Octopus gas Tracker billing error ?

littlesteve_ex31

Hello All,my first post so be gentle!

I am enjoying the savings of being on the Octopus Tracker Tariff but I have a question?

I have turned off all my gas appliances for 3 and 4 consecutive days in April and May.This is shown as no consumption on these days on the Octopus website in my energy dashboard.So I would say that is as expected.When I received my statement for these months I have been billed for using energy on these days.

 I contacted Octopus customer services last month.They could see that there was no advance on the meter in April on these days and have just moved that consumption and billed it on 1 random day, if I understand my account correctly.As the price changes daily have I been under or overcharged.I know its only pennies on my consumption but is this just an error on my account.

I replied to the email I received last month saying the same issue has occured in May.The reply I received was for me to check if my meter was advancing when no consumption.I think this is a billing issue not metering.

So really this is just checking my sanity.

Am I right in saying this is wrong?

born_again

I would do as they ask & check to ensure that meter is not advancing when no gas is being used.
At least that gives you a more solid stand point. Rather than dismissing the idea out of hand.

Although do any of your gas appliances have pilot lights?

masonic

They've billed you based on meter readings and averaged your consumption for this billing period, which is something that sometimes happens if all of the consumption data isn't available at the time of billing. Looks to me like it might be slightly in your favour.

BarelySentientAI

littlesteve_ex31 said:

I replied to the email I received last month saying the same issue has occurred in May. The reply I received was for me to check if my meter was advancing when no consumption.  I think this is a billing issue not metering.

I think this is metering - there are some gaps in the reported smart meter data (or they think there were some gaps) so they are applying the averaging method that your contract says they will do.

When you complained, they just fudged it to make you feel happier.

BootsMullery

In their Tracker FAQ's, there is a question which asks " How do you calculate daily consumption for billing?

Their answer is :- 
"  When we calculate your bill, we try to use your actual consumption for each day from your smart meter, in order to get a correctly weighted average price for the billing period.

If this isn't possible (for example, if we are missing some consumption data), we will use your total consumption over the billing period, and allocate it to days based on industry coefficients that reflect actual weather.

We are unlikely to be able to recalculate your bill, even if we later receive your actual consumption data, as re-billing is just as likely to increase charges for a customer as reduce them, and time-consuming, when our priority is on minimising the cost of this tariff, and makes bills harder to comprehend and follow for customers."

In practice, many people are finding that these "missing" data periods happen fairly frequently. I myself  have found that virtually every month, there is at least 1 period of 1-2 days when no data is recorded. If you are able to continually monitor your consumption data and point out to Octopus when there is a gap, they are able to "find" the missing data and fill the gap. However, when the gap is near the end of a billing period, they don't seem to find it quickly enough to stop the averaging process from taking place. 

My gas bills for the last four months have all been calculated using this averaging method despite me pointing out the missing periods. For March, April and May, they say that they have found and added the missing data but the bills have still been averaged.

I have been trying to tell them ever since last October, that if they cannot reliably collect all of the half hourly data for gas then the Tracker tariff will never be suitable for this daily method of billing, so they should stop wasting their time collecting the data, then abandoning it just because some is missing. They may just as well take the total usage for the billing period and apply the average daily cost to that. (Which is more or less how they show it on their bill summary at the top of the bill). 

The only response I actually get to that suggestion is that they have "passed it on to the people concerned" but those "people" never provide any response.

It would seem that, apart from continually complaining, we can only accept that we are getting gas quite a bit cheaper than any of the variable Tariffs but keep an eye on the prices as they may not stay cheaper.

pfpf

masonic said:

They've billed you based on meter readings and averaged your consumption for this billing period, which is something that sometimes happens

virtually always happens for me with one or the other energy, or maybe even both.

wild666

I'm on the tracker tariff and my consumption of gas is averaged out over all the days even though for most of a week last month my combi boiler was turned off due to it not heating water, this is why the monthly bill is based on the average kWh price over the month.
My weekly usage of gas in summer is between 3 and 7 kWh per week.  

littlesteve_ex31

Thanks all for your replies.

I did not know about them averaging the consumption when they do not receive readings.But they have received the information,or its very coincidental that its days when nothing is used.It is just that a zero advance seems to be assumed as an error in received data from the meters.

The creep test has all ready been done.The day before my accounts show no advance is the day I have gone away and I can see my consumption increase when I return.It has only been over two 3 and 4 day periods in April and May.It may happen more often if we get any summer!

I can see why this procedure is in place. But when everthing is working as expected there is no need for it to be used.They have the information of the daily consumption but choose to ignore it when they see a nil advance.

I would like to say I understand smart meters.I retired from fitting them,electric only,over 3 years ago.If the truth be known I dont think anybody fully understands them!I did work in the electricity supply industry for over 40 years.

Will keep on trying to get them to use the correct information.

MP1995

littlesteve_ex31 said:

Thanks all for your replies.

I did not know about them averaging the consumption when they do not receive readings.But they have received the information,or its very coincidental that its days when nothing is used.It is just that a zero advance seems to be assumed as an error in received data from the meters.

The creep test has all ready been done.The day before my accounts show no advance is the day I have gone away and I can see my consumption increase when I return.It has only been over two 3 and 4 day periods in April and May.It may happen more often if we get any summer!

I can see why this procedure is in place. But when everthing is working as expected there is no need for it to be used.They have the information of the daily consumption but choose to ignore it when they see a nil advance.

I would like to say I understand smart meters.I retired from fitting them,electric only,over 3 years ago.If the truth be known I dont think anybody fully understands them!I did work in the electricity supply industry for over 40 years.

Will keep on trying to get them to use the correct information.

Download your data from the guy lipman site and check for missing data.

If there is some ask Octopus to download it  ut a little warning. There are rumours of some missing data having to pay flexible rates so if they have averaged it out I would just leave it. But nice to check your data anyway.

oldandwizend

Just found this thread as I also have problems with billing errors.
I noticed that the bill daily breakdown for gas was too consistent (little difference day by day) to be actual daily usage so for August 25 I downloaded the half hourly data from the Octopus web site on a day by day basis.  The downloaded daily totals bear no resemblance to the daily totals shown on my August bill which should be based on the exact same data!
Using the day to day Tracker tariff the total month amount using my kWh calculation was only pennies difference from the actual billed amount so not a major problem cost wise.
I have raised these apparent discrepancies and it will be interesting to see what their answer is!
Interestingly this daily discrepancy only happens with gas, electricity usage is spot on day by day.
This might suggest that Octopus are taking the easy, averaging, route when calculating the bill. All well and good when the day to day Tracker tariff and daily kWh are fairly consistent but if there were major Tracker tariff differences day by day coupled with major differences in daily usage then the monthly averaging approach would be prone to significant billing errors; e.g. high daily use on a low tariff day and low daily use on a high tariff day.
Maybe we should be questioning the advantages of time of day tariffs if smart meters and their associated processes are unable to reliably and consistently record usage data!

QrizB

I've got the same query re. gas billing in with Octopus at the moment. We're discussing it on the main Tracker thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6261575/octopus-tracker#latest

oldandwizend said:

Maybe we should be questioning the advantages of time of day tariffs if smart meters and their associated processes are unable to reliably and consistently record usage data!

My opinion is that the meters are fine, it's Octopus's processes that don't align with their own stated intentions. But we'll see where we get.