Octopus Energy

pearl123

Contacting Octopus via twitter often brings a swift response. 

countrycousin15

Have read the previous posts and have posted in on an Economy 10 Forum as well. 

My issue a bit different. We're an all electric household in an exposed location in the North of Scotland electricity region.  We switched to Octopus about 5 years ago and stayed on our Economy 10 tariff -  less expensive electricity in three different periods so in theory better than Economy 7.Now have solar panels and battery storage so can programme to store in cheap periods.

Three plus years ago Octopus put in a second generation smart meter but didn’t tell us this meant they’d move us  to Economy 7. Our % of off peak electricity fell from 43% to under 30% pre solar panels/storage.

We say we’re still on Economy 10. Octopus won’t agree this  while offering  compensation for losses to date/not telling us about the change. Deadlock letter, considering whether to go to Ombudsman; Octopus say will withdraw  compensation offer if we do. 

They also claim their meters can’t cope with Economy 10 tariffs. Other companies meters will eg 100Green.

Is there anyone on Economy 10 with Octopus? What are the Octopus rates and which electricity region are they in? Also looking at their tracker tariff.

DeanoKay

In May 2024, I had new smart meters fitted for Gas and Electricity supply at the request of Octopus Energy. I was told by the Installation Engineer that the remote device may take up to a week to connect to the main meters. About ten days passed, and the remote device (IHD) was not connected. I contacted Octopus Energy, and was told to reset set the device by switching it on while connecting the power cable. I tried this several times over a few days, but still it wouldn't connect. Being summer, I parked the issue as my energy usage was low. In September as winter was approaching, I contacted Octopus Energy by email, explaining the issue with the IHD. They took over a week just to acknowledge my email. Since then, I've sent around five emails requesting this issue be resolved. Most emails were ignored. Their best effort so far is to advise, "this will take some time" because my account needs to be connected to the new meters (a two minute computer admin task, surely?). In the meantime, I have no idea what my heating costs are, but Octopus Energy are taking the same set amount of hundreds of pounds from my bank account on a monthly basis. I could be working up a credit, or I might be working up a massive debt. ONLY OCTOPUS ENERGY KNOW !!!! So much for their "award winning customer service".

northernstar007

if you have twitter send them a message, they ans and sort any problems out really quick and  ans back in a hour or so, ignore the email it takes forever as you have found out
start off in your message with your acc number full name and address with postcode, it will save a bit time them asking for it
keep us posted

Gerry1

The IHD is not used for billing.

Are the meter readings in your online account shown as Smart, or Estimated?  If they are estimated, just send them meter readings every month.

You can switch to Monthly Variable Direct Debit if you want to avoid credit or debit building up, but you have to phone them.  Of course, this means higher bills in winter and lower ones in summer.

Phones4Chris

@DeanoKay Oh dear. Sounds like you've been unlucky with your email responses, I've usually had very quick responses on the odd occasion I've needed to email. Maybe September (esp. late Sept.) was a very busy time for them with the October price cap change coming up and price increases.
Let's try and give you as much info as possible so you can discover the current state of your account and also what's happened with the IHD.

Before you had the Smart meters, how often did you provide meter readings? And how did you get your bills (email/post) ?
Firstly, have you registered an Online account (using a browser on a PC or mobile phone) and/or downloaded the Octopus App onto a Smartphone?

Once you've done that and logged in, you should be able to immediately see your current balance. You can also select to view a bill if you haven't seen any bills recently. On a bill you can check that the meter readings are Smart Meter readings or estimates, which are they? If they are showing nothing but estimates then clearly there's some problem with the data from your smart meters not getting retrieved by Octopus, so a few things need to be checked.

Go to your meters and write down the serial numbers of the meters (as you've recently had them, the electricity one may begin 23 or 24, not sure about gas, I don't have a smart gas meter - don't post them here). Also make a note of which make and model of meter each is and post that information. That could help someone to advise you how to check the meter readings on the meter yourself if you don't already know how to do it.

Let's quickly deal with resetting the IHD, If it has a battery in the back, apart from unplugging the power cable, remove the battery cover and remove the battery. Leave it all powered off for at least 10 minutes. Then refit the battery and power cable. If it is one that has a reset button on the back, press and hold that for a few seconds.
The Installer was wrong to say the IHD may take a week to connect, it should have done so within hours if not minutes if everything was registered correctly. 
How for away are the meters? The IHD needs ideally to be closer than 10m from the electricity meter and you should see a "wifi type" signal icon on the top left of the screen if it's an IHD3. Tell us if that fixed the issue with the IHD getting data.
Is the Gas meter close to the Electricity meter?

What energy region are you in? What tariffs are you on for each of gas and electric. eg. electricity E7 or single rate, variable or fixed tariff?
The next thing that needs to be checked is that everything is registered correctly.
Firstly look at your billing. Check that the meter serial numbers you've noted are shown exactly on your bills.
Next, in the Electricity part of the bill, look for your MPAN (that's the Meter Point Administration Number), it's the 13 digit number in the bottom of the box that has a big S - don't post that here - except maybe the first 2 digits which indicate your region.
In the Gas part of the bill, look for the MPRN (the Meter Point Registration Number), again don't post it here.
Note - to be crystal clear, none of those numbers are your Bill number or Octopus account number.

We need to check the correct registration of the Electricity meter first, if it's not registered correctly then no readings will get through as the Gas ones go via the Electricity meter Comms.
If you know your region's Network Operator (Distributor) - that's not your Supplier, then go direct to their website otherwise use https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator You can enter your postcode or it may be obvious to you from the map lower down the page. Then go to your Network Operator' website and complete the postcode etc. Check you address details are exactly correct including postcode and the MPAN is correct.
Any discrepancies can result in problems, post back what they are if you find any, but not the details/personal data.

For the Gas use https://www.findmysupplier.energy/ 
Again check all your details and MPRN are recorded exactly correct.

Assuming all is correct so far, if the IHD is still a problem, advise and there's another crafty check we can make for that.

Phones4Chris

countrycousin15 said:

Have read the previous posts and have posted in on an Economy 10 Forum as well. 

..........

Is there anyone on Economy 10 with Octopus? What are the Octopus rates and which electricity region are they in? Also looking at their tracker tariff.

@countrycousin15 Your issue is going to be rather complicated, I'd suggest you start your own thread rather than we try and deal with that here - unless you get it solved on the Economy 10 forum, in which case just say so here please.

Bobbymax

I'm afraid I'm going to add to the truly woeful tales of Octopus Energy's customer service set up.
Just three months into a 12-month fixed tariff, they raised my DD by £30, or more than 20 per cent, with the only explanation that I wasn't meeting their target balance for four months AFTER the tariff was due to end.
As they'd only just billed me and included a projection that indicated my existing DD would cover the 12-month period of the tariff with a bit to spare, I was naturally not pleased.
Five days later, I got a reply saying that an error may have been made in calculation and the existing DD would remain in place. No apology, just that. Five days after that, however, I get another email informing me that the increased DD will be taken out at the end of the month and it was now too late to change it.
Well, you can imagine how that went down! I rung them immediately but the accent of the woman on the other end of the phone was such I couldn't understand a word she was saying so I took to email again. Six days on, not a reply. The raised DD is due out tomorrow and it is the last penny that Octopus will get out of me because I've switched to Eon on an 18-month fixed tariff via MSE. 
Funnily enough, I immediately get an email from Octopus asking me why I'd left. You couldn't make it up!

Phones4Chris

@Bobbymax Perhaps you hadn't noticed that in the online account you can Change the DD amount to whatever you think, whatever they suggested or changed it to. Clearly it's only sensible to change it to an amount you know will cover the bills.
Did you read your DD email carefully? There's various links provided. If you didn't want that higher DD amount to be taken, you could have used the link to DELAY the payment (no closer than 3 days before the payment, emails are normally sent long before that), then got onto them about the amount.
(There's also the link to Change the payment amount in the account).

Bobbymax

Phones4Chris said:

@Bobbymax Perhaps you hadn't noticed that in the online account you can Change the DD amount to whatever you think, whatever they suggested or changed it to. Clearly it's only sensible to change it to an amount you know will cover the bills.
Did you read your DD email carefully? There's various links provided. If you didn't want that higher DD amount to be taken, you could have used the link to DELAY the payment (no closer than 3 days before the payment, emails are normally sent long before that), then got onto them about the amount.
(There's also the link to Change the payment amount in the account).

Thanks Phones4Chris, I'm fully aware that you can change the DD amount in your account and I would have considered raising it if required but that wasn't the case. I also happened to be on the opposite side of the Atlantic when they emailed me that the higher amount was going to be taken and I certainly wasn't going to waste what was left of my holiday arguing back and forth about a decision that they declared couldn't be reversed.
Incidentally, the credit on my account has increased again and yet they are now suggesting a further £3 rise at the end of December.  
I have never hesitated in switching suppliers to get the best deal I can so have a lot of experience of how companies handle accounts but I have never come across an operation as intimidatory and yet shambolic as Octopus.