Octopus Energy not billing for my electricity

Saints116

I noticed that my November bill only showed my Gas usage and no electricity so I contacted them. 

They advised me that they were not getting the readings from my smart meter and that they were looking into that. I then sent them a reading in the hope that things can be sorted out. The response I got is below.

I can confirm your meter reading has been added to your account however I
can see your tariff is a time-of-use tariff which doesn't bill to normal
meter readings.

**** is continuing to investigate the issue on our side for you and will
be in touch as soon as he has an update.

I have been back to them and they have promised to make sure that my off peak usage is charged properly when they eventually sort it out.

Has anyone else had this issue?

Bendo

I joined October 5th, no electricity bill so far but can see that they are getting my usage. Not a major issue for me so will leave it a bit and see if it sorts itself out.

QrizB

Welcome to the forum!

What tariff are you on?

When you sent Octopus your meter readings, did you send separate numbers for the peak and off-peak registers?

tetrarch

I "lost" my smart meter on my Agile tariff, apparently in September. Octopus didn't let me know, didn't highlight the fact that they couldn't bill me - nothing

I sent them a message in early Novemner that they didn't reply to and I finally have an appointment for a meter repair in late January. God knows what rate I will be paying

Regards

Tet

mumf

It’s very interesting to go through the threads here. So many seem to have problems with smart meters,direct debits etc. That’s why I take a reading each month,send it,receive the bill and then pay it. Done.
  It amazes me that the companies *push* the ways they want us to operate,for their benefits,and yet so many times,they fail - and the aggravation is that of the customer not the company.

JSHarris

mumf said:

It’s very interesting to go through the threads here. So many seem to have problems with smart meters,direct debits etc. That’s why I take a reading each month,send it,receive the bill and then pay it. Done.
  It amazes me that the companies *push* the ways they want us to operate,for their benefits,and yet so many times,they fail - and the aggravation is that of the customer not the company.

I share your view.  I'm also absolutely convinced, beyond any doubt, that energy metering, or at least the collection and accurate use of it by suppliers, has become far less reliable than it used to be.  The first ever problem I have had in around 50 years of being supplied with energy was about five years ago.  Until then I can honestly say that I never once had a problem with a supplier related to meter readings.

Since then I've had a battle that lasted several months getting completely wrong meter readings sorted out and a large refund for the false usage I was charged for, then a several month fiasco with a smart meter that wouldn't communicate (and a supplier that wouldn't accept my manual readings).  I now take readings very regularly, take a photo of the meter at the end of every month (because I've been accused of lying in the past) and I frankly do not trust any supplier to be honest.

MWT

mumf said:

It’s very interesting to go through the threads here. So many seem to have problems with smart meters,direct debits etc. That’s why I take a reading each month,send it,receive the bill and then pay it. Done.
  It amazes me that the companies *push* the ways they want us to operate,for their benefits,and yet so many times,they fail - and the aggravation is that of the customer not the company.

This is a forum for people with problems, the millions being correctly billed each month have no need to post here...

QrizB

tetrarch said:

I "lost" my smart meter on my Agile tariff, apparently in September. Octopus didn't let me know, didn't highlight the fact that they couldn't bill me - nothing

I'd guess that they stopped billing you, which should have been a clue.

tetrarch said:

God knows what rate I will be paying

 It'll say in the Agile T&C. I think they reserve the right to bill you at the SVT but please check.

mumf said:

So many seem to have problems with smart meters,direct debits etc. That’s why I take a reading each month,send it,receive the bill and then pay it. Done.

Provided you're happy for the average dual-fuel consumer to pay £150 a year more than needed on the SVT, that's fine.

Or possibly £800 more than they'd pay on Tracker.

Some of us are prepared to risk a little inconvenience to save serious money.

JSHarris said:

I'm also absolutely convinced, beyond any doubt, that energy metering, or at least the collection and accurate use of it by suppliers, has become far less reliable than it used to be.  The first ever problem I have had in around 50 years of being supplied with energy was about five years ago.  Until then I can honestly say that I never once had a problem with a supplier related to meter readings.

As a counterpoint to your anecdote, for several years in the 1980s my parents' E7 meter was stuck on one rate. The energy supplier (initially SWEB) didn't seem to notice that only the night rate was increasing.

If it had been stuck on the day rate, we'd have complained ...

So metering problems definitely happened during the 20th century. We just didn't have web forums to discuss them.

JSHarris

QrizB said:

As a counterpoint to your anecdote, for several years in the 1980s my parents' E7 meter was stuck on one rate. The energy supplier (initially SWEB) didn't seem to notice that only the night rate was increasing.

If it had been stuck on the day rate, we'd have complained ...

So metering problems definitely happened during the 20th century. We just didn't have web forums to discuss them.

I'm not saying that errors and faults never occurred years ago, just that the in incidence of them seems to have increased, notwithstanding that it's now easier to publicise such issues.  I first became an energy supplier customer in 1972, as a student in a bed sit.  Between 1972 and 2018 I had zero meter reading related issues with any energy supplier.  Between 2018 and now I've had two separate meter reading related problems, both took months to resolve, one ended up going to the ombudsman.

To me it looks very much as if the use of meter readings by suppliers (not faults within meters) seems to have become more prone to error.  I suspect that the energy measurement and internal recording functions of meters hasn't changed much, the issue seems to be solely related to suppliers.  

masonic

They've not been able to automatically generate a bill for me since I joined the Tracker tariff in July, saying there is missing data, yet I can pull the full data via their API. However, they've not had any problems generating a bill for me manually when I've requested this. I suspect the underlying issue is that they had to change my meter profile from E7 to single rate and I have legacy usage on a second register, so it will be an ongoing issue for me.

DeepDiver

I never wanted a smart meter,but had to get one I could use their intelligent octopus to charge my electric car. Had it installed end of July. It worked for about a week. Well, since then it's been a nightmare to get sorted. Gas was reporting OK but electric stopped working. It caused havoc trying to charge the car. It was a 30% chance it would work/charge. Contacting them was  ot a problem. Getting it sorted is. I put a complaint in to speak to a manager. No response for almost a month. Shocking really. They tried a physical visit to reset the meter NG. They then decided to replace the electric meter. He came & changed it. It did not work so had to fit another one same day. Great, it started working. My car has been charging correctly, BUT, now the gas has stopped reporting after the electric meter was replaced. Time frame for all this. Fitted end of July. Replaced end of November, 4 months no electric bill. Now waiting for gas to be sorted which was reporting fine until the electric meter was replaced. I cannot understand how they get such a great review. Every thing was fine until I had to get a smart meter.