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

Bendo

decentchap100 said:

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).

You should probably figure in the accounting period predates them getting into the domestic supply market.

Also consider their parent company Senapt that appears to own most (all?) of Tomato, still haven't filed their accounts so are now 3 months + overdue.

bristolleedsfan

Bendo said:

decentchap100 said:

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).

You should probably figure in the accounting period predates them getting into the domestic supply market.

Tomato Energy was previously Logicor Energy, which was previously Marigold Energy Supply starting in 2015. Thread on this forum evidence Logicor Energy supplying domestic supply market during 2021.

TroubledTarts

Copied from Facebook

Right….i finally got through on the ‘phone. The cheap rate between 01:00 - 05:00 are not on those times anymore, their systems have not updated to BST. So the 01:00 - 05:00 ‘cheap’ tariff is currently 02:00 - 06:00. They are aware of the issue and their Technical team are looking into it, the times will ‘hopefully’ be corrected soon. But beware that, atm, they are an hour behind. Set something like your car to start charging at 01:00 am and it will be on the more expensive rate until 02:00 am.

lohr500

TroubledTarts said:

Copied from Facebook

Right….i finally got through on the ‘phone. The cheap rate between 01:00 - 05:00 are not on those times anymore, their systems have not updated to BST. So the 01:00 - 05:00 ‘cheap’ tariff is currently 02:00 - 06:00. They are aware of the issue and their Technical team are looking into it, the times will ‘hopefully’ be corrected soon. But beware that, atm, they are an hour behind. Set something like your car to start charging at 01:00 am and it will be on the more expensive rate until 02:00 am.

But surely the key thing here is that they fix the issue before the billing cycle covering April usage? (And 30/31 March).

It was a similar situation back in August/Sept/Oct last year, where TE hadn't aligned the billing times correctly to the costs. Back then, some people were advocating changing their charging times to align with the incorrect TE timings. But when TE finally fixed it, those who had shifted their times then found they were billed incorrectly and had to submit claims for a refund.

If I was still with TE, I would be sticking to the agreed contract times and challenging them as/when any incorrect bills arrived.

The other option, which agan some people adopted last year, is to narrow down the off-peak time window so it is guaranteed to be fail safe. That's fine so long as you can charge up whatever you need to over a reduced number of hours. 


They really do seem to do be extremely competent at shooting themselves in the foot. After all of the timing issues last year, you would have thought they would have tested their systems thoroughly in readiness for the shift from GMT to BST.

masonic

TroubledTarts said:

Copied from Facebook

Right….i finally got through on the ‘phone. The cheap rate between 01:00 - 05:00 are not on those times anymore, their systems have not updated to BST. So the 01:00 - 05:00 ‘cheap’ tariff is currently 02:00 - 06:00. They are aware of the issue and their Technical team are looking into it, the times will ‘hopefully’ be corrected soon. But beware that, atm, they are an hour behind. Set something like your car to start charging at 01:00 am and it will be on the more expensive rate until 02:00 am.

The price calculations in MyWatts appear to be correct for me, even though everything is still displayed in GMT, off peak periods are applied based on times in BST. Suggests they have issued some incorrect March bills (mine is yet to be received). Or possibly the person answering on the phone doesn't understand that an hour behind in GMT is the same time of day as usual during BST.

QrizB

bristolleedsfan said:

Tomato Energy was previously Logicor Energy, which was previously Marigold Energy Supply starting in 2015. Thread on this forum evidence Logicor Energy supplying domestic supply market during 2021.

Logicor was taking domestic customers back then (I tried unsuccessfully to join them on a three-rate tariff) but closed their books in late 21 or early 22 due to difficult trading conditions. They had tiny numbers of customers.

I think Tomato are an entirely different management and ownership team.

lohr500

QrizB said:

I think Tomato are an entirely different management and ownership team.

According to Companies House, Logicor changed name to Tomato Energy on 29/12/22.
All three of the current TE active Directors were appointed prior to the name change. 
Senapt Limited seems to be a key part of the structure as well with the same three TE Directors being actively appointed in that company.

Many of the original Logicor directors may have resigned, but there is a direct connection in terms of active directorship prior to and post name change.

That being said, and pure speculation from me, but it could well be that back in 2021/2022, the new crowd saw a weak Logicor business as a route into the energy market and stepped on board.

Boohoo

Has anybody got their March bill yet?

I am assuming they do them on the last day of the month. Mine was for February anyway.

SJMALBA

Boohoo said:

Has anybody got their March bill yet?

I am assuming they do them on the last day of the month. Mine was for February anyway.

Their billing is supposed to work on the basis of calendar months.

Can't comment personally as I still don't have any usage data in myWatts, so haven't had any bills; potentially, despite what TE and Octopus have said throughout, I might not even have an actual switch!?

WBCPB

Boohoo said:

Has anybody got their March bill yet?

I am assuming they do them on the last day of the month. Mine was for February anyway.

Nothing for me yet but i did have my 1st bill from Tomato for 5th-28th February on 27th March so nothing seems to happen quickly.