Octopus Billing Issues, have been with Octopus for a long time

gail322

Hi all,
 OAP here,
             I am starting to see practices by Octopus Energy that I am calling into question. Firstly I am not on a fixed tariff but a variable. I get notification that each month to submit a meter reading for gas and electricity and I duly pay. However this month of January I decided to look at the PDF file and noticed some worrying information, given that I have already paid my December Bill and that I pay monthly I am confused to see yet again charges for December and January I pointed out to Octopus that I have already paid in full for December and my bank statement shows this, Octopus then went on to say, "well December isn't really December its really November" oh, so why was I shown in credit from my last bill? no reply, I asked the Operative to add up the month of January which she did but then added on December, I then said ok I would like to escalate my complaint, I asked why the word Estimate appeared on my bill given that I get notification to take a meter readings and always pay in full on time, oh said the Operative estimate isn't really estimate its, well you know the price of energy going up and down, "oh I replied", then where is the asterisk with an explanation of what estimate means? phone goes quiet and I am at that stage cut off.
The bill is set out in a confusing manner why does my monthly bill show two months when I pay monthly why am I being asked to pay December when December was paid and there is clear evidence of this, if as they  say December isn't December, rather December is November then surely this is not acceptable? I do not mind paying what I owe I have clearly cut down on my engergy usage even the totals for January are considerably lower yet I do not see where the government assistance was added. I feel that the bills are miss leading why offer a monthly payment option when they take two months, why call December November? why use the word Estimate to mean changing tariff rate?
what happened to plain English By the way my bill for January was eighty seven pounds, they say my bill is actually 160 pounds yet no debt on the bill, but no explanation as to why a bill total with vat and standing charge goes from eighty seven pounds to one hundred and sixty pounds, it gets worse, at the bottom of the page it then goes on to say pay bill, with no billing period but then jumps up to two hundred and twenty nine pounds. Can anyone help ? 

Gerry1

If a price change occurs on a date between two meter readings then the meter reading on that date will have to be estimated.  Unless you were on holiday during the month or had a football team to stay, any variance is likely to be very small.

Astria

If for example you submit a meter reading on the 25th each month and the energy price increases on the 1st January (which it did), then they would have to estimate your usage between the 25th Dec to the 1st of January, and then the 1st of Jan to the 25th of Jan unless you submitted a reading on the day of the increase, which would generate a January bill which is actually based on usage in December.

Could you post your bill, removing the personal info and we could help more?

Even a screenshot would do.

gail322

Hi Gerry,
          Thankyou for your quick reply, No I was not on holiday and even though the word estimate was used there was no definition ie a change in the side margin, this is about accuracy of information supplied and nofifying the customer should their be a tariff change, I have pointed out to the operative that they should notify so that the customer whom is not locked in a contract can then decide to switch, a bit like broadband they do tell you when the bills are likely to increase and that you have the option to switch, for two months Octopus have inserted the word estimate usually around when I have submitted a reading

Gerry1

Unfortunately you probably can't show us any bills by posting attachments or links because you're still a newbie, but you could try using a site such as Imgur and spelling out the URL.  Remember to redact all personal info including S-number, MPAN/MPRN, meter numbers etc.

gail322

Astria,
         Thankyou for your prompt reply, I have pointed out that this does not help the customer if they submit on time meter readings and feel that the tariff they are on is a good deal only to find, well, actually we changed it please pay us this, how can I budget if the goal posts keep moving? I feel because I am already paying more for my fuel then the supplier should notify, they are very quick to notify when my meter reading is due, then why not say you might like to switch the tariff is now? 

gail322

The whole point of paying more and not being locked in or on a fixed rate is that it gives the option to move should an increase take place, we know that energy companies buy fuel in bulk ahead of time so I do not understand the logic of this, on the one had energy companies  say well we bought our fuel at this price its not our fault the price dropped during this period, but on the other it does not work, if they buy in advance then they know the price, I paid more so that I have the flexible option to leave should their be a price rise, why pay more if you only get to know that there has been a price rise after which doesn't add up to the usual mantra that they buy in advance and that was the suppliers reason for charging what they do?

pochase

gail322 said:

Astria,
         Thankyou for your prompt reply, I have pointed out that this does not help the customer if they submit on time meter readings and feel that the tariff they are on is a good deal only to find, well, actually we changed it please pay us this, how can I budget if the goal posts keep moving? I feel because I am already paying more for my fuel then the supplier should notify, they are very quick to notify when my meter reading is due, then why not say you might like to switch the tariff is now? 

If you are an variable tariff at the moment the price will change every three month, even so with the EPG (Energy Price Guarantee) we will see the only an increase in April, and thereafter hopefully it will stay.

Nobody is telling you you might want to switch your tariff because there are no fixed tariffs available to switch to. No supplier offers any fixed tariffs at the moment.

If you are with Octopus already for a long time you should have seen before that you might receive a bill in December, but the bill is for your November usage. Very likely it will be a bill that covers part of November and part of December.

I assume that the £67 you are getting as government help at the moment might add to the confusion.

BooJewels

I wonder if you're confusing the way Octopus allow for the Government Energy Price Guarantee in their calculations - on my Octopus electricity bill, they work out my consumption from meter readings given, then the cost at the full non-discounted energy price (48.88p per kWh), then knock off the EPG difference (17.00p per kWh) as a discount.  Net result is the consumption is billed at my tariff (31.88p /kWh +VAT), but it initially looks like I'm being charged 17p per kWh more.

gail322

Hi Pochase,
              I am seeing the word estimate every month usually when the request comes though to submit a meter reading. I thought all suppliers regardless of service offered where the customer is not locked in a contract should be notified that there is likely to be a price increase, again I repeat they suppliers buy in advance, that is there argument so therefore if they are buying in advance they will know the price they have already paid . Hi BooJewels, Thankyou for your kind reply, I just want a plain easy to understand bill, no small print I see nothing to clearly show where the government help has been applied other than just the acknowledgement that it has been added. I would like a clear transparent bill so that should I choose to look for another supplier I could then clearly see the difference in charges, at the moment Octopus do not to me make the bills clear

BooJewels

I've got an Octopus bill still open, so I'll paste a couple of screengrabs for comparison.