Octopus Tracker

la531983

QrizB said:

la531983 said:

So for the 3rd time since joining the tariff in Feburary, I have received a bill today which has smoothed out the usage over the 30 days, rather than actually showing the actual usage each day and billing me accordingly. Think its to my detriment by 20p, not huge figures but if they do this to everyone...

Any idea why they do this? They have had every half hour reading from me and none are missing.

I guess it might be a manual toggle to switch from one billing model to the other?

In your position I'd drop them an email and ask (or phone/write/tweet as you prefer).

This is the 7th monthly bill and 3 of them, non consecutive, have been calculated in this way. So its a bit bemusing.

Luckily the bllls that covered the July price plunges (down to 8p or so) were correct as I shifted loads to those Sundays.

Have just sent an email to ask, will update.

la531983

And already I have had a cut and paste email back where they havent understood the issue correctly and have suggested I submit regular readings. Sigh.

SJMALBA

la531983 said:

SJMALBA said:

la531983 said:

So for the 3rd time since joining the tariff in Feburary, I have received a bill today which has smoothed out the usage over the 30 days, rather than actually showing the actual usage each day and billing me accordingly. Think its to my detriment by 20p, not huge figures but if they do this to everyone...

Any idea why they do this? They have had every half hour reading from me and none are missing.

Do you mean that you are not getting the 'Your daily electricity/gas rates' page in the bill, showing daily unit rates and usage? Or are you looking only at the average unit rate, calculated from the aforementioned data, as displayed on the 'Your charges in detail' section of the bill?

I am getting usage broken down by day on the final page as per normal, but its been smoothed for the month, each day has either 9 or 10 units of use. This doesnt reflect my actual usage each day. The total is correct, however.

For example on the 23rd August I used 14.39kwH but the bill says 10.29. Conversely on the 29th August I used 8.81kwH but the bill says 10.37.

Just baffling when most other bills have been correct and there have been no gaps this month (smart meter reporting fine) and the app shows the correct daily usage. Sometimes you can end up "winning" if they do it this way but this month its 20p higher than my own calculations, I know its not much but its not the point. Whats the point of shifting usage to perhaps a cheaper day tomorrow if they are just going to smooth it out?

Strange - I have non-smart meters, and haven't had any 'smoothing', just the apportioned usage for each day, as per their procedure when smart meters are not in use.

Have you contacted Octopus to query it?

la531983

SJMALBA said:

la531983 said:

SJMALBA said:

la531983 said:

So for the 3rd time since joining the tariff in Feburary, I have received a bill today which has smoothed out the usage over the 30 days, rather than actually showing the actual usage each day and billing me accordingly. Think its to my detriment by 20p, not huge figures but if they do this to everyone...

Any idea why they do this? They have had every half hour reading from me and none are missing.

Do you mean that you are not getting the 'Your daily electricity/gas rates' page in the bill, showing daily unit rates and usage? Or are you looking only at the average unit rate, calculated from the aforementioned data, as displayed on the 'Your charges in detail' section of the bill?

I am getting usage broken down by day on the final page as per normal, but its been smoothed for the month, each day has either 9 or 10 units of use. This doesnt reflect my actual usage each day. The total is correct, however.

For example on the 23rd August I used 14.39kwH but the bill says 10.29. Conversely on the 29th August I used 8.81kwH but the bill says 10.37.

Just baffling when most other bills have been correct and there have been no gaps this month (smart meter reporting fine) and the app shows the correct daily usage. Sometimes you can end up "winning" if they do it this way but this month its 20p higher than my own calculations, I know its not much but its not the point. Whats the point of shifting usage to perhaps a cheaper day tomorrow if they are just going to smooth it out?

Strange - I have non-smart meters, and haven't had any 'smoothing', just the apportioned usage for each day, as per their procedure when smart meters are not in use.

Have you contacted Octopus to query it?

Yes, as above they have already replied with a cut and paste effort without understanding, so may need a phone call.

I get why they might need to apply a daily average on some bills (if the meter is on the blink, or they are one of the legacy Tracker customers who dont actually have a smart meter) but neither apply here.

SJMALBA

la531983 said:

And already I have had a cut and paste email back where they havent understood the issue correctly and hav,e suggested I submit regular readings. Sigh.

AI reply, perhaps? 

Then again, IME, Octopus CSAs often get things wrong (misunderstanding the question/answering something that hasn't been asked etc.)...

SpanishBlue

la531983 said:

So for the 3rd time since joining the tariff in Feburary, I have received a bill today which has smoothed out the usage over the 30 days, rather than actually showing the actual usage each day and billing me accordingly. Think its to my detriment by 20p, not huge figures but if they do this to everyone...

Any idea why they do this? They have had every half hour reading from me and none are missing.

They always do this to me with gas, never electricity. Both my smart meters send regular 1/2 hour readings with no gaps that I can see.

Last month I only used gas for a few minutes on just one day. It was still averaged to show a minute amount for every day of the month!

la531983

SpanishBlue said:

la531983 said:

So for the 3rd time since joining the tariff in Feburary, I have received a bill today which has smoothed out the usage over the 30 days, rather than actually showing the actual usage each day and billing me accordingly. Think its to my detriment by 20p, not huge figures but if they do this to everyone...

Any idea why they do this? They have had every half hour reading from me and none are missing.

They always do this to me with gas, never electricity. Both my smart meters send regular 1/2 hour readings with no gaps that I can see.

Last month I only used gas for a few minutes on just one day. It was still averaged to show a minute amount for every day of the month!

Have you ever asked as to why? 

[Deleted User]

Both my smart meters send regular 1/2 hour readings with no gaps that I can see.

Pedant warning. Smart meters do not send ‘regular 1/2 readings’. The supplier carries out a daily data pull that recovers the midnight index readings and an XML file which contains the 30 minute usage data. You might think that there is no data loss but this can and does happen:

la531983

To answer the above pedantry, I have been through the entire billing period on the Octopus app and there is not a single half hour gap on the app.

pfpf

5th Aug.
Elec evened out, Gas Actual.

5th Sept. both actual