Octopus Energy Shocking Practice

cm4ever

..... another 1st time poster knocking Octopus, there's a bit of a pattern happening or it's purely coincidental.

I'm sorry some people seem to believe it's always either not fair or down to someone else's responsibility to ensure their service that they pay for (whatever it is, in this case electricity) is running perfectly without any issues - as long as the direct debit has been taken and they haven't been contacted?

Busy lives or not, people need to take responsibility for their own lives and interests - if that includes checking their Octopus energy bill "once every month", so be it. 

..... if some people did that, they probably would notice PDQ if something wasn't quite right and avoid the potential heartache of trying to sort it out way down the road.

born_again

SecretSanta1973 said:

Interested in whether Ellador at the top of this post got it resolved from the issue 6 months ago. I have a similar issue.

The T&C actually say “based on typical consumption patterns” which I have interpreted to mean a typical ratio of On or Off peak for an EV user (which you have to be to be on Go). It is a brief set of T&C and very ambiguous.

if there is factual evidence from the EV charger of charging at certain times of the day and factual evidence of meter reading A and B between two points in time, that should give a value that is the maximum the customer should be asked to pay. Octopus shouldn’t profiteer from their own weak technical systems falling down.

Some of the above replies suggest the customer gets invoices and should be checking this themselves - actually they get an email alerting you to an invoice, but if the DD looks reasonable and the customer has a very busy life with some more pressing problems it should be down to Octopus to spot a problem and alert the customer. We have too many things to keep an eye on nowadays, personally I have about 300 online passwords for different things and some of these are bigger issues than my energy bill.

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26 December 2022 at 4:13PM

vienly

JohnPo said:

I think the OP has a point, that from my experience Octopus are not proactive in informing the user that there is problem with the smart meter readings. Where readings have stopped for me  (the App or the online account tells you by having no data) I have had to take the initiative to contact their customer services to get the process started of getting it fixed and getting them to pull the missing data, at least once they had to send an engineer out to pull the 100amp fuse and wait 20 minutes before powering up again.

I believe the meter stores the data for up to 6 months, so really they should always be able to catch up so long as the meter can be reconnected, but it does require someone to proactively chase it.

I read people stating the smart meters store up to 13 months worth of data before it gets overwritten

[Deleted User]

vienly said:

JohnPo said:

I think the OP has a point, that from my experience Octopus are not proactive in informing the user that there is problem with the smart meter readings. Where readings have stopped for me  (the App or the online account tells you by having no data) I have had to take the initiative to contact their customer services to get the process started of getting it fixed and getting them to pull the missing data, at least once they had to send an engineer out to pull the 100amp fuse and wait 20 minutes before powering up again.

I believe the meter stores the data for up to 6 months, so really they should always be able to catch up so long as the meter can be reconnected, but it does require someone to proactively chase it.

I read people stating the smart meters store up to 13 months worth of data before it gets overwritten

Correct it is 13 months of import data and 3 months of export. In future, tariff comparisons will be done by pulling the last 12 months of smart meter data.

[Deleted User]

The terms and conditions are very clear. With the Octopus App it is very easy to see whether the meter is providing 30 minute usage data:

Go:

1. Octopus Go is a variable tariff, with your daily standing charge, quoted day rate and night rate per kWh (for 4 hours starting 00:30).
2. By taking Octopus Go, you agree to us using half-hourly consumption data collected from your smart meter to bill you.
3. In the absence of half hourly smart meter data, we will charge you as we would a customer on our Flexible Octopus variable tariff, based on typical consumption patterns (known as “Profile 1”).
4. Octopus Go is a beta product. This means some things may not work first time or may break and that on occasion data issues with smart meters can take significant time to fix or prevent things working at all. You will always be able to switch to one of our fairly priced standard tariffs at any time.
5. You can switch away from our Octopus Go tariff to one of our standard tariffs any time without financial penalty, but you can’t move back to one of our smart tariffs (Agile Octopus or Octopus Go) within 30 days.
6. Our Octopus Go Tariff is designed for customers who either own or long term lease a battery electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid vehicle that they will be charging at home.
7. If you sign up to our Octopus Go tariff but do not meet this eligibility criteria we can place you on an alternative tariff that we consider is more appropriate for your circumstances. We will let you know if we do this and advise you of the rates and terms that apply to the alternative tariff.

QrizB

I'm on Go. Some time in the middle of last year Octopus configured my meter as dual-rate meaning I have an index record of kWh used on each of the Go rates.

Possibly they did this to help avoid the problem that the OP had?

Petriix

It's (unfortunately) necessary to regularly check that your smart meter data is sending correctly and take remedial steps if not. It only takes a few seconds in the app or online. With a nudge, Octopus can usually resolve connectivity issues remotely. However some people require an engineer visit and, ultimately, some smart meters never communicate reliably. Definitely don't just assume everything is fine, otherwise you might be in for a bit of a shock later; as highlighted here. It's not ideal, but that's how it is. 

[Deleted User]

Octopus checks all its smart meters every 14 days.

debitcardmayhem

Dolor said:

Octopus checks all its smart meters every 14 days.

How did you get that report ?  Without a link it could be that you are defending Octopus

debitcardmayhem

mortgageFTB said:

Ignorance isn’t a defence.

To which post are you referring ?