Octopus Energy Shady Business Practices

Xbigman

I have the same problem as SRGreenwood. My Gas account hasn't set up properly and the DD adjustment screen doesn't work.

I get to this screen;



and then it goes straight to this screen.




There is no option to change anything. Its clear something is not right rather than a scam. I'm waiting for a reply to an email at the moment and I expect this to be sorted fairly soon. Of course a million or so Bulb customers might be in the queue in front of me so I'll just be patient and wait it out.


Darren.

Alnat1

Can you not click where £46.28 is on the blue line and change the numbers?

Stubod

..click bate post from a newbie??

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

I have my Direct Debit set at £1 and when i get billed i make a card payment there and then on my cashback credit card. Never had any issues doing this. I like the idea of a variable DD, but i don't like the fact it is not a fixed date. So i get round this with the £1 DD plus card payment.

TheElectricCow

Xbigman said:

I have the same problem as SRGreenwood. My Gas account hasn't set up properly and the DD adjustment screen doesn't work.

I get to this screen;



and then it goes straight to this screen.




There is no option to change anything. Its clear something is not right rather than a scam. I'm waiting for a reply to an email at the moment and I expect this to be sorted fairly soon. Of course a million or so Bulb customers might be in the queue in front of me so I'll just be patient and wait it out.


Darren.

As discussed in the earlier replies, the place you set the amount is at the bottom of your first screenshot - see circled area below:
You need to click there and replace that £46.28 with your own number, then press the big purple “Update payment amount” button to confirm the change.

MalMonroe

Hi, I'm with Octopus, have been for a couple of years now and I CANNOT change any payments if they are lower than the direct debit that is set. I am able to set payments higher if I want to. But NOT lower. So I cannot choose my own amount. Unless it is higher.

I don't know why. I've never had any problems with payments and have always paid on time. (There was a time I stopped paying by DD because I thought they were just so awkward about letting me lower the payments.) But now I don't mess about writing to them, I just phone. And then they will lower the monthly payment, absolutely no problem. Last time (which was last month) I waited about three minutes on the phone in the afternoon, so it's not bad if you want to contact them. 

Now I think I'm going to send them an email to ask why SOME customers are able to lower the DD amount and some aren't. 

Some customers, difficult as it may be for some to believe, are NOT able to simply change the amounts if they want to go lower. That's when the phone comes in handy. And I have to say that the customer service people have always been very polite, friendly and helpful in my experience. 

Just phone them. Saves you getting frustrated and is well worth it, even if you have to wait a few minutes.

TheElectricCow

Stubod said:

..click bate post from a newbie??

I don’t think it’s fair to immediately jump to that conclusion, the OP could genuinely be having an issue with their account or may just have made a simple mistake when setting the amount. I agree calling it a “shady business practice” is a bit of a stretch, but they have justified their beliefs and have explained why they feel the system is unfavourable to customers based on the facts as they understand them. Everyone here was a newbie at some point.

niktheguru

TheElectricCow said:

Stubod said:

..click bate post from a newbie??

I don’t think it’s fair to immediately jump to that conclusion, the OP could genuinely be having an issue with their account or may just have made a simple mistake when setting the amount. I agree calling it a “shady business practice” is a bit of a stretch, but they have justified their beliefs and have explained why they feel the system is unfavourable to customers based on the facts as they understand them. Everyone here was a newbie at some point.

This will entirely depend on if the OP bothers to engage again in his/her thread. There's always a suspicion when there's a long "first post" from someone who then doesn't contribute despite a lot of advice from other posters.

I get staggered in this day and age how so many people start crying wolf as soon as there is no automatic online way to do something. Calling customer services isn't hard and usually gets very quick resolution to problems. Now if the op had tried this and got no where, then I'd have sympathy with him/her but it sounds as though they havent.

Chrysalis

Xbigman said:

I have the same problem as SRGreenwood. My Gas account hasn't set up properly and the DD adjustment screen doesn't work.

I get to this screen;



and then it goes straight to this screen.




There is no option to change anything. Its clear something is not right rather than a scam. I'm waiting for a reply to an email at the moment and I expect this to be sorted fairly soon. Of course a million or so Bulb customers might be in the queue in front of me so I'll just be patient and wait it out.


Darren.

You can set it on the first screen you posted, the line just above the big purple update payment method button, if you click on it, you can type in an amount.

t0rt0ise

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername said:

I have my Direct Debit set at £1 and when i get billed i make a card payment there and then on my cashback credit card. Never had any issues doing this. I like the idea of a variable DD, but i don't like the fact it is not a fixed date. So i get round this with the £1 DD plus card payment.

Mine is a fixed date. Bill on 10th and DD taken 14 days later.