Octopus Energy

Hoenir

Trouble is when every customer sends multiple emails. There's a huge amount of time spent unproductively.  Better to focus on customer calls. 

Qyburn

Hoenir said:

Trouble is when every customer sends multiple emails. 

They wouldn't if the first email was actually dealt with.

Chrysalis

I would only consider their twitter support good now days, email I think dropped off a lot with the customer influx, and quality of phone response is mixed.

Gassed

Many thanks once again for all your comments. I think then that the general consensus seems to be, unless you work for Octopus or Trustpilot, that the current Octopus customer service could be described as sporadic at best; so they have indeed joined the ranks of the other large multi-national energy companies. As I have no vested interest or feeling of loyalty to Octopus and because of this apparent lack of interest in their new customer I shall be switching to one of the energy companies who perhaps do care – even just a little bit 🤞 Any recommendations? It’s just a great shame that the little guys were all muscled out of the picture. It looks like I could still be stuck with one of the big 6 cartel?

MultiFuelBurner

It sounds like you have made up your mind but even for their inconsistencies they are still leaps ahead of the other suppliers imo.

You could of course try one of the newer, smaller and more agile suppliers but that's of course your decision.

For those without a smart meter it is of course easier to leave Octopus as the savings far outweigh any degradation of customer service with their fast growth.

Chrysalis

There is a lot more to Octopus than customer support.

Of the top of my head.

They support variable direct debit (not all suppliers do).

They have daily wholesale tariffs which have been considerably cheaper than anything else for over a year.

They have a time of use tariff which offers the ability to save huge some of money.

They have specialised tariffs for those with certain tech such as cosy.

They supply electric blankets to their poorest customers.

They provide SC payment holidays for their poorest customers.

They have the octopus mini which is a nice enhancement for those with smart meters, much better than the standard IHD, instead of having to walk to the IHD the info is on a smartphone app.

They are lenient on fixed direct debit under payments.

They have a good track record of not doing enforced pre pay meter replacements.

calleyw

Also if on octoplus you now get a free coffee and free sausage roll once a week.  And two odeon cinema tickets for £10 through the app

LeesArt

Gassed said:

How come Octopus Energy rate so highly for customer service. They advertise that they are one of the very few companies who provide an email address that you can contact them on directly but what’s the point. I’ve sent them 3 emails in the last two weeks and still await a reply or even an acknowledgement – I’ve tried contacting Greg Jackson the man in charge who is supposedly contactable at [Removed by Forum Team] but that’s been a waste of time as well.

I’ve only been with them a short time, having been a Shell customer who was transferred across and I never had any problem contacting them, although they strangely enough didn’t earn the plaudits that Octopus do i.e. a 98% rating from Trustpilot – although only 72% on Which. Have Trustpilot got shares in Octopus😁

I thought when I was moved over to Octopus everything in the garden would be even rosier but it looks as if now they’ve joined the big energy boys, through their rapid expansion, their customer service has gone out the window.

I share your experience, but I think I can offer an explanation.

First of all they are swallowing 1.4m new customers from Shell, they also kept on the offshore call centre from South Africa, but they are inadequately trained albeit that they are very polite.  They always have a lot of background noise and it seems have failed to invest in cubicle partitions.

The Greg Jackson email is just an Executive Team a family member who switched to them some months ago had cause to contact them but got nowhere.  It is a numbers game, take on 1.4m new customers and there will inevitably be queues on every customer interaction point.  This also explains the poorer Trustpilot score.

For my part there have been some teething issues but they have all my old Shell Reads, all my old Shell bills (albeit that neither are included in the my energy stats) I am cut off from the Shell portal but I think I have everything.

It would have been better if they sent an email warning you it was scheduled to move your in 14 days rather than the generic message sent.

One member of staff told me that they were porting 15 accounts a week, I explained that at that rate it would take 1794 years to complete, I think she must have meant 15,000 or 150,000 a week.

On the email side, unlike Shell who use a "no reply" email you can reply to any email because they all use the hello one.

The email replies I have had simply tell me to look at their website, I have read all of it including their blog.

I think the issue is the way they have configured their helpdesk, it does not seem to use or quote a ticket number in the subject, so any reply just gets added to the last issue.  So it appears they can't close a ticket without closing all issues and if you do raise other issues they get lost in the queue or dialogue of your previous message.

So maybe number the issues yourself and put them in separate emails to avoid TMI.

Feel free to post the issues you are having to see if others here can signpost you or PM me if you wish to keep it confidential.  

Gassed

Again thank you for all your thoughts and input. I must admit that if I was a customer looking to change from any other energy provider then reading your comments about Octopus would hold a big sway in making a move to join them. However as a current Octopus customer I still only have my personal experience to go from i.e. They have not taken my regular Direct Debit from me this month (due on the 2nd of each month) and given no reason for this and at the same time they have sent me separate emails in respect of Gas and Electricity charges with each email covering a different time frame and reducing my credit appropriately with them. I do have more than enough credit in my account with them to last at least 3 or 4 months without paying anymore by DD or one-off payments to them so that’s not a problem. Just why couldn’t they communicate and let me know why they’ve done what they’ve done. I’m used to and very happy with one DD payment a month  and one Bill/Statement issued each month ; are companies moving away from this  - to be helpful??  

I’ll give them a full month to reply to my emails, which primarily asked them the same questions and if I still don’t get an answer then do not be surprised if you see me appearing on Martins TV program😁

After a month without reply I’ll be off and I won’t need my new company to entice me with a free cup of coffee or an electric blanket.

 

t0rt0ise

I had the same when I first moved to Octopus, with bills coming at odd times. I contacted them on Twitter where I only have an account for this purpose, and they got it sorted. I then got one bill a month until I just changed tariffs in February and it started erratically again. One bill was for a few days for £5. But, I'm hoping it's now calmed down again as I've just had a bill on my old billing date. So my advice would be to make an account on Twitter (now x) just for this purpose. I don't think Octopus are all that great but I like their tariffs and I like their comparative openness.