Octopus Energy Bill

badbackandsides

Hello

After some advice please

I renewed my contract with Octopus energy last year just before the price cap came in. They quoted me £180 a month for 12 months (£2160) for my electric and gas. That was 50% more than what i was paying the previous year so it didn't seem to unrealistic.

Up to last week I was in credit to the tune of about £700.

Then, out of the blue, they decided to send me a 224 page bill for £1360, for my electricity usage from August '22 to April '23, putting me about £650 in the red. This additional £1360 equates to about £190 extra over this period and £370 a month for my direct debit.

I drive an EV so have a smart meter, so they should have been getting my readings every 30 mins and billing me accordingly (otherwise, what's the point of smart meters).

Luckily, I'm not a pensioner, or singe parent, otherwise this could be disasterous given the cost of living crisis. 

Before anyone says so, yes i used the electricity and so should pay for it, but how can it be right that they can do this out of the blue? I know a few people on octopus that this has happened to so am starting to think it's a tactic they use to get you to renew with them, as it make it look like your bills are going to be cheaper than they actually are (£180 a month as opposed to £370.

My question is, is it worth reporting to trading standards or the financial ombudsman? I believe they sold me their product on the basis of a supposed monthly payment of £180 a month instead of £370 as it's actually costing

thanks for reading this far

matt_drummer

Is the bill correct?

Have you used that much electricity?

TheMilkmansDad

not going to comment on everything - just the last paragraph.

The £180 would have been the estimated usage divide by 12. If you used more than your DD would not have been enough (the tariff rate is what you've agreed to not the DD). Where was the estimated usage derived from when you renewed?

Spoonie_Turtle

badbackandsides said:

I believe they sold me their product on the basis of a supposed monthly payment of £180 a month instead of £370 as it's actually costing

No.  They sold you a tariff - unit rates and standing charge - using estimated consumption to give you an estimated quote.

'Just before the price cap came in' I assume you mean before the EPG?  They only mis-sold it if they told you one tariff price and immediately started charging you a different one (unit rates and standing charge, I mean) or if they told you it was fixed but turned out to be variable or vice versa.

I wonder what's going on with your smart meter though for them to have ended up recalculating like this.  Did you check your bills in the last few months to see whether they were based on actual reads or estimates?

badbackandsides

TheMilkmansDad said:

not going to comment on everything - just the last paragraph.

The £180 would have been the estimated usage divide by 12. If you used more than your DD would not have been enough (the tariff rate is what you've agreed to not the DD). Where was the estimated usage derived from when you renewed?

Yep, totally get that it's an estimate and if you use more, you pay more. No problem with that. What i don't think is right isthat they can land me with an unexpected bill for £1360 when they should have been automatically getting my readings and billing me.

the estimated me based on house size, occupants etc when i first signed up with them in 2021. Then last year, i guessed they used the same data, and applid it to the hte prices

badbackandsides

Spoonie_Turtle said:

badbackandsides said:

I believe they sold me their product on the basis of a supposed monthly payment of £180 a month instead of £370 as it's actually costing

No.  They sold you a tariff - unit rates and standing charge - using estimated consumption to give you an estimated quote.

'Just before the price cap came in' I assume you mean before the EPG?  They only mis-sold it if they told you one tariff price and immediately started charging you a different one (unit rates and standing charge, I mean) or if they told you it was fixed but turned out to be variable or vice versa.

I wonder what's going on with your smart meter though for them to have ended up recalculating like this.  Did you check your bills in the last few months to see whether they were based on actual reads or estimates?

It was when the price cap first went up at the end of summer last year. I think to nearly £3000 a year (can't remember the exact number).

They've got my readings as they sent me the bill for 7 months usage all in one go.

I don't see how they can use the estimates if they're getting them via the smart meter....

cheers!

[Deleted User]

I drive an EV so have a smart meter, so they should have been getting my readings every 30 mins and billing me accordingly (otherwise, what's the point of smart meters).

Octopus’ billing is excellent - if people bother to read them. If estimates were being used,  this would have been clearly shown on the monthly statement.

Octopus does not get a smart meter reading every 30 minutes. For those on a 30 minute smart meter profile, Octopus makes a request to the meter for data once every 24 hours. For electricity, the meter responds with up to 4 index readings and an XML file containing the previous days 30 minute usage date. If any one if the 48 daily blocks is missing or corrupt, this stops automatic billing. 

By the sound of it, Octopus has had to initiate a manual data pull to recover missing data so that it can raise an accurate bill for the past 12 month period.

As others have said, your DD is not contractual. You pay for what you use at the agreed tariff rate. FWiW, I always check my Time-of-Use monthly bill and if I see any missing data I ask for it to be recovered. An easy way of checking is by signing up to Octopus Watch. The App gets data directly from your Octopus energy account.

 As you can see I have a gas meter data loss for the 5th:

Spoonie_Turtle

badbackandsides said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

badbackandsides said:

I believe they sold me their product on the basis of a supposed monthly payment of £180 a month instead of £370 as it's actually costing

No.  They sold you a tariff - unit rates and standing charge - using estimated consumption to give you an estimated quote.

'Just before the price cap came in' I assume you mean before the EPG?  They only mis-sold it if they told you one tariff price and immediately started charging you a different one (unit rates and standing charge, I mean) or if they told you it was fixed but turned out to be variable or vice versa.

I wonder what's going on with your smart meter though for them to have ended up recalculating like this.  Did you check your bills in the last few months to see whether they were based on actual reads or estimates?

It was when the price cap first went up at the end of summer last year. I think to nearly £3000 a year (can't remember the exact number).

They've got my readings as they sent me the bill for 7 months usage all in one go.

I don't see how they can use the estimates if they're getting them via the smart meter....

cheers!

I meant whether your previous bills were based on actual readings or estimates,, before this big catch-up one.

MWT

Spoonie_Turtle said:

badbackandsides said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

badbackandsides said:

I believe they sold me their product on the basis of a supposed monthly payment of £180 a month instead of £370 as it's actually costing

No.  They sold you a tariff - unit rates and standing charge - using estimated consumption to give you an estimated quote.

'Just before the price cap came in' I assume you mean before the EPG?  They only mis-sold it if they told you one tariff price and immediately started charging you a different one (unit rates and standing charge, I mean) or if they told you it was fixed but turned out to be variable or vice versa.

I wonder what's going on with your smart meter though for them to have ended up recalculating like this.  Did you check your bills in the last few months to see whether they were based on actual reads or estimates?

It was when the price cap first went up at the end of summer last year. I think to nearly £3000 a year (can't remember the exact number).

They've got my readings as they sent me the bill for 7 months usage all in one go.

I don't see how they can use the estimates if they're getting them via the smart meter....

cheers!

I meant whether your previous bills were based on actual readings or estimates,, before this big catch-up one.

I suspect that there were no previous estimated bills, as Octopus does not tend to issue estimated bills when a customer has a smart meter.

The take-away for the OP should be that if you don't get a bill each month then it is worth at least an email to customer support if you want to avoid getting a catch-up bill covering a few months...

badbackandsides said:

My question is, is it worth reporting to trading standards or the financial ombudsman? I believe they sold me their product on the basis of a supposed monthly payment of £180 a month instead of £370 as it's actually costing

Nothing to report to anyone, the bill is well within the back-billing rules so nothing to interest the ombudsman (Energy, not Financial), and nothing for Trading Standards either as the DD is an estimate, not a contractual payment, your use determines the bill...

MikeJXE

How strange so I'm wondering if this has more to do with smart meters

I moved to Octopus 3rd February 2023 dual fuel flexible Octopus

I have given them 3 meter readings as I don't have smart meters, opening, March 3rd (28 days) March 31st (28 days) my next readings will be end of each month 

Within hours of each I have received a bill which is spot on, I keep a record on a spreadsheet and read the meters weekly so I know what my bill will be before I get it. 

I already had average usage from my calculations in the previous 2 years so Octopus allowed me to set my own DD 

My April 1st rates are now in the spreadsheet and I am confident my DD will cover the cost 

I cannot fault Octopus 

[Deleted User]

MikeJXE said:

How strange so I'm wondering if this has more to do with smart meters

I moved to Octopus 3rd February 2023 dual fuel flexible Octopus

I have given them 3 meter readings as I don't have smart meters, opening, March 3rd (28 days) March 31st (28 days) my next readings will be end of each month 

Within hours of each I have received a bill which is spot on, I keep a record on a spreadsheet and read the meters weekly so I know what my bill will be before I get it. 

I already had average usage from my calculations in the previous 2 years so Octopus allowed me to set my own DD 

My April 1st rates are now in the spreadsheet and I am confident my DD will cover the cost 

I cannot fault Octopus 

Octopus has always produced a statement following each meter reading for non smart metered customers. Automatic smart meter billing is once per month on the same calendar date unless a manual bill has been raised.