Persuading/Forcing Octopus to bill monthly

Raxiel

I'm billed on the 9th. I used to be billed on the 1st, but I changed tariff on the 9th of November last year and it's been the 9th ever since.

When they actually issue the statement related to those charges seems to be a bit up in the air at the moment because crediting me for export is apparently proving a challenge.

Qyburn

matt_drummer said:

... if you pay by fixed monthly direct debit the date and period of the bill is pretty much irrelevant?

I don't. I actually don't agree with your point either. Think how many threads you see here where people's actual usage is concealed behind a fixed monthly DD, and the confusion caused by that. Not to mention all the arguments about credit balances and whether a particular monthly figure is or is not fair or correct.

marlot

When I was on a manual meter, I would read it roughly monthly, and be billed a day or two later.

Now I'm on a smart meter, I get billed on the 6th of each month.  I'm content with that.

matt_drummer

Qyburn said:

matt_drummer said:

... if you pay by fixed monthly direct debit the date and period of the bill is pretty much irrelevant?

I don't. I actually don't agree with your point either. Think how many threads you see here where people's actual usage is concealed behind a fixed monthly DD, and the confusion caused by that. Not to mention all the arguments about credit balances and whether a particular monthly figure is or is not fair or correct.

I can't see a connection between the billing date/period  and a customer being  confused by their fixed monthly payment and the bill for usage.

Whatever the date and period of their bill, they would still be confused if they thought their fixed monthly payment was their bill.

I don't think that is what this thread is about.

It is about being billed for complete calender months, so a customer can say I spent this much in January, this in February etc.

TheElectricCow

Haven't been on the Octopus train too long but my bills seem to come in around the end/start of each month so far. I don't believe I had any particular impact on that decision though my best guess is it's like that because I happened to switch to them at the end of a Month.

Still miles better than Eon Next who, despite assuring me they'd fixed the problem, couldn't manage to send one single bill per month and would instead do 3-4 on a not quite random but very inconsistent schedule each month. Wasn't a huge issue as it didn't impact the overall balance, but was quite annoying when each one bill covers a different length of time (between 3 and 20+ days) and having to look at 4 different documents to check a full months usage.

Qyburn

It is about being billed for complete calender months, so a customer can say I spent this much in January, this in February etc.

That is it exactly, meaning that bills and usage can be compared with previous months and previous years even though these were from differing suppliers.

Meanwhile I have has some more constructive responses from Octopus. First saying that bills were raised on the 20th because the Smart Meter "took a reading on the 20th". They went on to say they have "sent a request through to the meter to change the billing date to the 1st of the month". I don't know if their terminology is technically correct or not, but it seems the intent is there.

matt_drummer

Qyburn said:

It is about being billed for complete calender months, so a customer can say I spent this much in January, this in February etc.

That is it exactly, meaning that bills and usage can be compared with previous months and previous years even though these were from differing suppliers.

Meanwhile I have has some more constructive responses from Octopus. First saying that bills were raised on the 20th because the Smart Meter "took a reading on the 20th". They went on to say they have "sent a request through to the meter to change the billing date to the 1st of the month". I don't know if their terminology is technically correct or not, but it seems the intent is there.

Whatever the billing period, it is reasonably straightforward, if you remember, to take a meter reading at any time you like to compare usage, a bit more work to compare spend I guess.

But with Octopus and smart meters, in the app or on the website you can easily compare usage in Kwh/m3 on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

My billing period is to the 9th of each month but in my account I can see exactly how much electricity and gas I used for each of the last twelve months.

The fact that my bills are for a different period does not prevent me from seeing my usage in calender months, and it is all presented in a nice easy to read bar graph.

For me the billing period is irrelevant, as long as the meter readings on the bill correspond to my actual meters then it's all good.

_Sam_

TheElectricCow said:

Haven't been on the Octopus train too long but my bills seem to come in around the end/start of each month so far. I don't believe I had any particular impact on that decision though my best guess is it's like that because I happened to switch to them at the end of a Month.

Same here, we joined mid of the month and so our bills are issued mid-monthly. DD I asked to be 1st day of the month. 

Qyburn

Just to update, Octopus were as good as their word and generated the bill dated 1st April covering the period up to and including 31st March. By the way it's annoying that Octopus no longer shows meter reading history. It was only when I went in to submit my manual reading that I could see they had logged the month end Smart reading. 

I've just had an email asking if I'm happy for the complaint to be closed as resolved, which I am.