Tomato Energy (Electric Only Supplier) - Too Good To Be True ?

Newbie_John

The only interesting thing is - what is Tomato Energy account? Some sort of credit? I got £30 from Octopus and it's frozen till they issue me a bill.. who knows when this will be?
Same with Tomato, instead of paying it all in one go.. they can delay people bills over 4 months and apply £10 discount per month - giving them some breathing space. 

Let's wait and see!
I do wonder if they will also update their prices in April/May - caps went up, they're having a lot of new signups - shortening 5p period or introducing 30p prices for 16-19 period won't make a huge difference in my opinion .

Bendo

The main issue with trying to avoid SoLR process by switching away is that usually the list provided to the supplier will include those the have switch shortly after and they may find themselves switched away from their new supplier.

Personally I'd do it and deal with any potential fall out later on, assuming of course there were decent tariffs to switch to.  If it was just SVR and no better elsewhere I'd probably ride it out.

masonic

Bendo said:

The main issue with trying to avoid SoLR process by switching away is that usually the list provided to the supplier will include those the have switch shortly after and they may find themselves switched away from their new supplier.

Personally I'd do it and deal with any potential fall out later on, assuming of course there were decent tariffs to switch to.  If it was just SVR and no better elsewhere I'd probably ride it out.

Yes, I distinctly remember a few people involved in past failures complaining that they had to repeatedly instruct their new supplier to block attempts by SoLR to switch them. It means you do need to be on the ball, as does your chosen supplier.

Largs

Hello, pleased to report they didn't object to my switch away which took place today.  I joined 23 December with 2nd generation meter and still never been billed.  Hoping now this will continue and will claim guaranteed standards payment regarding the final bill.

Bendo

Largs said:

Hello, pleased to report they didn't object to my switch away which took place today.  I joined 23 December with 2nd generation meter and still never been billed.  Hoping now this will continue and will claim guaranteed standards payment regarding the final bill.

What's in their terms? As you have moved away, they will no longer be able to access your meter data. If they had any sense, they would have covered such a scenario to bill ToU tarifffs at SVR but who knows..

masonic

Bendo said:

Largs said:

Hello, pleased to report they didn't object to my switch away which took place today.  I joined 23 December with 2nd generation meter and still never been billed.  Hoping now this will continue and will claim guaranteed standards payment regarding the final bill.

What's in their terms? As you have moved away, they will no longer be able to access your meter data. If they had any sense, they would have covered such a scenario to bill ToU tarifffs at SVR but who knows..

I looked into this before signing up. They've not reserved any right to bill customers on a tariff other than the one they signed up to. Nor do they have provisions to estimate TOU data. Which leaves them with very few options.

Bendo

Be interesting to see how this plays out then as they now have no way of getting the TOU data.

lohr500

masonic said:

I looked into this before signing up. They've not reserved any right to bill customers on a tariff other than the one they signed up to. Nor do they have provisions to estimate TOU data. Which leaves them with very few options.

The Tariff Information document that was emailed to me by TE when I signed up in late August last year contained this clause:


Implementation Where your tariff has a smart meter requirement, you agree that we can take half hourly meter readings. If we are using third party software to connect to specific devices, we cannot be liable for issues or losses arising in relation to the failure or non-availability of such third-party software or applications. Where connection to the smart meter is lost, you shall be required to submit meter readings in monthly intervals until the connection is fully working or the fault resolved. We may apply appropriate unit rates and estimates of your usage in such instances. 

I don't know if the document changed for later customers, but I do think it could get messy if they or affected customers can't retrieve the half hourly data for whatever reason.

Rightly or wrongly, my understanding is that the meter "should" be storing a rolling 13 months of half hourly data. If this is the case, then the data is in there somewhere and hopefully TE can find a way to extract it!!
But if they or the DCC can't then what happens?  

In the absence of half hourly data, all that is left are the meter register readings which obviously won't give a breakdown of the tou consumption.

TE could do the decent thing if billing defaults to the meter readings and charge all the usage at the 5p unt cost.Or agree some other weighted rate which would be acceptable to most customers. At the end of the day though, who knows!!

I was fortunate that my half hourly data for August to November was accessible through Glowmarkt/Bright and n3rgy and so I was able to calculate exactly how much I should have been billed for. The Ombudsman agreed with me and instructed TE to issue a refund.

TroubledTarts

masonic said:

Bendo said:

The main issue with trying to avoid SoLR process by switching away is that usually the list provided to the supplier will include those the have switch shortly after and they may find themselves switched away from their new supplier.

Personally I'd do it and deal with any potential fall out later on, assuming of course there were decent tariffs to switch to.  If it was just SVR and no better elsewhere I'd probably ride it out.

Yes, I distinctly remember a few people involved in past failures complaining that they had to repeatedly instruct their new supplier to block attempts by SoLR to switch them. It means you do need to be on the ball, as does your chosen supplier.

Does that mean looking out for "sorry you are leaving us messages" and checking your supplier regularly.

Interesting didn't know that pitful.

knight123

Other than the £40/£80 compensation for delays, does anyone know if I have any rights regarding them honouring the tariff I signed up for? I have a contract with them which says 'Your contract is for 12 months starting from 28/02/2025 and ending in 28/02/2026' and has the lifestyle rates in it, but if the switch still hasn't happened, I'm worried they'll suddenly change the terms and put me on an updated one with less favourable rates.