Octopus Tracker

Spoonie_Turtle

Chrysalis said:

If the trackers are excluded though, there is no reason for Octopus to keep dithering.  Just inform everyone and this discussion ends, everyone knows where they stand.  They going to look incompetent if they delay contacting tracker customers only to tell them they need to move to SVR to get the EPG.

I still reckon they must at least be trying to sort something out.  Otherwise it would have been quicker just to tell everyone the prices are staying as they are, move to the SVT if you want to guarantee the price.

macman said:

Given that they will surely want to give a week's notice, I'd be very surprised if Octopus don't announce their Tracker rates by Friday 23/9. But of course they have lost a further day due to the bank holiday yesterday.

From Twitter it seems they didn't have the day off yesterday, just their phone lines were closed and they respond to Tweets or e-mails during the actual funeral time.  (Presumably the same applied on their other social media platforms.)

niktheguru

Spoonie_Turtle said:

macman said:

Given that they will surely want to give a week's notice, I'd be very surprised if Octopus don't announce their Tracker rates by Friday 23/9. But of course they have lost a further day due to the bank holiday yesterday.

From Twitter it seems they didn't have the day off yesterday, just their phone lines were closed and they respond to Tweets or e-mails during the actual funeral time.  (Presumably the same applied on their other social media platforms.)

I suspect the majority of octopus staff did have the monday off. It only takes a few people to man their social media platforms and emails for "emergencies"

I understand why people on here want "clarity" on whats happening with the tracker rates, but there does seem to be a degree of impatience. Yes sure we'd all like to be told yesterday but there is no massive rush for being told whats happening with tracker. We all knew what we signed up for, theres still 10 days till the beginning of october, it only takes 1 day to move from one tariff to another (i.e svt) if required. Its not as though theres lots of competition for rates, the majority of companies are at the same capped rate and standing charge.  
I just dont think it makes sense for tracker to be capped at the EPG for octopus....it would be a total loss leader for octopus, and everyone with half a brain would rush to going on tracker as it would be a no lose situation compared to svt. It makes more sense, like the go tariffs to have the cap just above the svt, to keep it a niche tariff for people interested in load shifting or who would take a gamble at the rates being low on some days and higher on others.

Spoonie_Turtle

Double post, sorry!

Spoonie_Turtle

niktheguru said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

macman said:

Given that they will surely want to give a week's notice, I'd be very surprised if Octopus don't announce their Tracker rates by Friday 23/9. But of course they have lost a further day due to the bank holiday yesterday.

From Twitter it seems they didn't have the day off yesterday, just their phone lines were closed and they respond to Tweets or e-mails during the actual funeral time.  (Presumably the same applied on their other social media platforms.)

I suspect the majority of octopus staff did have the monday off. It only takes a few people to man their social media platforms and emails for "emergencies"

I understand why people on here want "clarity" on whats happening with the tracker rates, but there does seem to be a degree of impatience. Yes sure we'd all like to be told yesterday but there is no massive rush for being told whats happening with tracker. We all knew what we signed up for, theres still 10 days till the beginning of october, it only takes 1 day to move from one tariff to another (i.e svt) if required. Its not as though theres lots of competition for rates, the majority of companies are at the same capped rate and standing charge.  
I just dont think it makes sense for tracker to be capped at the EPG for octopus....it would be a total loss leader for octopus, and everyone with half a brain would rush to going on tracker as it would be a no lose situation compared to svt. It makes more sense, like the go tariffs to have the cap just above the svt, to keep it a niche tariff for people interested in load shifting or who would take a gamble at the rates being low on some days and higher on others.

I agree, but for anyone joining after the July change, the cap is WAY above.  I don't know about people on the earlier versions with the 40p electricity cap, but for those of us paying a lot more most days each day going by is costing extra money whilst we wait for the information to be able to make an informed decision.

It was okay thinking we'd know last week, but the thought of possibly not knowing until nearly the end of the month is testing my patience.  And I don't mean that as a complaint, just a neutral observation.  I am willing to wait and I do applaud them for their approach, wanting to actually be able to deal with customers' queries rather than sending out mass e-mails and having jammed phone lines.  That is not at odds with also really wanting to know the relevant information for my own situation, both things can be true at the same time

It does help that their blog update says they only got final details from the government last Thursday though, helps with understanding why they couldn't be contacting everyone sooner.

Griffindog

A few more days are manageable, with prices at the electricity cap for most of the last 10 weeks I have probably paid around 65p per day more than the SVR. I have a small solar pv installation so the good weather has kept usage to an average 5kwh per day. I know it’s all a gamble but I’ll be brassed off if it has all been for nothing. It would be nice to know either way.

MWT

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I agree, but for anyone joining after the July change, the cap is WAY above.  I don't know about people on the earlier versions with the 40p electricity cap, but for those of us paying a lot more most days each day going by is costing extra money whilst we wait for the information to be able to make an informed decision.

If anyone is on the 78/22p electric/gas version there isn't much to hope for, even if the tariff does qualify for government support it isn't going to get anywhere close to the SVT, so not sure I'd be holding out for a miracle on that one...

niktheguru

In honesty the government have made this an absolutes mess for the energy companies to deal with. Frankly speaking, phrasing these caps in "average household spend" is not particularly helpful and frankly confusing for the average consumer. They should have just come with a "figure" per kwh of what the electricity and gas would be capped at. i.e. if they said we will cap electricity at 40p/kwh for the country. or a range of 38-42p/kwh, which is a x% saving compared to current prices, that would have been miles clearer than the confusing message they announced was the cap.

[Deleted User]

niktheguru said:

In honesty the government have made this an absolutes mess for the energy companies to deal with. Frankly speaking, phrasing these caps in "average household spend" is not particularly helpful and frankly confusing for the average consumer. They should have just come with a "figure" per kwh of what the electricity and gas would be capped at. i.e. if they said we will cap electricity at 40p/kwh for the country. or a range of 38-42p/kwh, which is a x% saving compared to current prices, that would have been miles clearer than the confusing message they announced was the cap.

We already get people coming on here to complain that their cap isn't exactly the cap in the MSE email, so giving a range would be no help.

Having said that, we also get many people on here who say they don't know what a unit or a kWh is, or who think the fixed DD amount they got told in April meant they could use as much as they wanted, and even someone who thought it was unfair that their bill was going to be put up to £2500 when others had their bills reduced.

I think trying to make anything understandable for the general public is a losing battle. 

Spoonie_Turtle

MWT said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I agree, but for anyone joining after the July change, the cap is WAY above.  I don't know about people on the earlier versions with the 40p electricity cap, but for those of us paying a lot more most days each day going by is costing extra money whilst we wait for the information to be able to make an informed decision.

If anyone is on the 78/22p electric/gas version there isn't much to hope for, even if the tariff does qualify for government support it isn't going to get anywhere close to the SVT, so not sure I'd be holding out for a miracle on that one...

Indeed, but the July version has caps of 55p/16p.  Say, completely hypothetically*, they took off a max 17p/4p per kWh like on fixes, might be worth the gamble staying on for any dips below the EPG.

(*Very VERY extremely hypothetically, with absolutely no expectation that it's even a possibility they've considered.)

We just don't know, and won't know until they tell us.

MWT

Spoonie_Turtle said:

MWT said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I agree, but for anyone joining after the July change, the cap is WAY above.  I don't know about people on the earlier versions with the 40p electricity cap, but for those of us paying a lot more most days each day going by is costing extra money whilst we wait for the information to be able to make an informed decision.

If anyone is on the 78/22p electric/gas version there isn't much to hope for, even if the tariff does qualify for government support it isn't going to get anywhere close to the SVT, so not sure I'd be holding out for a miracle on that one...

Indeed, but the July version has caps of 55p/16p.  Say, completely hypothetically*, they took off a max 17p/4p per kWh like on fixes, might be worth the gamble staying on for any dips below the EPG.

(*Very VERY extremely hypothetically, with absolutely no expectation that it's even a possibility they've considered.)

We just don't know, and won't know until they tell us.

Hopefully we will know soon enough, but there are certainly a few hurdles between now and the outcome you would at least like to have the opportunity to consider...