An energy company that is okay to deal with?

Gerry1

AlexaJay said:

But in the short term I would still welcome any constructive suggestions of alternatives.

Just phone Octopus (you can't do it online) and ask for Whole Bill Direct Debit, aka Monthly Variable Direct Debit.  Sorted !

bristolleedsfan

AlexaJay said:

I would also add that it looks as if Octopus may be skewing their views, thus creating the impression they have the 'best' service. If you look at Trustpilot you will see a couple of abandoned accounts showing much lower satisfaction scores. On another review site  - sorry, can't remember which one but worth digging a bit if you're interested - I saw that many Octopus reviews had been 'requested' by the company itself. And when I wrote my own review I received an email from Trustpilot saying Octopus had requested more details from me and if I didn't provide them the review would be taken down.

I am sharing this in the hope that this information will be useful to others.

     https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/octopus-energy

Bazzalona13295

GingerTim said:

AlexaJay said:

I don't want to get a direct debit, having had experiences of energy companies over-estimating the amount I needed to pay and then keeping the excess once I'd transferred. This is now recognised as common practice - people need to wake up a bit! 

Really? First I've heard of it.

Well they certainly don't like giving you the credit back.
If you're in credit in Aug/Sept they give it the 'ah yes but Winter is coming' but conversely they don't like it when in March/April I say 'ah yes but Winters gone'.

I do squeeze it out of them (Eon - I know.....) but its like getting blood out of a stone.

Gerry1

Bazzalona13295 said:

GingerTim said:

AlexaJay said:

I don't want to get a direct debit, having had experiences of energy companies over-estimating the amount I needed to pay and then keeping the excess once I'd transferred. This is now recognised as common practice - people need to wake up a bit! 

Really? First I've heard of it.

Well they certainly don't like giving you the credit back.
If you're in credit in Aug/Sept they give it the 'ah yes but Winter is coming' but conversely they don't like it when in March/April I say 'ah yes but Winters gone'.

I do squeeze it out of them (Eon - I know.....) but its like getting blood out of a stone.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80385947/#Comment_80385947

Gerry1

bristolleedsfan said

https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/octopus-energy

I wouldn't place much reliance on an obscure German website with just 798 reviews.  People  with problems probably stumbled across it by searching for 'Octopus Problems', hence it's a self selecting crowd that becomes an echo chamber.

I prefer to rely on the 173,650 people on Trustpilot who gave a 5-star review.

Hoenir

AlexaJay said:

The daily phone calls came when I was on holiday and a few days late paying my bill. As I said before, I have an excellent track record in paying bills and credit rating, so this seemed excessive.

If you sign up to a contractual service then you need to abide to the terms and conditions. Or suffer the consequences If you don't like the terms offered move to another supplier. Though the downside will be greater cost to you.   As accounts that require more administration effort , cost more to service. 

Gerry1

Hoenir said:

AlexaJay said:

The daily phone calls came when I was on holiday and a few days late paying my bill. As I said before, I have an excellent track record in paying bills and credit rating, so this seemed excessive.

If you sign up to a contractual service then you need to abide to the terms and conditions. Or suffer the consequences If you don't like the terms offered move to another supplier. Though the downside will be greater cost to you.   As accounts that require more administration effort, cost more to service. 

Best not fly with Ryanair and turn up without your boarding pass, or with a case that's an inch too large !

ArbitraryRandom

AlexaJay said:

The daily phone calls came when I was on holiday and a few days late paying my bill. As I said before, I have an excellent track record in paying bills and credit rating, so this seemed excessive. They would not stop phoning even after I told them I was away and would pay the bill as soon as I could get online. The calls continued and even went twice-daily.

... you have an 'excellent track record' - but don't seem to think it's signifiant that you failed to pay your bill on time? 

You chose a payment method that requires you to pay your bills by a set time (with several days advanced notice and nothing stopping you making the payment in advance of the deadline); but you prioritised going on holiday, and you think Octopus did something wrong? 

rp1974

Without trying to ruffle feathers,OP,if you knew you were going on holiday and have chosen to make things unnecessarily difficult by not using Direct Debit why didn't you make an early payment,before leaving?.
Given your smart meter comment,maybe it's not only other people that need to wake up a bit,just a thought.
I just don't understand why some people seem to actively relish creating mountains out of molehills for little reason,causing difficulties,usually for themselves,purely for the sake of it.

DullGreyGuy

TheElectricCow said:

born_again said:

TheElectricCow said:

Octopus are generally considered to be the best supplier out there at the moment on the customer service front, you might find it’ll be more worth while trying to resolve whatever issue you’re having with them than searching for an alternative.

Since joining around a year ago I’ve found their service underwhelming and not even close to living up to their reputation, but I wouldn’t dream of going elsewhere knowing things would likely be even worse. At least Octopus do tend to be more competent and capable than others, as long as you can get through to someone who is both responsive and attentive enough to provide relevant solutions to queries.

One thing I did pick up from an Octopus blog post is that each account is assigned to one of a small team of around 10 customer service agents, meaning that whenever you contact them you only deal with one of those people. It would certainly explain why some people here report outstanding efficient service and others would have an easier time drawing blood from a rock, if the service you receive is entirely a luck of the draw situation based on who you’re assigned to.

Given. Octopus serves 5.3 million customers through its retail arm. It just not seem feasible that they would have 500,000 staff.. Given they only state 3K+
I wounder if that figure if referring to complaints.

Found the article I read it from https://octopus.energy/blog/customer-service/?utm_source=app&utm_medium=latest_news&utm_campaign=customer_service

2) Our specialists are all split into special teams of around 10 people.

Each team is like its own micro-business, completely responsible for looking after a group of customers – so even in a business of five million customers, you’re going to speak to the same small team of people every time. There’ll be a good chance they might be familiar with your issue already.

I agree that with those numbers working out to around 18,000 customers per team of 10 that doesn’t sound hugely practical at first thought, but then again I’ve no idea how often the average customer needs to engage with their supplier. I have, in the past, had to wait a month to get a relevant answer out of Octopus though, so from my perspective it seems they could do with a few more staff after all (or at least get that Octo-AI that does customer service I’ve heard so much about running in full swing).

Honestly seems like the worst way to do it in my opinion, especially when you end up waiting extra weeks after one person out of the small team goes on holiday so no one else will touch your case. But then again I don’t run a customer service operation on the scale Octopus does so I’d have to assume they know better than me.

1,800 customers per FTE sounds very doable but were the 3,000+ staff all customer service? 

DLG used to have 3,500 sales and service staff (inc team leaders etc) and had well over 10million customers. I'd certainly say I speak to my insurer more often than I speak to my energy provider, in fact I think the last time I did was about 6 years ago.