Octopus Energy takes on Avro customers

Ally_E.

elsien said:

Ally_E. said:

I have set up a direct debit now that I know roughly what my usage for the year will be, but once set up there was no option to chose a sum and still isn't. I have no idea what they will charge and I'd like to be in control of that. Based on my calculations £333 should cover it for now. I remember this feature used to be there in September, now gone. Is this just my account or is this the norm now?

You need to contact customer services if you want to set up a fixed direct debit. Otherwise they charge for the usage that month. 

They suggested higher than I had calculated but were fine with going with my lower figure for now. 

Thanks, that's not what DD used to be with them before September. I used to have a set DD that I have chosen before. I have sent them a twitter DM, but no reply yet. No point in having DD when it will be monthly usage, since that would be very expensive in the winter... whole point is to spread the cost across the summer months. 

Max68

Quick question as per Martin Lewis advice.  Is the best thing for us all to do as we approach April is send a meter readings to Octopus on 31st March and take a photo of those readings so we get billed on the lower (March) tariff for those readings?  Or is that too late?  If everyone does it that day my concern is is it possible the system  could crash and you wouldn't be able to send your readings?  From what I can see so far the system seems to calculate a "bill" pretty quickly after you have placed the reading so is the 31st the best option to make sure they don't bill you on energy used with the higher tariff?

elsien

Ally_E. said:

elsien said:

Ally_E. said:

I have set up a direct debit now that I know roughly what my usage for the year will be, but once set up there was no option to chose a sum and still isn't. I have no idea what they will charge and I'd like to be in control of that. Based on my calculations £333 should cover it for now. I remember this feature used to be there in September, now gone. Is this just my account or is this the norm now?

You need to contact customer services if you want to set up a fixed direct debit. Otherwise they charge for the usage that month. 

They suggested higher than I had calculated but were fine with going with my lower figure for now. 

Thanks, that's not what DD used to be with them before September. I used to have a set DD that I have chosen before. I have sent them a twitter DM, but no reply yet. No point in having DD when it will be monthly usage, since that would be very expensive in the winter... whole point is to spread the cost across the summer months. 

Yes, that's why I wanted one as well. I phoned them in the end. Despite the warnings about answer times and how busy they are, I got through in a few minutes on an evening. 

youravinalarrrf

Max68 said:

Quick question as per Martin Lewis advice.  Is the best thing for us all to do as we approach April is send a meter readings to Octopus on 31st March and take a photo of those readings so we get billed on the lower (March) tariff for those readings?  Or is that too late?  If everyone does it that day my concern is is it possible the system  could crash and you wouldn't be able to send your readings?  From what I can see so far the system seems to calculate a "bill" pretty quickly after you have placed the reading so is the 31st the best option to make sure they don't bill you on energy used with the higher tariff?

I stand to be corrected but my understanding is that the new Flexible Octopus rates are valid from 2nd April so the date you need to submit the meter readings is the 1st April (last day of the Flexible Avro October 2021 v1 tariff).

You can submit your meter readings anytime up to 10 days in the past via your Octopus Dashboard so there's no need for a mad rush.

Consumerist

youravinalarrrf said:

I stand to be corrected but my understanding is that the new Flexible Octopus rates are valid from 2nd April so the date you need to submit the meter readings is the 1st April (last day of the Flexible Avro October 2021 v1 tariff).

You can submit your meter readings anytime up to 10 days in the past via your Octopus Dashboard so there's no need for a mad rush.

Ah, now my understanding is that readings should be submitted on 2nd April (to include consumption up to and including 1st April).

youravinalarrrf

Consumerist said:

youravinalarrrf said:

I stand to be corrected but my understanding is that the new Flexible Octopus rates are valid from 2nd April so the date you need to submit the meter readings is the 1st April (last day of the Flexible Avro October 2021 v1 tariff).

You can submit your meter readings anytime up to 10 days in the past via your Octopus Dashboard so there's no need for a mad rush.

Ah, now my understanding is that readings should be submitted on 2nd April (to include consumption up to and including 1st April).

Having just looked at some of my latest bills you are probably right. Octopus seem to use the date of any meter reading you provide as the closing reading for the day before.

Why does everything energy related always have be so unnecessarily complicated!

Consumerist

youravinalarrrf said:

Why does everything energy related always have be so unnecessarily complicated!

It isn't helped much by the fact that the first and last dates of the period in a statement are repeated. i.e. the last date in a consumption period is also the first date of the next period.

MWT

Consumerist said:

youravinalarrrf said:

Why does everything energy related always have be so unnecessarily complicated!

It isn't helped much by the fact that the first and last dates of the period in a statement are repeated. i.e. the last date in a consumption period is also the first date of the next period.

That is kind of unavoidable as the closing reading is the opening reading for the next period so whatever date it has is going to be repeated.

Consumerist

MWT said:

That is kind of unavoidable as the closing reading is the opening reading for the next period so whatever date it has is going to be repeated.

But the closing reading IS charged in the statement so the period of the next statement should not include the date of the previous reading. Easily avoidable and other suppliers manage statements that way.

MWT

Consumerist said:

MWT said:

That is kind of unavoidable as the closing reading is the opening reading for the next period so whatever date it has is going to be repeated.

But the closing reading IS charged in the statement so the period of the next statement should not include the date of the previous reading. Easily avoidable and other suppliers manage statements that way.

It is just a matter of presentation, but arguably the way Octopus shows it is correct as the closing reading is as at a specific point in time and that point doesn't change between one period and the next.

Either way, once you understand the way your supplier does it, it should not be confusing.