Octopus Tracker

QrizB

SJMALBA said:

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?

Would it be cheeky to reply asking to speak to a human?

la531983

pfpf said:

5th Aug.
Elec evened out, Gas Actual.

5th Sept. both actual

It negates one of the points of being on this tariff. I regularly wait until 10am to find out tomorrows price to see if its more beneficial to run the washing machine etc today or tomorrow.

Spoonie_Turtle

QrizB said:

SJMALBA said:

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?

Would it be cheeky to reply asking to speak to a human?

I think I've responded before with something like 'either this is an AI response or somebody was having an off day, because this doesn't address my issue at all' so it covers the small possibility it was actually a human.  I don't think it would be too cheeky to ask - as long as you soften the blow on the off-chance it was just someone accidentally missing the point of your initial e-mail.

SpanishBlue

la531983 said:

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? 

I haven't. I only use gas for my central heating, so tend to use more on cold days when the price is likely to be higher.

It's probably only pennies but if anything, by averaging out, I probably gain from being billed that way.

masonic

QrizB said:

SJMALBA said:

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?

Would it be cheeky to reply asking to speak to a human?

It seems that the first reply to an email comes from an AI. I've contacted them by email a couple of times in the last month and in both cases the initial reply has come back within a few minutes. Most recently I asked for a bill as I hadn't received the usual monthly one. I got sent an up to date statement of my account with no charges (not even standing charges) for the entire 6 week billing period. Somehow I don't think it will stand, but my follow up message has yet to receive a reply almost a week later.

Qyburn

Ive had seven months now, the only one "smoothed" was when we had a power cut. The two affected days were billed for what looked like a normal days use. I guess Octopus doesn't understand power cuts and treats them as missing data.

la531983

Still no reply from a human, so shall hang fire.

As an aside, the UK is currently only getting 0.8% of its power from wind, which is the lowest I have ever seen. Coal currently doing 2.8! Not going to help prices with the big reliance on fossil, hopefully the wind picks up soon.

la531983

Well I have had another reply. I despair.

Thank you for reaching out to us. I apologize for any confusion caused. While we do receive half-hourly data from your smart meter, we still require regular meter readings from you. This is because our billing system relies on both the half-hourly data and the manual meter readings to ensure accurate billing.

The regular meter readings you provide act as a backup and help us verify the accuracy of the data received from your smart meter. In case there are any discrepancies or issues with the smart meter data, the manual readings serve as a reference point.

If you have any further concerns or questions, please don't hesitate to let us know. We're here to assist you.

I dont want to give them constant readings for crying out loud, how does providing a manual reading validate the daily files they get full of the half hour data? Furthermore whenever I have provided them a manual reading in the past its generated a bill straight off it, I want to keep the bill generation schedule as it iis. Do you think they are still failing to understand the issue?

QrizB

la531983 said:

Well I have had another reply. I despair....

Do you think they are still failing to understand the issue?

With that reply, I'd start to despair too.

Try CS once more, then escalate to complaints?

la531983

Think I am just going to ring them in a bit, I have some time on my hands this afternoon. Will update.