Octopus Energy economy 7 beware

MultiFuelBurner

RobMac said:

And so in the words of the ombudsman Octopus energies collection of data from our smart meters is not to be trusted or accepted.
As I take part in the free electricity pilot it appears they may be miscalculation my usage as it is not a meter reading...?!??!?!
Worlds gone bonkers. Ombudsman is clearly unwilling to address or lack basic knowledge of smart meters which is incredibly worrying. 

You quite rightly presumed the energy Ombudsman service would have at least as much knowledge as yourself about smart meters and you pulling your own data and calculating the entire cost of your energy and what is owed.

What recourse is there maybe a money claim online to Octopus detailing your calculations and what they owe you?

RobMac

Goodness knows what to do next.
The whole time Octopus have been silent and never replied to anything. I gave up on them a while back.
I can't stay with them as worried this will happen again. I noticed when I did quotes online the system now thinks I am single rate and no longer economy 7 so worrying as to what Octopus have done. 
I will email my local MP as a starter to try and highlight that the Ombudsman does not know how smart meters work and data is gathered.
The first person I spoke to at the Ombudsman said we would use the data and that this should be easy to fix. Sadly he got taken off my case and then they backtracked.
What is also very concerning is how many people Octopus have 'accidentally' switch to single rate from economy 7.
Octopus first response to me was that it was cheaper for me than economy 7. I wonder how many innocent and unknowing customers have been 'saved' money in this way? Many won't know to fight it or where to talk about it. 

Gerry1

It won't be much consolation, but British Gas are equally useless.  I phoned to switch from a fixed tariff to the SVT because in January the SVT will still be lower than the fixed price.

Despite promises nothing happened, so I had to phone again.  The switch to the SVT was made while I waited, but also from single rate to E7 which I didn't want and hadn't requested.

Eventually it was all settled but it wasted several hours of my time.

Gerry1

RobMac said:

Goodness knows what to do next.
The whole time Octopus have been silent and never replied to anything.

MoneyClaimOnline might be the way forward.

Octopus's inertia might well work to your advantage if they don't bother to attend and you win by default.

Ditto if they do turn up but aren't sufficiently clued up.

RobMac

This is what happens when there is no competition. Big companies form and don't care as they get profit and our voices are a drop in ocean. If only there was a company that actually tried hard at customer care and not just sound bites on the radio to draw in unsuspecting souls...
One day maybe things will improve. Whatever happened to the customer is always right.
Martin Lewis has spoken to at least Octopus before. Maybe he can get them to do something to actually help customers properly or get the industry to properly engage and not hide behind the Ombudsman. The absolute silence and disengagement of customers is really poor.

Phones4Chris

RobMac said:

Appeal rejection reason

Following our decision issued by Ashlea on 1 December you have challenged the decision tell me the meter data was collected from your smart meter the whole time at half hourly intervals. You tell me the error with the rate 1 and 2 did not affect this data and as such the supplier can calculate your actual usage.

Whilst I acknowledge your comments I am satisfied Ashlea has addressed this within the original decision. Whilst half hourly reads are available these do not provide actual meter readings and as such the only way the supplier can rebill is to establish the usage on your new meter and apply this to your previous meter. 

I think that's proof that at least those two individuals at the ombudsman's office do not know what they are talking about. A consumer using 3rd party apps can download the energy used in half hourly intervals, but can't get access to the meter readings. The Supplier HAS access and gets Meter readings, so the readings for R1 and R2 should be in a filthy great database.

What's all this about "usage on your new meter and apply this to your previous meter" ?
I don't recall you mentioning the meter being changed. I may have missed it, I quickly read the thread again (may still have missed it).

I'd have another go at the ombudsman before embarking on the money claim online. I'd certainly tell them they are wrong, that you don't accept their decision, nor are you obliged to, and that you intend to take the matter further unless they do a full and proper review.

RobMac

I must say I missed that about a new meter. No I never got a new meter. Simply shows the lack of consideration and understanding. 
Following a previous suggestion I reapproached Octopus and emailed just the 'Greg' email address. Apparently one of his leadership team were in contact with me. See below.

"I am part of Greg's leadership team and he has asked that I reach out to you regarding this concern. Thank you for taking the time to write in to us.

I have spoken to the complaints handler on our side to understand more about the situation. Currently, the case is with the Ombudsman and they have provided 3 remedies for us to take. This serves as what they believe is a fair resolution to the complaint. As the supplier, we are therefore asked to action these.

Should you not be happy with the outcome from this, an appeal would need to be made with the Ombudsman. They will be able to advise on this further."

Small credit is due that they replied initially within 24 hours that they would look into it and within 48 hours sent the above email. Not had this level if service in months.

I did reply that they put forward the remedies not the ombudsman and just highlighted the terrible customer service. I never heard anything more. Case closed no apology, move along annoying little customer.

I decided that I could not trust them and so moving now to Edf. Let's see how I survive...

Edf found that Octopus had messed up the profile on my meter and it is still not actually economy 7. On my account it says I have 2 day rates, albeit one is actually night rate. Anyway Edf said they have seen this before with Octopus and its something they do... clearly I am not the only economy 7 customer to have issues with Octopus! 

EssexHebridean

RobMac said:

<Snip>
Whatever happened to the customer is always right.
<snip>

Possibly the fact that the customer is NOT always right? We certainly see that on here often enough where people arrive "OUTRAGED" about something they are convinced is a heinous injustice, only to have to have it gently explained that actually. their knowledge needs a brush-up! 

Wishing you luck with EDF anyway - just watch them for mixing up your Day/night readings - it's worth keeping a very close eye, especially if you submit manual readings - just watch that your R1 and R2 are designated correctly before you submit. It's an awful lot easier if you catch that issue before it accidentally gets a read submitted against it! 

LYNDBO

I advised  people to check their bills some weeks back as this has been occurring every year since octopus took over and  I have to keep phoning them to correct and I was absolutely slated by members because I was on economy 7 and I don't have storage heaters but do washing and drying through the night . It just happens that last week Martin Lewis announced to check that you're not being overcharged as they are getting the readings wrong . I had my bill 3 days ago and again they over charged by over £100 and before that again over £100 . Economy 7 isn't just for storage heaters that alot of people obviously think 

EssexHebridean

LYNDBO said:

I advised  people to check their bills some weeks back as this has been occurring every year since octopus took over and  I have to keep phoning them to correct and I was absolutely slated by members because I was on economy 7 and I don't have storage heaters but do washing and drying through the night . It just happens that last week Martin Lewis announced to check that you're not being overcharged as they are getting the readings wrong . I had my bill 3 days ago and again they over charged by over £100 and before that again over £100 . Economy 7 isn't just for storage heaters that alot of people obviously think 

It's not that anyone thinks it is "just for storage heaters" - it's that as a general rule, it is those people who DO have storage heaters and an immersion tank who are best placed to use E7 to its best advantage. This is the reason why when someone happens along on here and is ON E7 but their electric use is more "mainsteam" we usually bend over backwards to ensure that the person IS getting value from what can, otherwise, be a vastly more expensive set up. If for whatever reason you are able to load shift sufficient use to the off peak period, then E7 can work well regardless of heating method - those people are very much in the minority though.

It should also be noted that the fire service strongly recommend against using tumble dryers overnight due to the fire risk. we used to use our washer dryer running into a dry cycle on an occasional basis, but always set it to run so that the dry part of the cycle ran at the very end of the night at a time when we would naturally be waking anyway.