible for any errors the Co-op may have made     

Gerry1

dogshome said:

This error would have increased the bills by 83%

It would have increased the usage part of the bills by 183%.

dogshome

183% or 83% ?- Depends how you work it out

In these meter type mix-ups I always divide the billed consumption figure by 183, then multiply the answer by 100 - This gives an accurate figure of what the Metric bill should have been, to which an adjusted VAT is added

dogshome

Re- reading this thread I'm getting more & more concerned

This is an Imperial v Metric gas meter mix-up - Why on earth are Octopus referring to the Elec meter in Emails, and why are they useing Back- billing to rectify the problem in a case where  Back Billing rules do not apply.

What does apply is examination of every gas bill and establishing the amount of the overcharges, and that goes back for up to 6 years.

It so happens my son was with the Co-op, and was transferred to Octopus when they bought the business - His earlier Co-op billing is still displayed on the Octopus web site.

The OP states that his D/D's to the Co-op varied between £84 to £115 and were always paid, so as the Co-op were chargeing for an Imperial meter when it was Metric, and Octopus did the same on the first bill, how the blazes is there a debt ? 

I think the OP should write a letter headed Complaint to Octopus, requesting copies of all the bills issued by the Co-op

MWT

dogshome said:

Re- reading this thread I'm getting more & more concerned

This is an Imperial v Metric gas meter mix-up - Why on earth are Octopus referring to the Elec meter in Emails, and why are they useing Back- billing to rectify the problem in a case where  Back Billing rules do not apply.

It would certainly help if the OP could clarify if gas is involved as it isn't referenced in his post anywhere, only electricity, and yes the 5 digit vs 4 digit meter would usually imply gas, but the problem was under-charging, not over charging so that doesn't make sense either, unless the OP was giving the leading 4 digits of a 5 digit meter reading where the first digit wasn't 0...

That would have ended up reducing the bill to around 28% of what it should have been...

The 'back-billing' reference was because the recalculation of the correct meter readings resulted in higher billing for a period greater than 12 months ago, so Octopus wrote that off under the back-billing rules, and credited the OP accordingly.

Given the reference to a large refund and apparent over-payment against usage before correcting this problem, it does feel like a gas problem with the leading 4 digits or a five digit reading being entered, unfortunately the OP stopped responding a month ago at the point where they were going to check the current meter readings...

NewbieJD

MWT said:

dogshome said:

Re- reading this thread I'm getting more & more concerned

This is an Imperial v Metric gas meter mix-up - Why on earth are Octopus referring to the Elec meter in Emails, and why are they useing Back- billing to rectify the problem in a case where  Back Billing rules do not apply.

It would certainly help if the OP could clarify if gas is involved as it isn't referenced in his post anywhere, only electricity, and yes the 5 digit vs 4 digit meter would usually imply gas, but the problem was under-charging, not over charging so that doesn't make sense either, unless the OP was giving the leading 4 digits of a 5 digit meter reading where the first digit wasn't 0...

That would have ended up reducing the bill to around 28% of what it should have been...

The 'back-billing' reference was because the recalculation of the correct meter readings resulted in higher billing for a period greater than 12 months ago, so Octopus wrote that off under the back-billing rules, and credited the OP accordingly.

Given the reference to a large refund and apparent over-payment against usage before correcting this problem, it does feel like a gas problem with the leading 4 digits or a five digit reading being entered, unfortunately the OP stopped responding a month ago at the point where they were going to check the current meter readings...

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the OP is only referring to electricity, as my issue seems to only revolve around a massive price hike for just that. Strangely enough, gas is £2 odd in credit, doesn't make up for the £300 in arrears.