Octopus Tracker

masonic

Telegraph_Sam said:

I've noticed that in the yearly view of my latest Compare there is a clear contradiction between the graphs and the colum totals for Agile and Tracker respectively.

Are you using the correct axis to read off the value, and not mixing up consumption with cost?

Telegraph_Sam

Yes, no. I'm looking at the two clearly marked cost lines. Just as for other views where the distinction is less obvious. Consumption is represented by a solid green bar chart.

tghe-retford

MP1995 said:

It's not high on Agile and that's the indicator of when prices are cheap during the day not tracker.

Tracker could be largely obsolete within a year if Octopus continue to review and add costs to the formula so always worth trying it out now on compare but pretending you are on agile for a few days to see what you can save when tracker is no longer worth the risk.

Companies do this in order to make a product so undesirable that everyone quits but they don't want to just axe the product and have everyone shift to another energy provider in protest. Unless the consumers are so unprofitable and likely to never go above the expected average revenue per user that they are a millstone around the neck of the company that they need to get rid of.

I get the impression that Octopus sees Tracker in this manner and wants everyone to move to Agile or Variable but not pull Tracker from the market and have them move to other competitors.

I've had this happen to myself before with a mobile phone plan I was on. They made the cost so high that it was unviable to remain on it.

Doc_N

tghe-retford said:

MP1995 said:

It's not high on Agile and that's the indicator of when prices are cheap during the day not tracker.

Tracker could be largely obsolete within a year if Octopus continue to review and add costs to the formula so always worth trying it out now on compare but pretending you are on agile for a few days to see what you can save when tracker is no longer worth the risk.

Companies do this in order to make a product so undesirable that everyone quits but they don't want to just axe the product and have everyone shift to another energy provider in protest. Unless the consumers are so unprofitable and likely to never go above the expected average revenue per user that they are a millstone around the neck of the company that they need to get rid of.

I get the impression that Octopus sees Tracker in this manner and wants everyone to move to Agile or Variable but not pull Tracker from the market and have them move to other competitors.

I've had this happen to myself before with a mobile phone plan I was on. They made the cost so high that it was unviable to remain on it.

Precisely. Tracker was a useful way to attract new customers for a relatively new company. Octopus no longer needs it, and it’s becoming increasingly unattractive.

Telegraph_Sam

If Compare is telling me that with my consumption profile there is little to chose between Agile and Tracker then I can't see any advantage in switching (to Agile). Granted that Agile gives you real time pricing, this is only an advantage if you have large consumption devices that can be switched on, and off, at short notice.
The two tariffs should broadly move in sync  but with Tracker having a time lag.
That is my understanding of the mechanics.  I stand to be corrected where appropriate please.

SJMALBA

Doc_N said:

tghe-retford said:

MP1995 said:

It's not high on Agile and that's the indicator of when prices are cheap during the day not tracker.

Tracker could be largely obsolete within a year if Octopus continue to review and add costs to the formula so always worth trying it out now on compare but pretending you are on agile for a few days to see what you can save when tracker is no longer worth the risk.

Companies do this in order to make a product so undesirable that everyone quits but they don't want to just axe the product and have everyone shift to another energy provider in protest. Unless the consumers are so unprofitable and likely to never go above the expected average revenue per user that they are a millstone around the neck of the company that they need to get rid of.

I get the impression that Octopus sees Tracker in this manner and wants everyone to move to Agile or Variable but not pull Tracker from the market and have them move to other competitors.

I've had this happen to myself before with a mobile phone plan I was on. They made the cost so high that it was unviable to remain on it.

Precisely. Tracker was a useful way to attract new customers for a relatively new company. Octopus no longer needs it, and it’s becoming increasingly unattractive.

Indeed - now, apparently, the second largest supplier behind BG (for electricity specifically, the largest), the increasingly onerous Ts & Cs and, in particular, the (now) regular, significant cost increases they've chosen to apply, has suggested for sometime now that they want to kill it off, without actually dropping it.

Still, it proved very good before all of that, for those of us lucky enough to have been on since/throughout 'the good old days'. 

Telegraph_Sam

The cost increases are presumably as one version succeeds another, and not within the validay of any one version?

Doc_N

Telegraph_Sam said:

The cost increases are presumably as one version succeeds another, and not within the validay of any one version?

That’s it. 

Telegraph_Sam

When would you expect to see the small print  / T's & C's of Tracker Feb 2025?

Qyburn

Telegraph_Sam said:

If Compare is telling me that with my consumption profile there is little to chose between Agile and Tracker then I can't see any advantage in switching (to Agile)

I think people have been suggesting you try to adjust your profile, just to see what difference it makes.

On the other hand I think you have solar don't you? If so then presumably you're importing so little the price is almost immaterial.That's certainly the case with us at the moment, and furthermore of the 0.25kWh or so per day that's imported, a lot falls within the peak times due to cooking loads.