Octopus not returning credit balance - what to do?

Ultrasonic

vienly said:

I sent them an email on the 31 Aug 2022, didn't get reply until 12/09/2022, I replied to their email and didn't get a response until today.

So initial email took them 12 days to respond.
2nd email took 8 days for them to respond

No where near their estimated time scale of 1 day 14 hours (picture above)

Always quicker to call and talk to someone despite what they say about email response times

To be fair to Octopus, I'm sure all energy companies are getting swamped with customers asking questions about the government EPG scheme.

MWT

vienly said:

No where near their estimated time scale of 1 day 14 hours (picture above)

That isn't an estimated time scale, it is the median response time.

So half the emails they receive get a replay within that time, it says nothing about how long the other half take...

So if you imagine that half the emails arriving can easily be answered immediately with no effort taking no more than 1 day 14 hours, anything that needs to go up the chain a little further can take a lot longer an that median still doesn't change...

Spoonie_Turtle

Ultrasonic said:

vienly said:

I sent them an email on the 31 Aug 2022, didn't get reply until 12/09/2022, I replied to their email and didn't get a response until today.

So initial email took them 12 days to respond.
2nd email took 8 days for them to respond

No where near their estimated time scale of 1 day 14 hours (picture above)

Always quicker to call and talk to someone despite what they say about email response times

To be fair to Octopus, I'm sure all energy companies are getting swamped with customers asking questions about the government EPG scheme.

Exactly.  They're "usually" pretty speedy, but we're not in 'usual' times at the moment.

Chrysalis

vienly said:

Chrysalis said:

They deffo are treating emails as the lowest of low priority, which seems counter productive if they want to get people of the phones.

I would ring them.  I only use emails now if either I dont mind waiting a couple of weeks or want a email trail of what I am asking.

Also if the email request is complex it seems its not unusual for it not get answered at all, seems to be some cherry picking going on.

they say 1 day 14 hours, for me it's always 2 weeks or more lol
always call them if you need something, majority of the things gets sorted over the phone

I have seen that, but I can only speak of my own experiences, I dont think I have ever had a email reply in under 2 days from them.  The last one took a little over 2 weeks.   But they do at least offer email support, which a lot of companies have abandoned.

I think Octopus have been suffering since they became a SOLR.

vienly

I find calling them 10/10 better than email

pete-20-11

I believe their email support is to the same agent each time, so there can be delays if someone is on leave for a few days. 

On the positive side it does mean that it should be easier to resolve issues as you’re not talking to a different person per reply. 

Heinzbean

 I also e-mailed them 8 days ago  no reply .My credit is about £320 which is pointless being in their account .

 my monthly bill( Elec+Gas) is only about £70 summer months. Predicted monthly payment for October(£2500cap) onwards about £110Per Month.

So  Sept=£70 Oct=£110 Nov  Dec= £110 Totals = £290 if they don't get in touch i will just cut the direct debit and they can take it out of the credit. I bet they will E-mail me straight away.

[Deleted User]

Heinzbean said:

 I also e-mailed them 8 days ago  no reply .My credit is about £320 which is pointless being in their account .

 my monthly bill( Elec+Gas) is only about £70 summer months. Predicted monthly payment for October(£2500cap) onwards about £110Per Month.

So  Sept=£70 Oct=£110 Nov  Dec= £110 Totals = £290 if they don't get in touch i will just cut the direct debit and they can take it out of the credit. I bet they will E-mail me straight away.

Yes, they probably will email you to say that you are now being put on a more expensive tariff.

A £70 summer bill, after unit price rises on 1 Oct and accounting for winter usage, is unlikely to be a £110 winter bill - plus you managed to miss November out of your calculation entirely.

MWT

Heinzbean said:

So  Sept=£70 Oct=£110 Nov  Dec= £110 Totals = £290 if they don't get in touch i will just cut the direct debit and they can take it out of the credit. I bet they will E-mail me straight away.

I bet they wouldn't..

Octopus are generally happy when you manage your own DD settings as long as your account stays positive they do not usually feel the need to intervene.

In general though, your account should be in credit at this time of the year, so just manage it via the DD I would suggest, I certainly wouldn't be taking it down to zero though.

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

Totally agree with @MWT. This is one of the reasons Octopus got told off by Ofgem, as they are setting Direct debits too low, haha

https://twitter.com/g__j/status/1547204634913214464