Octopus Energy Customer Service

Mum161111

Although it is not a good situation to be in, I see I'm not alone and I wish you good success, bereavementfather.

Mum161111

A bit of a disappointing update here:  On the fourth occasion now, although I received confirmation that they had raised a complaint for me, I have never received  any of the promised calls from a Manager.  I was told most recently that it was logged for a Manager to call me back yesterday but there  was no call.  I won't  be expecting a fifth false assurance about a call back.

I have had another irrelevant  message (not from the complaints department) suggesting, again, that I should contact DWP.  Nothing more from the complaints department though and the problem is with Octopus, not with DWP.

Considering their past good service, it is really disappointing.

QrizB

Do you know why Octopus think DWP might have an interest?

Mum161111

DWP do not administer this payment for Scotland.  In Scotland it is The Energy Provider who does this.  DWP confirmed this some time ago.

DWP are involved in the different system for England and Wales.  The telephone number the member of staff provided (after they had opened a complaint for me) and the Government website link were for England and Wales and stated that Scotland was administered by the Energy Provider.  This member of staff was not, as far as I know, part of the Complaints Department.

The member of staff knew I was in Scotland. 

Mum161111

I have been quite upset about it.

Jyana

Mum161111 said:

A bit of a disappointing updste here:  On the fourth occasion now, although I received confirmation that they had raised a complaint for me, I have never received  any of the promised calls from a Manager.  I was told most recsntly that it was logged for a Manager to call me back yesterday but there  was no call.  I won't  be expecting a fifth false assurance about a call back.

I have had another irrelevant  message (not from the complaints department) suggesting, again, that I should contact DWP.  Nothing more from the complaints department though and the problem is with Octopus, not with DWP.

Considering their past good service, it is really dissppointing.

Is it a query about your application that you have already made? Or are you in the Core Group that gets it automatically and have had a letter through about it? If it's the latter you should have the number for the DWP on the letter, it is still them that are in charge of distribution for Core Group. If it's the Broader Group, they have only just closed applications and are starting to go through them to see who will get the funds, by March. So it's possible that they won't have seen an application yet if you have put one in under this group.

There was someone else in the Benefits section in December who had an issue with Octopus during their apllication due to being in Scotland and whoever answered the phone not understanding the problem due to the change for England and Wales. They only managed to get a correct result by repeatly calling the DWP until they got someone who understood what was going on for their circumstances - they had been picked for audit and needed to prove DLA income to Octopus.

They have since deleted their account here otherwise I would point you to them to ask how they finally managed to get through to them. But it does seem that both the DWP and Octopus customer facing agents do have a gap in their training when it comes to how the scheme is run in the two instances.

The numbers they said they tried were the DWP WHD one of 0800 030 9322 (although this is the England and Wales number they may be able to point you in the right direction for Scotland if you persist) and a further DWP one of 0800 731 0469. Though it will depend on why you are needing to contact Octopus about the WHD though I guess. You can make a post in the Benefits section with more details if you feel it would help.