Octopus export tariff problems (solar panels)

kazwookie

Hi

Is any one else having problems getting their export credit (solar panels) for the month of July 2024 from Octopus?

I have emailed them twice, today get this response:-

Hello there,

I hope this email finds You well and in good health.

Currently we are investigating the issue that are effecting many of our export tariff Costumers.

We will update You accordingly on the details and the bulk fix is on its way.

Kind Regards

Octopus

Apart from the bad spelling / grammar, I want to know if I am being told a load of BS, or in fact they do have problems.

Many thanks

vic_sf49

I haven't had payment yet, but I only got set up for export payments mid July, so I didn't know when to expect payment.

My import / usage is billed per calendar month (Tracker tariff), and the bill for that, was about a week later than usual, so I assumed gremlins in the system.

Shall see what happens on my next bill.

Qyburn

kazwookie said:

Hi

Is any one else having problems getting their export credit (solar panels) for the month of July 2024 from Octopus?

Yes. In the end I phoned and they did something manually to put the export credit through. Annoyingly it took it up to the date of that phone call, messing up my whole calendar month hilling.

gollum007

Something is clearly wrong.

No bill for August at the minute.

I've just had my May and July export credits reversed (!) and they're somehow claiming that they've overpaid by 130kwh (May's number).
Export was setup on the 5th of April according to thier own messages (meter installed on 22nd March).

pete-20-11

My next bill is due very soon, so will have to see! 

gollum007

We've recalculated your export credits.

We noticed that the meter reading that opened your Octopus export account didn't match the one recorded on the industry database. We've fixed this and recalculated your export earnings on the statement below.

A bill has now arrived, with the above note.

Looking at the previous export bills, these make no mention of meter readings, just a kwh value.
The new bill has been calculated from 3 'customer' readings.

All I can say is that this is just total and utter confusion.
As none of the dates or figures match between the new and revised bills, it's near impossible to tell what they think actually happened.


My best probable guess is that the system billed from an opening meter read of zero, not the 47 when the account went live. Billing from zero is correct for when we owe them money, but not when they're crediting us. (funny that.....)


Overall, thier handling of this and the communication from the phone advisers has been terrible. 

(Incidentally, the online account still has 'an issue with your meter' if clicking on the refund button.)

NedS

I had an issue, where the export statement wasn't generated for last month. My billing date is the 7th. Meter readings were automatically taken and recorded on my account for the 7th, and maybe 5-6 days later my import bill arrived, but nothing for export. This was my first month on export, so I assumed that maybe the missing opening meter reading may have been the cause, although they had full half-hourly smart meter readings from my go live date.

Anyway, phoned Octopus and the telephony agent was great - he could see the statement hadn't generated, and apologised for that but was not sure of the exact cause (I appreciated his honesty, rather than trying to fob me off with the first thing that came into his head). He was able to generate a statement there and then, and tell me how much it would be for and that it should show in my online account within a couple hours. The only 'issue' was that the generated statement covered the period up until the day before my call (last complete day), rather than just up until my monthly billing date, but that just means I've had some of next months SEG payment already.

I did have to call to give the system a nudge, but I cannot complain about the customer service received which was excellent and the issue was resolved immediately over the phone.

kazwookie

Well I gave up eamiling them, as getting the same awful reply, so I rang them, didn't wait long in the que, very  helpful customer agent, it seems the July export did not down load 2 days, so therefore a bill / credit invoice was not produced.

CA did some thing manually, I now have my credit expect for two days, CA did a 'push' to see if the other two days credit would arrive.

The credit is showing in the payments bit, but there is no credit invoice, only the ££ figure, 22 days to get this far, next time I know to ring sooner.

I bet ongoing the whole this is out of kilter with itself, ie I get two bill / credit per month instead of it all being on one.

I've also asked for a refund, but it seems the system has another issue over this.

Octopus use to be so good, now they have IMO gone down hill.

Advise to all take meter readings every month, and check the bill every month.