Are Octopus customer service standards starting to slip a bit?

dealyboy

Just to add that, although I have no direct experience of Octopus, they may be experiencing the same difficulties as E.ON Next and EDF. There has been an amount of criticism about those two (including from me) but occasionally you get an absolutely superb Customer Service person.

I think it could be a combination of too many new recruits and working from home, I would not criticise overseas calls centres though.

Spoonie_Turtle

If they are still in the position of this forum's favourite supplier, it's because they're still the best overall, just the gap between them and the next ones down has narrowed.

They've been starting to slip since the initial price increase panics, to be fair.  I can't remember if that was in 2021 or 2022, now. 

I have frustrations with the AI being utterly useless, but when a human does pick issues up they do resolve them.  And service via Twitter is still sterling - add an example, we had our smart meter installation appointment cancelled by the installer then reinstated by Octopus the same day, on a Saturday.  Just for queries via e-mail it can take double the effort it used to, to pursue until a human picks it up.

Telephone service I've not needed for a long time so can't comment there, although I'm pretty sure humans always answer and I still love that the account info is connected to the phone number you've put down, and you get to choose your own hold music (or silence!).

I don't know if other suppliers using Kraken will make full use of the features for telephone customer service.  They ought to, but who knows?

For me Octopus' track record and customer-focused ethic hold weight; you know that the original superb service is still in there somewhere … mostly.  [That's why occasional cases where people truly are left in bad situations that are Octopus' fault are so disappointing (and confusing), it goes against everything they stand for and how they dealt with everyone else.]

2Sheds

I've had to chase them a few times this week over an issue rejoining and it's still not sorted and I'm not chasing them again and signing up with Sainsburys energy

born_again

Also as people have been used to such a high level of service, such as calls picked up quickly. I know from experience any delay in calls not being picked soon becomes a complaint. As people have become used to a fast pick up.

KxMx

It was decided I needed an engineer for my gas smart meter 10 weeks ago. I was originally told 6 weeks for an appointment, now no timescales given. I am on the Priority Services Register and it hasn't made any difference. 
I'm raising a formal complaint next week. 

[Deleted User]

born_again said:

Also as people have been used to such a high level of service, such as calls picked up quickly. I know from experience any delay in calls not being picked soon becomes a complaint. As people have become used to a fast pick up.

I agree. If any company makes fast CS response times a key pillar of its business model/offer, then it can hardly be surprised when CS a response times fall (as they have) that it results in some negative feedback/complaints. Six years ago, an email to hello@ would get a human response within minutes - not so these days even with AI.

RateTartExtraordinaire

I moved to octopus recently. Got £50 on referral scheme. 😊
I read my meters monthly on the dot. Bills issued promptly each time using my readings. Direct debit set up smoothly. Bills accurate. I got my credit back from the old supplier.
I don't have smart meters and not looking to get them. I like that I haven't had any threatening letters from them hassling me to move over to smart meters. (previous supplier so energy would let up). 
So far I've not had to call or email with any issues. But the move went well, so thumbs 👍 from me so far.

dealyboy

@RateTartExtraodinaire said:

I moved to octopus recently. Got £50 on referral scheme. 😊
I read my meters monthly on the dot. Bills issued promptly each time using my readings. Direct debit set up smoothly. Bills accurate. I got my credit back from the old supplier.
I don't have smart meters and not looking to get them. I like that I haven't had any threatening letters from them hassling me to move over to smart meters. (previous supplier so energy would let up). 
So far I've not had to call or email with any issues. But the move went well, so thumbs 👍 from me so far.

Hi ... so far so good ... but it's the old adage that's it's how they respond when something goes wrong that is the measure ... 

EXTRAORDINAIRE is extremely good or impressive ... but not at spelling perhaps ... sorry only joking couldn't resist  it. 

Scot_39

EOn Next was fined for poor service last year.

IIRC A few others were criticised but not actually fined.

Some badly impacted even got £8 iirc credit from it.



Anyway back to Octopus - they have gone from a very small and customer focused supllier - to one that post Shell's c1.3m will reportedly have 6.5m customers - over 20% of UK domestic supply contracts.

It is probably therefore only reasonable to expect more will see and so more will report issues.

But when Ofgem get involved to reprimand others -  service isn't just absolute - it's also relative.

So a short delay to resolve at a good supplier - whilst not ideal - is better than months to resolve at a bad one.  And yes I've been there with some.

Grizzlebeard

Scot_39 said:

.... poor service last year..... better than months to resolve at a bad one....

Months? Or never get resolved at all.

My British Gas complaints were never resolved - DD arrangement... tariff prices... 6 monthly billing v monthly.. Random unexplained estimated "meter readings"...Random unexplained charges in debit and credit columns.. Random reversals of previous random enrties.. Constantly broken/wrong/unlogonable on-line account... A regular stream of stupid emails saying "Don't worry about a thing, we're looking after you ".... Ahhhh!!

After many tens of wasted hours I stopped trying to contact them. As a (very) low energy user I would have saved under £10 for the year.

Moved to Octopus. I'd love to comment on their Customer Service but I can't. Very happily they've never given me the slightest excuse to contact them.