Octopus Energy

DHW39

We have a situation with Octopus Energy.

We switched from Shell Energy to Octopus in November 2023 for electric and Gas. We have smart meters for both.

We have discovered that Octopus have only been charging us for Gas and when we queried this in March 2024 as we saw that only Gas was mentioned on their Bills to us. They acknowledged this error and have now added a debt of around £700 to our account for the Electricity going back to when we switched.

We feel that this is very unfair because we signed up in good faith to be billed correctly for our usage and we expected our smart meters to correctly inform Octopus of our usage. I have in fact seen that automated readings were received and are shown in the Octopus mobile App.

When we last spoke to Octopus they agreed to email us back when they have reviewed our situation, we have since received a request that we tell them how much compensation we think is suitable for this situation. They acknowledged in the call that apparently those who have been switched from Shell to Octopus have had some issues. We voluntarily switched before the compulsory switching.

I have emailed the Energy Ombudsman at osenquiries@os-energy.org and had no response despite following up with a second email.

Are we eligible for a full clearance of this debt? Have Octopus broken their own contractual obligations to accurately inform us of our charges in a timely manner? What can we do to solve this? Yes we have used the energy, but we were no correctly informed of our usage and bills and as a result an unmanageable debt has built up.

I’m reluctant to reply to Octopus until I know my rights in this situation.

If anyone has had a similar situation I would be interested to hear from you 

ecraig

How much money were you paying Shell each month, and how much money are you paying Octopus?
What is the difference and why is there so much difference?

la531983

Your rights are to pay the bill. Like you said, you used the energy. And its within the last 12 months so even if back billing applied here (not sure if it would or wouldnt), the time period involved removes that as a get out.

Were you not putting the money aside to pay the bill when it inevitably came?

Ayr_Rage

You are responsible for paying for the energy you have used and will have to pay the full amount, that is the solution, using a payment plan if necessary.

You should have checked after you switched that you were being billed as expected especially as you also have the app.

You might get around £20 for the inconvenience.

DHW39

Yes the bill will be paid and I’m aware of 12 month reclaim period  but the key issue I’m looking into here is if Octopus have failed in their service agreement to us and if we have recourse. We expect if we set up dual fuel direct debits and have smart meters to be accurately billed. 

la531983

DHW39 said:

Yes the bill will be paid and I’m aware of 12 month reclaim period  but the key issue I’m looking into here is if Octopus have failed in their service agreement to us and if we have recourse. We expect if we set up dual fuel direct debits and have smart meters to be accurately billed. 

And you have been accurately billed now.

mmmmikey

Quite apart from your rights I think you have to ask yourself whether what you are asking is reasonable. Octopus have made an error in setting up your account, and of course that shouldn't happen and is annoying. But as soon as you made them aware of the problem they have rectified it.

As far as "damages" are concerned, there's been no financial loss and all you have suffered is a small inconvenience.

So my view would be that you have neither a legal or "moral" right to anything other than a token payment in recognition of that and you should just pay the bill and focus your attention elsewhere.

BarelySentientAI

DHW39 said:

I have emailed the Energy Ombudsman at osenquiries@os-energy.org and had no response despite following up with a second email.

Are we eligible for a full clearance of this debt? Have Octopus broken their own contractual obligations to accurately inform us of our charges in a timely manner? What can we do to solve this? 

The Ombudsman only deals with complaints that haven't been solved by the supplier.  You will not get anywhere going to the Ombudsman before even making a formal complaint.

You are not eligible for clearance of any of the debt.  Octopus have not broken any contractual or regulatory obligations.  To solve this, you pay the bill.

Had it gone past the 12 month mark, and you could demonstrate that you had made reasonable efforts to resolve the problem including a formal complaint that Octopus refused to deal with, the answer could be different.

FreeBear

BarelySentientAI said: You are not eligible for clearance of any of the debt.  Octopus have not broken any contractual or regulatory obligations.  To solve this, you pay the bill.

If finding £700 in one go is going to cause hardship, getting a repayment plan in place would be the most equitable resolution.