Octopus Tracker

Telegraph_Sam

Interesting observations to add to the scenario.
For the time being I intend to stick to the belt & braces (manual and smart readings) routine, combined with monitoring these readings on the bills, coupled with variable full D/D's, since from what I can see it has produced the goods. That said I have not gone to the extent of checking the individual periods, but rely on the forum to flag up any systemic bugs in this area.

Qyburn

masonic said:
This issue might have been fixed (at least for me).  

If it doesn't stay fixed it would be worth raising it as a complaint. That's what I did to get them to bill just once a month, after a few blockheaded responses. As a complaint I think it sits on their systems until resolved, and you get the same person handing it. Either way that fixed my issue immediately, and they even checked back next month to make sure it was still working.

masonic

The bill is now in, and it turns out I did not guess correctly. My daily usage figures have been taken into account in the bill, so thankfully all of my load shifting and generous usage on the very cheap Christmas days have been billed at the correct rate. What has happened is that because I submitted a reading that included usage on the day I submitted it for (rather than a midnight read), these additional units have been apportioned across the billing period so that each day's consumption is slightly higher and in effect I have paid for that extra day's usage at the December/January average rate. Which I'm not complaining about!

This bill is also the first I've received since joining Tracker that contains index readings and it was the start and end readings that were used to calculate my total consumption and then scale my daily consumption figures.

All in all a good outcome, and fingers crossed going forward it will all be automatic. If not then I will probably take your advice @Qyburn

Telegraph_Sam

I submit my manual readings as near to 12.01 am on the day following the period end date as I can manage. It seems to have worked but I haven't delved into the averaging (yet).
When is something a "complaint" rather than a moan or is there no real distinction? I have been on at them for a few months about the missing index / start and finish readings on the invoices

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

I submit my manual readings as near to 12.01 am on the day following the period end date as I can manage. It seems to have worked but I haven't delved into the averaging (yet).
When is something a "complaint" rather than a moan or is there no real distinction? I have been on at them for a few months about the missing index / start and finish readings on the invoices

If you're getting nowhere via normal channels then it might help to raise a complaint if it is something more than a minor annoyance. The front line support are pretty bad at dealing with less common issues. I'd wait until after your next bill though as the issue may have been fixed globally.

In future, if I submit another manual reading, I will know to subtract the usage so far that day from the reading I provide.

northernstar007

off topic a little bit but worth checking, i became a octopus customer nov23, checking my credit file octopus has not been updated with my payments, BUT they have me as "last updated 1st july23" and then start date nov23
i would advise people to check there credit file to make sure correct entries have been made with payments

mmmmikey

I gave Octopus meter readings yesterday and emailed them to advise them that I haven't been getting bills. No great urgency from my point of view as I have all the readings so it should just be a question of them sorting out the bills when they get round to it. I find that firing off a quick email is the easiest way to deal with this low urgency stuff. Sometimes they reply quickly but sometimes its a few days but doesn't really matter to me as long as things get sorted. My Wheel of Fortune issue was unrelated - turned out to be browser related, and I've now added another 2p to my Octoplus total (so something to celebrate).

I do think that Octopus are slipping at the moment with their basic admin. If it was any other supplier I suspect there would be howls of protest on this forum. But it does seem likely that the current problems are due to a combination of rapid growth and/or sorting out various anomolies around contract end dates and so on. So very happy with Octopus overall, but definitely in my case not as good at billing as EDF were, who's systems always just worked. Note that I was paying whole amount monthly so got a bill every month from EDF and the bills were always accurate. Really just making this point because I do think there is sometimes a tendency on this forum to put suppliers in either the "can do no wrong" category or the "can do no right" category whereas the reality, in my view, is that situation is far more nuanced.

In the meantime I notice that Tracker prices tomorrow have eased back a bit which is interesting given the predicted lack of wind. Only goes to show that there are many different factors effecting the price.

masonic

My experience has been 1-2 weeks for an email response, and usually not as good a response as their social media team, but I agree about email being better for non-urgent stuff rather than overburdening the Twitter crew (it was the latter who sorted it for me after I sent several emails in vain over 3 months).

Telegraph_Sam

@masonic: I seem to remember that there is a box that appears with a selection of recent dates that allows you to stipulate when the billing period should end. That's my interpretation.
How do you Twitter the Octopus team now that it is X?

Spoonie_Turtle

Telegraph_Sam said:

How do you Twitter the Octopus team now that it is X?

It will be Twitter to its dying day.  Some manbaby having a giant midlife crisis isn't going to change that