Octopus, have they let down their SOLR customers?

JohnPo

pochase said:

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.

I think Martin Lewis on this website has stated that it was introduced in April 2022 and recently was made even more onerous - see here  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/ofgem-announces-plans-to-change-the-energy-price-cap-every-three/

So I standby what I previous said about this being a positive disincentive for suppliers to offer any good deals to new customers, and then by consequence all existing customer deals to be not that great.

pochase

Yes it says there plans. So nothing exists at the moment.

JohnPo

pochase said:

Yes it says there plans. So nothing exists at the moment.

Which bit of 'It was introduced in April' did you miss?

I have cut and paste a little bit the from the article on this site that I posted the URL to. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/ofgem-announces-plans-to-change-the-energy-price-cap-every-three/

What is the 'market stabilisation charge' – and what does it mean for bills?

The 'market stabilisation charge' is a charge on suppliers when they sign up new customers. When you switch, the new supplier will have to pay this fee to the old provider if wholesale energy prices fall significantly.

It was introduced in April to enable suppliers that have bought lots of energy in advance – to cover the higher number of customers on standard variable tariffs right now – to recover some of the costs if wholesale prices drop suddenly and they see huge numbers of customers switching away from their standard tariff, according to Ofgem.

So to say it again, this is why even prices fall in the wholesale market, there will be no good deals of any kind to switch to for quite some time.

johnbhoy70

There were Eon/Sainsburys deals kicking about a few weeks before the alarm bells at AVRO started becoming deafening. I jumped to Sainsburys and glad i took the gamble. It was a gamble because i was giving up AVRO's rates when they hadn't officially gone and was paying £25 a month for the privilege of doing so. That wouldn't sit well with many that use this forum but in hindsight it's paid off but it wasn't risk free. It was brinkmanship that luckily paid off for us and i actually missed an even cheaper Sainsburys deal as pondered too much.

Also, on the AVRO/Octopus thread i've posted a couple of times i've not been impressed by Octopus CS but accept it was a huge task for them and guys like me were understandly bottom of their priority list

QrizB

Mstty said:

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.

If you're referring to this poll, that doesn't show what you're claiming it shows.

If you're referring to a different poll, please provide a reference.

Ofgem used to publish a SVT league table but I can't find a recent one. They do have some market indicators here but I don't have time before work to ferret through them.

JohnPo said:

pochase said:

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

I think Martin Lewis on this website has stated that it was introduced in April 2022 and recently was made even more onerous - see here  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/ofgem-announces-plans-to-change-the-energy-price-cap-every-three/

So I standby what I previous said about this being a positive disincentive for suppliers to offer any good deals to new customers, and then by consequence all existing customer deals to be not that great.

The mechanism was introduced in April, but there is currently no charge in force.

See Ofgem's dashboard here:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/market-stabilisation-charge-dashboard

Mstty

Morning, I can't read those multiple grabs of comments and responses they are horrendous on the phone screen.and the reply quote is a nightmare to edit.

Octopus do not have a decent fixed rate like other suppliers for SOLR'd customers to chose to save £200-600 between this Apr to Oct to get themselves fixed and ready for winter. People like a fix whether now or three years ago. Over 60% from that poll and I suspect it may be more love a fix. (Will check for some industry figures later today)

It has been pointed out this may be a business decision by them (and other suppliers which can be named and shamed as well)

I am happy for my initial post to be pulled apart we will get there in the end as to how everyone wants it phrased and worded.

The fact remains the lottery of SOLR meant those people looking, and historically used to a fixed deal, who ended up with Octopus will be sadly let down. 

Sea_Shell

I know what you're trying to say Mstty, and it's a shame you're being pulled apart on it.


The fact is that every SoLR customer has been placed with a supplier, not of their choosing.   Some have ended up with poor customer service, some with one who doesn't offer fixes and others with confusing billing and some with probably other flaws.

Octopus was just one example (which has been jumped on).

The point is that it has been a lottery who people have been placed with, and now they have very little say in what happens next.

AIUI, there is no further guidance from OFGEM as to how SoLR customers have to be treated, or what service/deals should be offered over and above being placed on the SVT.

Its a bit "dump 'em and run".

pochase

The main problem is that suppliers don't accept new consumers on their SVT and that they offer "good" fixed rates only to existing customers.

I don't think it is right to blame Octopus for not doing "good" fixed tariffs, they have their own business model with tariffs like tracker, agile and Octopus Go. You cannot expect them to introduce another potential loss maker.

Octopus and EDF are the two suppliers that still will accept new customers, and people who like their tariffs are still able to join them and take up their products.

Shouldn't you blame instead the suppliers who don't allow people to join them, instead of the company who allows that?

Xbigman

Sea_Shell said:

I know what you're trying to say Mstty, and it's a shame you're being pulled apart on it.


The fact is that every SoLR customer has been placed with a supplier, not of their choosing.   Some have ended up with poor customer service, some with one who doesn't offer fixes and others with confusing billing and some with probably other flaws.

Octopus was just one example (which has been jumped on).

The point is that it has been a lottery who people have been placed with, and now they have very little say in what happens next.

AIUI, there is no further guidance from OFGEM as to how SoLR customers have to be treated, or what service/deals should be offered over and above being placed on the SVT.

Its a bit "dump 'em and run".

It was a lottery who SoLR customers were placed with. I completely agree. I ended up with BG who I detest. So I switched to Octopus for the only acceptable fix available at the time (individual circumstances will differ of course). But that brings up a big point. I was with Bristol Energy who were the last supplier of any size to go bust and I managed to switch away. Octopus took on some of the first SoLR customers, so EVERY early Octopus SoLR customer has had multiple opportunities to fix or switch away. If they feel trapped now it is their own fault. I have a bit of sympathy for them but no sympathy for the attempts to blame a decent energy company for customers poor decisions. If my Agile prices see a massive cap or standing charge increase you won't see me blaming Octopus for my decisions. Although I might have a quick moan about it I will rapidly move on. 

The title of this thread is a question. Have Octopus let down their SoLR customers?


No.



Darren

Mstty

Thanks for your reply @Pochase.

Again this is solely aimed at Octopus and a scenario whereby especially on this group/forum there are daily posts about gas for 8-9.5p kWh and Electriciry 33-38p kWh fixes and it needs pointing out for those that want these kind of fixes if they were SOLR'd to Octopus they will have lost out on the lottery.

They cannot switch to EDF (even though they will accept new customer) because when they do they are not existing but new and get offered the sort of fix rates Octopus have which are basically Oct '22 cap rates. They are stuck in a catch 22 situation.

I may not have articulated the point that well but hopefully getting there👍

You have a point, Ofgem could or should have done more to create a level playing field and perhaps this is the outlet for these trapped people to complain.