Octopus, have they let down their SOLR customers?

QrizB

Mstty said:

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

I feel sorry for any customers moved to Octopus when their energy company collapsed.
There has been no decent fixed rate to choose, nothing for months despite other lucky people moved to EDF, BG, EON etc have been awash with various good rate deals to see them through the winter and the upcoming price rises.

Shell, on the other hand, doesn't have any fixed rate deals at all. SVT or leave.

Sadly I don't see shell as one of the big 4/5/6 (how many big are there now)

You'd not brought "big" into it previously, just suppliers who took on SoLR customers - which includes Shell.

If this is one of those moving-goalposts threads, fine, I'm done.

Mstty

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

I feel sorry for any customers moved to Octopus when their energy company collapsed.
There has been no decent fixed rate to choose, nothing for months despite other lucky people moved to EDF, BG, EON etc have been awash with various good rate deals to see them through the winter and the upcoming price rises.

Shell, on the other hand, doesn't have any fixed rate deals at all. SVT or leave.

Sadly I don't see shell as one of the big 4/5/6 (how many big are there now)

You'd not brought "big" into it previously, just suppliers who took on SoLR customers - which includes Shell.

If this is one of those moving-goalposts threads, fine, I'm done.

The goalposts have not moved I was talking about Octopus and the fact they don't offer their customer new or old a decent fix rate and for those moved to them under SOLR this means they have been unduly disadvantaged landing with Octopus?

I'm not talking about Shell, you bought Shell into this and if they do the same then fair enough that's 2 suppliers. I did not say Octopus were the only one?

I think you are done because you know it's factually correct and you have been saying the same in threads recently that they don't offer a decent fix rate👍

Mstty

wakeupalarm said:

They have had the cheapest SVT though, a whole £2 per year cheaper then everyone else.  They also currently have a £4 per month loyalty discount for customers who have been with them for over 8 months.  Plus they need the money to buy Bulb Energy from taxpayers.

Good little discounts but hardly the £200-600 savings of other companies fixed deals being touted on here the past couple of months.

You might be right about bulb and the need for spare cash though

JohnPo

MattMattMattUK said:

Mstty said:

I feel sorry for any customers moved to Octopus when their energy company collapsed.

There has been no decent fixed rate to choose, nothing for months despite other lucky people moved to EDF, BG, EON etc have been awash with various good rate deals to see them through the winter and the upcoming price rises.

I know a lot of people love octopus and tracker or agile and go faster which is great for EV's but most don't have an EV or want to play the stock market in energy they want a decent fixed rate to see them through the winter.

Gripe over 

Pretty much no energy provider has a decent fixed rate tariff to choose from because there are none on the market at the moment, other providers certainly are not "awash with various good rate deals".

The market is a mess, global supply is a mess, we all have to live with that. 

Also not really understood by many but Ofgem have totally killed the market for any kind of switching if prices start to fall by introducing something called the 'Market Adjustment Mechanism'. This basically means that a gaining supplier has to pay a fee to the loosing supplier when a customer switches if wholesale prices have fallen, so the 'big 6 or 7 or whatever' know they can get away with offering relatively poor fixed priced deals as nobody will offer anything better to any new customers any time soon.

Mstty

Xbigman said:

Best customer service, most controllable DD's, no exit fees and you can pay by any method without penalty. 
Yep, you're right. A total let down.



Darren

No one mentioned total let down, that is your words, just failed customers needing a fix that's all. 

They can be great in other areas

YBR

Like all energy companies, Octopus have decided who their intended target market are and so their tariffs will reflect that.

I was with BG as SoLR who are a complete fail for customer service and I'm happy with Octopus because they let me switch to them on their SVR - very few will take new customers without high Fixed tariff. As I was looking for SVR not "decent" Fixed Tariff that's great and clearly I match their target market OK.

If you want fixes then you probably fit some other company's target market better. 

Mstty

YBR said:

Like all energy companies, Octopus have decided who their intended target market are and so their tariffs will reflect that.

I was with BG as SoLR who are a complete fail for customer service and I'm happy with Octopus because they let me switch to them on their SVR - very few will take new customers without high Fixed tariff. As I was looking for SVR not "decent" Fixed Tariff that's great and clearly I match their target market OK.

If you want fixes then you probably fit some other company's target market better. 

I think that's all valid YBR but don't you think every SOLR customer should have got some basic level of deals in all areas otherwise it was as @sea_shell says a lottery.

From a recent ongoing poll I am running it currently sits at 62% took a fixed deal. It's a popular choice for money management and taking away a but of stress and angst for many.

So stands to reason Octopus won't have been a good fit for a high percentage of SOLR'd people. 

I can understand the supporters of them but simply they won't be a good fit for those looking for a fix but they had no choice and because of the "closed" market cannot get the fix deals others on here post from other companies like BG, EDF and EON as they cannot move over to them quickly to gain a deal or won't ever be offered existing customer fixed rates. So it's catch 22 they are stuck on the SVT or a fix deal with Octopus that is basically the capped rate October DVR.

pochase

JohnPo said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Mstty said:

I feel sorry for any customers moved to Octopus when their energy company collapsed.

There has been no decent fixed rate to choose, nothing for months despite other lucky people moved to EDF, BG, EON etc have been awash with various good rate deals to see them through the winter and the upcoming price rises.

I know a lot of people love octopus and tracker or agile and go faster which is great for EV's but most don't have an EV or want to play the stock market in energy they want a decent fixed rate to see them through the winter.

Gripe over 

Pretty much no energy provider has a decent fixed rate tariff to choose from because there are none on the market at the moment, other providers certainly are not "awash with various good rate deals".

The market is a mess, global supply is a mess, we all have to live with that. 

Also not really understood by many but Ofgem have totally killed the market for any kind of switching if prices start to fall by introducing something called the 'Market Adjustment Mechanism'. This basically means that a gaining supplier has to pay a fee to the loosing supplier when a customer switches if wholesale prices have fallen, so the 'big 6 or 7 or whatever' know they can get away with offering relatively poor fixed priced deals as nobody will offer anything better to any new customers any time soon.

The market adjustment mechanism has been mentioned as potentially coming, but it does not exist at the moment.

Xbigman

As you seem to only value a company on the narrow metric of cheap fixes I'll add this to my earlier comments. The market changes. In March I switched to Octopus because it had the cheapest fix. Now it doesn't. In six months time things could swing again. For myself, Agile was more attractive than the fix I was on and I took the gamble and jumped. No other company even offers that type of tariff. 

If you want to talk about letting SoLR customers down lets talk about BG and the poor customers who's economy 7 systems BG can't support. That is a disgrace. 


Darren

Mstty

Xbigman said:

As you seem to only value a company on the narrow metric of cheap fixes I'll add this to my earlier comments. The market changes. In March I switched to Octopus because it had the cheapest fix. Now it doesn't. In six months time things could swing again. For myself, Agile was more attractive than the fix I was on and I took the gamble and jumped. No other company even offers that type of tariff. 

If you want to talk about letting SoLR customers down lets talk about BG and the poor customers who's economy 7 systems BG can't support. That is a disgrace. 


Darren

In no way did I say BG were any better or their failings less.  This was solely a reflection on Octopus and sadly two sets of relatives that really want a fix, that is all they know but stuck in a catch 22 with Octopus who sadly don't offer a decent fix.

That may appear narrow minded but as stated a recent poll suggests over 60% have fixed  so it's not really a narrow market considering the numbers of customers SOLR'd to Octopus and the percentage of them seeking a fix rate deal.

I don't see the harm in pointing out suppliers failings and successes and for sure BG and EDF are plastered all over this board.

A bit of balance from even a narrow 60% view is justified imo.