Octopus Energy Billing Error:Worth complaining?

snarffie

Hi,

Just wondering if there is my point complaining to Octopus for a billing error and trying to get some compensation out of them.

We were switched from Avro to Octopus in September 2021 and have been paying the same amount by DD since the switch. I have been checking my credit balance over the months with a view to increasing my monthly payment, but as the credit kept going up, I just thought I would delay until the credit started going down.

I now have a largish credit of about £700, so did a bit more digging into the online bills to find that the electricity usage/estimated readings have been stuck on the Avro reading for the last year, so we have only been paying the standing charge.  I phoned Octopus this week to ask them to look at this and they have referred it to a supervisor and told me to call back next week to give the, time to get it looked into.  I also gave them my current meter reading which has been put on file.

I suspect that they will sort this out and I’ll obviously get a bill for an entire year’s electricity usage in one go.  I appreciate that there are people in horrible situations with their bills right now, so thought twice about making this post as we are able to pay the bill, but wonder if it is worth asking for some compensation from Octopus for their error?

Thanks in advance for any helpful thoughts!

[Deleted User]

You want compensation because you will have to pay for the energy that you have actually used?

I wouldn't be asking, but maybe that's just me.

victor2

Back billing won't apply as it's less than a year.

Email them so that you have a record of the conversation. If they drag out resolving it then the back billing issue may come into play, so long as you've done your bit and the problem is entirely theirs.

As @[Deleted User] says, why do you want compensation? They would have to estimate your usage before and after the April price increase, unless you have provided them with readings at the relevant times. You might be lucky and they'll just write off some of your debt to bring the account up to date.

bagand96

Are you on smart meters? Or if not have you given them any meter reads over the last year? 

You've been checking your account but not checking your bills? Have they generated any bills?

You could may be ask for something if you raise a complaint, but probably have to accept that this could have been bought to light sooner given you were logging into your account.

The thing to be careful of now is that your tariff will have changed during the year inline with the Ofgem cap. You need to make sure they don't just bill for all the usage at todays rate. 

snarffie

The back-billing rules are interesting. Maybe if I had never picked up the error for Octopus, I might have only paid for a year’s bills from the date they discovered the error! It would be scary to rack up multiple years of electricity bills in the current climate in the hope that my understanding of back-billing is correct though 

In answer to the replies above, I didn’t really have a reason why I would be entitled to compensation (I think my OP alludes to this) but this is one of the uses of these forums-to consult the hive mind for new ideas. 

Astria

You might well get compensation but not in the way you are expecting - you might get in the way of not being charged the full rate for the electricity you have used.

I make it a habit to take a photograph of both meters at the beginning of every month and submitting them as I don't have a smart meter, but I'd still take the photograph for my own records even if I had a smart meter.

snarffie

Hi bagand96,

The Octopus website is laid out to show payment, credit etc in one area as a dumbed down summary which I’ve always used, so never noticed that I was paying just a few pounds for electricity.  You have to got to another are to check the actual electronic copies of the paper-style bills which I never did until now. I accept that I have a responsibility to check my actual full bills each time, of course.

I did ask if I would end up paying the whole year on the higher price cap, but was assured that that won’t happen (crossed fingers).

Alnat1

Is there a starting meter read from when Octopus took over the account, or at least a final reading from the Avro bill? 

You should be able to make a decent estimate of how much you owe if you read the meter now and know if the £700 will cover most of it.

niktheguru

I'm a bit confused by this post. Snarffie hasn't answered the most important question.

Do you have smart meters and were they uploading readings. If you have smart meters then octopus should be able to tap into them and get your exact usage and bill you accurately, even if retrospectively.

If you don't have smart meters were you supplying regular readings of your meter? If not then why not?

If you've been providing regular readings and octopus just haven't been billing you then getting relatively accurate bills shouldn't be an issue.

They may well have not been billing you for sometime but surely it shouldn't take a year for alarm bells to ring when your credit balance is steadily increasing at a time when electricity charges/prices are increasing and increasing!

I'm not quite sure what a complaint would achieve, though knowing octopus they will prob give you 30 quid compensation.

pochase

I see no chance that £70 per month will cover it. OP says it is the same DD he paid already for the cheap Avro fix.

So price increase going onto SVT, new SVT October 2021 and increase April 2022.

I agree with a small compensation between £25 and £50 if you are lucky.

bagand96

snarffie said:

Hi bagand96,

The Octopus website is laid out to show payment, credit etc in one area as a dumbed down summary which I’ve always used, so never noticed that I was paying just a few pounds for electricity.  You have to got to another are to check the actual electronic copies of the paper-style bills which I never did until now. I accept that I have a responsibility to check my actual full bills each time, of course.

I did ask if I would end up paying the whole year on the higher price cap, but was assured that that won’t happen (crossed fingers).

Most energy providers I've been with work in a similar way.  When you log in you get a snapshot of your account balance, and you have to click into bills/statements to see the proper detail.  Octopus email me every time they generate a bill with it attached as a PDF.

Did you provide Octopus any meter reads over the year, or are you on smart meters?  If they had no customer/smart reads it's very odd they didn't use estimated when generating bills rather than just 0 use. Might be an IT quirk because of something in the SoLR process.

You can always raise a complaint and see what they say.  But I'm not sure how successful it would be, there has to be some responsibility by the consumer to check their bills.  It's not a criticism of you btw, most of the country are now taking far more interest in their energy accounts then they ever have done previously, it's a good thing!