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

GingerTim

Bendo said:

QrizB said:

Bendo said:

Probably go bump just before a people hit 12 months of no bills and then all the fun starts with people expecting not to pay anything because of Martins whishy washy back billing articles where he doesn't point out things like that only applies to energy suppliers, not administrators.

Going to be a whole mess at some stage for those who have never been billed on Lifestyle.  Why they ever took on customers onto a  TOU tariff before ensuring they could access their meters is sheer incompetence and stupidity.

I'm sure the CEO will be along shortly to assure us this is all fake news, that everything is going great and there are no American soldiers in Baghdad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saeed_al-Sahhaf

Here is the spin...

Bella Parsons That is the most malicious thing I have ever seen a competitor do. Basically one competitor(name in the picture) who we briefly used as a Meter Operator back in 2023 found out they had not billed us because the contract was cancelled and it was only a handful of meters... but having taken so many of their customers they felt the best way to deal with this was to file a Winding up petition straightaway without even contacting us about the debt... You can imagine how supremely !!!!!! we were to find out what they have done... but its ok. Its just bullying but we will be fine. our legal team are on it. A number of suppliers just don't like us...

Bit confused by his response. According to their website Yü Smart install and maintain smart meters, so in what way are they a competitor to Tomato? Why would Tomato take their customers?

I thought a winding-up petition can only be filed after attempts to get a debt paid, it's not just something you can go straight to?

masonic

GingerTim said:

I thought a winding-up petition can only be filed after attempts to get a debt paid, it's not just something you can go straight to?

The minimum requirement is to serve a statutory demand for payment and then wait 21 days, at which point you could apply to wind up the company if unpaid and unchallenged. Given the previous comments by Farouk about their approach to the payment of invoices, there is a much more plausible explanation for how the circumstances arose.

TroubledTarts

Just remember, like we are doing, keep alll your bills (if you are being billed) as much info and screenshots as possible and put them somewhere safe for the next 7 years. Just incase.

Was it worth the circa £300 savings if they don't make it this summer? Probably.... unless this turns into an solr and billing nightmare where debt companies come after people down the road.

As for the CEO spin it's just laughable like the rest of his comments when something comes to light. But entertaining none the less. Whatever happens we won't forget TE and their gun slinging CEO.

Nice time for someone with some money to swoop in and bankroll them.

masonic

WBCPB said:

Today 1st April i have Tomato data right up to 15.00 hours but loads of gaps from 22nd March onwards and Bright stopped reporting at 22.00 hours yesterday. Anyone else experiencing the same?

Overnight a week's worth of gaps have been backfilled for me, leaving only 7 random missing HH for Monday 31st. Perhaps these will be filled by the time my bill is issued, if not it will be a very similar situation to last month.

TroubledTarts

Newbie_John said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

youravinalarrrf said:

Hate to state the obvious but the sooner this shower and it's totally incompetent management are removed from the market the better it will be for everyone.

The world really has turned upside down when people want the cheapest supplier across the whole of the UK to go under, meaning customers lose and jobs lost..............what a world we live in.

Yeah, I don't get that it's like Waitrose customers complaining there is Aldi, O2 customers complaining there's Lebara.. oh wait they don't, they either use their shop and don't care or switch and enjoy cheaper prices.. but with electricity provider people just keep complaining, since I joined in October it's the same - and that's not the TE customers, competition.

One thing for sure is we need stronger competition - and that's slowly appearing:
EON Next drive - 6.7p between 0-7 and 27p for the rest of the day etc.

Eon next drive is over 2 years old, far longer than TE have had their domestic TOU tariffs out.

You mistake the posts here for wanting to see Tomato fail for just keeping up with what is going on with TE during this strange period with them as customers.

It's good to have all the information. To make informed decisions at the right time.

A post on this forum is rarely a "fan page". More of a place people can come to with their issues and news about that particular energy company.

As a customer of theirs I would like them to succeed but they do seem rather fleckless to say the least. Definitely riding cowboy on their domestic energy supplier journey. 

Giddy up, it's gonna be some ride!

decentchap100

First post coming up here!
I've been with TE for nearly two months now and actually been pretty impressed with them overall. The switch went smoother than my last one (from Scottish Power to Octopus) and the data was coming through almost straight away.
I have had small gaps in the data on MyWatts but around a weeks worth was straightened out yesterday (in time for March bill I guess).
However I guess it's obvious they have had issues as my dad tried to switch to them but they couldn't seem to read his meter so he eventually went elsewhere. I guess this was at the height of when they were having big problems and finally stopped signing up new people.
Obviously the data is over a year old (but the best we have readily available) but TE made an Operating profit of over £10m in 2023 (£1.7m in 2022) on a turnover of £64m which looks extremely healthy to me and certainly not the kind of numbers one would expect to see of a company about to go bust - though obviously with the caveat that things could have changed over the last 15 months particularly if they have been struggling to bill people properly.
So I for one will be cheering them on all the way!
The 5p rate I'm getting from 1am to 6am is great for heating up the hot water tank as the immersion heater is then cheaper than using gas at that time. In March I've used less gas than I used in September last year (hot water is my main use for gas, I use it very little for heating).

SJMALBA

Despite being told by Octopus that the bill sent on the day of my switch to TE (7th of February) would be the final electricity bill from Octopus, and that electricity use on the 6th was 'technically included' in this bill, even though the bill was for the 1st to the 5th inclusive (I went back and forth multiple times, in writing, but they were adamant that the 6th was included), I notice that a charge has been made to my account, dated 3rd March, for electricity use on the 6th of February, for which I have not received an actual bill detailing the charge, nor has this charge appeared in my online account balance until now!

The bill I did receive dated 3rd March is for gas only, no mention whatever of electricity, so it looks like they have just added the electricity charge today (my account balance yesterday was zero, as it has been since the DD was taken for February's gas bill), but backdated it to the 3rd of March!

As for TE, don't ask...!

This whole situation would generously be called an utter shambles (involving both providers, DNO and CSS)! 

Newbie_John

It will be interesting to watch SOLR for the Rebel customers, OFGEM websites mention its an easy process that takes about a week and then you can switch wherever you want. Main stopper here for not switching to TE was that before 2022 SOLR took months.. so let's see how it works out - they had 90k customers so I believe similar in size to TE - hopefully OFGEM learnt a lesson since.

SJMALBA

bristolleedsfan said:

 

SJMALBA said:

Despite being told by Octopus that the bill sent on the day of my switch to TE (7th of February) would be the final electricity bill from Octopus, and that electricity use on the 6th was 'technically included' in this bill, even though the bill was for the 1st to the 5th inclusive (I went back and forth multiple times, in writing, but they were adamant that the 6th was included), I notice that a charge has been made to my account, dated 3rd March, for electricity use on the 6th of February, for which I have not received an actual bill detailing the charge, nor has this charge appeared in my online account balance until now!

The bill I did receive dated 3rd March is for gas only, no mention whatever of electricity, so it looks like they have just added the electricity charge today (my account balance yesterday was zero, as it has been since the DD was taken for February's gas bill), but backdated it to the 3rd of March!

Added charge today, final statement bill should be sent today or tomorrow at latest.

Yes they do backdate workings seemingly unable to backdate date of final bill, sounds like you inline for £40 compensation, fingers crossed that they do not pay it automatically within 10 working days. 

My March gas bill will probably arrive today or tomorrow, and will presumably? also include electricity for the 6th of February?

TroubledTarts

Newbie_John said:

It will be interesting to watch SOLR for the Rebel customers, OFGEM websites mention its an easy process that takes about a week and then you can switch wherever you want. Main stopper here for not switching to TE was that before 2022 SOLR took months.. so let's see how it works out - they had 90k customers so I believe similar in size to TE - hopefully OFGEM learnt a lesson since.

So to correct you there a little bit not a week but week(s) no limit to that.

The official Ofgem announcement on Rebel energy says it will be a few days before a SOLR is appointed and then it says the following

Ofgem’s advice to affected customers in the meantime is to: 

Wait until a new supplier has been appointed and you have been contacted by them in the following weeks before looking to switch to another energy supplier. 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/ofgem-protects-customers-rebel-energy