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

WibbleBaaaaaa

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

masonic said:

WBCPB said:

Has anyone who has been billed actually had the bill payment taken from their bank via D.D?
My 1st bill for Feb still not taken by direct debit ( which is showing as set up and ready to go in online banking ).

Yes, payment for all three of my bills were taken by DD on the date I was advised.

(and yes 8 weeks after i switched away from Octopus i am still waiting for them to send my final bill and refund, so this week i just started a  complaint to the Energy Ombudsman Octopus nonsense).......so at this point i have more to lose actually switching away rather than holding enjoying that 40p sc for as long as it lasts.

I wonder if you are one of those who have not really switched due to the DNO block, and that is why Octopus have not issued the final bill as they are missing the necessary flows that would normally occur on completion of the switch?

...but i like the way they say on the phone that the have given me £40 credit for the late final bill, as if i should be thanking them. lol

You probably should be, as if Masonic is right then the delay is down to TE failing to complete the flows on their side....

The delay is all on Octopus side, the switch went without a hitch, as verified by the octopus cs rep when i called them 6 weeks later to ask about my final bill and refund, and accoring to the octo rep last week there is no reason on their system as to why a bill was sent out 6 weeks after my switch with 1 day withheld, as the final readings are all on the system, and that should have been the final bill, and at that point i just decided to start a complaint, so let us see just what happens now but i am going to predict that i will get a 1 day bill and it is going to be some silly high cost for 1 day like a week of lekky useage over 24 hours.

masonic

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

masonic said:

WBCPB said:

Has anyone who has been billed actually had the bill payment taken from their bank via D.D?
My 1st bill for Feb still not taken by direct debit ( which is showing as set up and ready to go in online banking ).

Yes, payment for all three of my bills were taken by DD on the date I was advised.

(and yes 8 weeks after i switched away from Octopus i am still waiting for them to send my final bill and refund, so this week i just started a  complaint to the Energy Ombudsman Octopus nonsense).......so at this point i have more to lose actually switching away rather than holding enjoying that 40p sc for as long as it lasts.

I wonder if you are one of those who have not really switched due to the DNO block, and that is why Octopus have not issued the final bill as they are missing the necessary flows that would normally occur on completion of the switch?

...but i like the way they say on the phone that the have given me £40 credit for the late final bill, as if i should be thanking them. lol

You probably should be, as if Masonic is right then the delay is down to TE failing to complete the flows on their side....

The delay is all on Octopus side, the switch went without a hitch, as verified by the octopus cs rep when i called them 6 weeks later to ask about my final bill and refund, and accoring to the octo rep last week there is no reason on their system as to why a bill was sent out 6 weeks after my switch with 1 day withheld, as the final readings are all on the system, and that should have been the final bill, and at that point i just decided to start a complaint, so let us see just what happens now but i am going to predict that i will get a 1 day bill and it is going to be some silly high cost for 1 day like a week of lekky useage over 24 hours.

TE is responsible for collecting your opening reading, validating it, and communicating it to Octopus via D0086 flow. Until that happens, Octopus is not supposed to produce a final bill, because any reading they use may not match the opening reading used by TE. The silly high reading comes from TE, and it sounds like they have not yet sent it to Octopus in your case, so you have that still to look forward to.

GingerTim

masonic said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

masonic said:

WBCPB said:

Has anyone who has been billed actually had the bill payment taken from their bank via D.D?
My 1st bill for Feb still not taken by direct debit ( which is showing as set up and ready to go in online banking ).

Yes, payment for all three of my bills were taken by DD on the date I was advised.

(and yes 8 weeks after i switched away from Octopus i am still waiting for them to send my final bill and refund, so this week i just started a  complaint to the Energy Ombudsman Octopus nonsense).......so at this point i have more to lose actually switching away rather than holding enjoying that 40p sc for as long as it lasts.

I wonder if you are one of those who have not really switched due to the DNO block, and that is why Octopus have not issued the final bill as they are missing the necessary flows that would normally occur on completion of the switch?

...but i like the way they say on the phone that the have given me £40 credit for the late final bill, as if i should be thanking them. lol

You probably should be, as if Masonic is right then the delay is down to TE failing to complete the flows on their side....

The delay is all on Octopus side, the switch went without a hitch, as verified by the octopus cs rep when i called them 6 weeks later to ask about my final bill and refund, and accoring to the octo rep last week there is no reason on their system as to why a bill was sent out 6 weeks after my switch with 1 day withheld, as the final readings are all on the system, and that should have been the final bill, and at that point i just decided to start a complaint, so let us see just what happens now but i am going to predict that i will get a 1 day bill and it is going to be some silly high cost for 1 day like a week of lekky useage over 24 hours.

TE is responsible for collecting your opening reading, validating it, and communicating it to Octopus via D0086 flow. Until that happens, Octopus is not supposed to produce a final bill, because any reading they use may not match the opening reading used by TE. The silly high reading comes from TE, and it sounds like they have not yet sent it to Octopus in your case, so you have that still to look forward to.

Does this mean that Wibble is a) still an Octopus customer or b) somewhere in limbo between the two until Tomato get their act together, if they ever do? (looking to enhance my understanding, so apologies if this is a stupid question)

Gerry1

masonic said:

bagand96 said:

With 3 day switching I'd still be tempted to try and out run SoLR if the worst was to happen to Tomato, which I'm sure would be be reported here quickly. It would take at least 3 days for an SoLR to be appointed and account data to start flowing from Tomato to the SoLR so it should be doable.  Big caveat is it's against Ofgem advice, and you'd have to be proactive and ensure the SoLR don't subsequently start a switch.

The other caveat with this approach is that you never pass to SoLR, so they may not buy your final debit balance from the administrators of TE. You then lose any Ofgem protections around the manner in which that debt is pursued.

I've outrun an SoLR in the past, and I'd be tempted to do so again.

Otherwise presumably you'd be stuck for around four or five days as Ofgem appoints the SoLR, plus a few weeks as the SoLR sets up your new account.

But does the 28 day block on new switches originated by the customer still apply when a supplier goes bust, and if so when does the clock start ticking?

There's also the risk that if the SoLR is someone like BG with bad customer service, their billing system will have been programmed to assume that nobody escaped the migration. If at some future time you happen to switch to the same SoLR, their billing system will believe you were with them continuously from the migration date and will insist on double billing you for the usage and standing charges.

masonic

GingerTim said:

masonic said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

masonic said:

WBCPB said:

Has anyone who has been billed actually had the bill payment taken from their bank via D.D?
My 1st bill for Feb still not taken by direct debit ( which is showing as set up and ready to go in online banking ).

Yes, payment for all three of my bills were taken by DD on the date I was advised.

(and yes 8 weeks after i switched away from Octopus i am still waiting for them to send my final bill and refund, so this week i just started a  complaint to the Energy Ombudsman Octopus nonsense).......so at this point i have more to lose actually switching away rather than holding enjoying that 40p sc for as long as it lasts.

I wonder if you are one of those who have not really switched due to the DNO block, and that is why Octopus have not issued the final bill as they are missing the necessary flows that would normally occur on completion of the switch?

...but i like the way they say on the phone that the have given me £40 credit for the late final bill, as if i should be thanking them. lol

You probably should be, as if Masonic is right then the delay is down to TE failing to complete the flows on their side....

The delay is all on Octopus side, the switch went without a hitch, as verified by the octopus cs rep when i called them 6 weeks later to ask about my final bill and refund, and accoring to the octo rep last week there is no reason on their system as to why a bill was sent out 6 weeks after my switch with 1 day withheld, as the final readings are all on the system, and that should have been the final bill, and at that point i just decided to start a complaint, so let us see just what happens now but i am going to predict that i will get a 1 day bill and it is going to be some silly high cost for 1 day like a week of lekky useage over 24 hours.

TE is responsible for collecting your opening reading, validating it, and communicating it to Octopus via D0086 flow. Until that happens, Octopus is not supposed to produce a final bill, because any reading they use may not match the opening reading used by TE. The silly high reading comes from TE, and it sounds like they have not yet sent it to Octopus in your case, so you have that still to look forward to.

Does this mean that Wibble is a) still an Octopus customer or b) somewhere in limbo between the two? (looking to enhance my understanding here)

There's no reason to think the switch didn't complete in this scenario. In every reported instance where a switch was prevented or in limbo, TE never gained access to the HH data for the meter, whereas Wibble has had no such issue.

There is a separate issue that has affected a lot (perhaps all) customers switching to TE, in which the opening read they provided to TE was not used by their old supplier as the final read. Under normal circumstances, the new supplier is supposed to retrieve the midnight register reading on the supply start date (SSD) and send that to the new supplier by SSD+8. This hasn't been happening. Instead TE has been asking for a customer read, which apparently isn't used either. Because of this, the Change of Supply (CoS) read defaults to a deemed reading calculated by the new supplier. Before this can happen, they must obtain the meter reading history from the old supplier in order to calculate the Estimated Annual Consumption (EAC), which can then be used to generate the deemed read and communicate this back to the old supplier by D0086 flow. As reported by many new TE customers, this process has taken >6 weeks and resulted in Guaranteed Standard of Performance compensation from the old supplier. When the deemed CoS read does finally arrive with the old supplier, it is found to be quite a bit higher than the customer read provided to TE. Old supplier confirms to those who ask that this is the validated reading they received from TE.

The next problem is that TE doesn't use meter readings at all for billing, so it just bills from SSD using HH consumption data. This results in a period of overlap where the inflated CoS read means that the customer would be billed for the same energy twice. The old supplier can generally be harangued into not billing this overlapping energy as a gesture of good will - another cost in addition to the GSoP compensation it incurs through no fault of its own.

GingerTim

masonic said:

GingerTim said:

masonic said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

masonic said:

WBCPB said:

Has anyone who has been billed actually had the bill payment taken from their bank via D.D?
My 1st bill for Feb still not taken by direct debit ( which is showing as set up and ready to go in online banking ).

Yes, payment for all three of my bills were taken by DD on the date I was advised.

(and yes 8 weeks after i switched away from Octopus i am still waiting for them to send my final bill and refund, so this week i just started a  complaint to the Energy Ombudsman Octopus nonsense).......so at this point i have more to lose actually switching away rather than holding enjoying that 40p sc for as long as it lasts.

I wonder if you are one of those who have not really switched due to the DNO block, and that is why Octopus have not issued the final bill as they are missing the necessary flows that would normally occur on completion of the switch?

...but i like the way they say on the phone that the have given me £40 credit for the late final bill, as if i should be thanking them. lol

You probably should be, as if Masonic is right then the delay is down to TE failing to complete the flows on their side....

The delay is all on Octopus side, the switch went without a hitch, as verified by the octopus cs rep when i called them 6 weeks later to ask about my final bill and refund, and accoring to the octo rep last week there is no reason on their system as to why a bill was sent out 6 weeks after my switch with 1 day withheld, as the final readings are all on the system, and that should have been the final bill, and at that point i just decided to start a complaint, so let us see just what happens now but i am going to predict that i will get a 1 day bill and it is going to be some silly high cost for 1 day like a week of lekky useage over 24 hours.

TE is responsible for collecting your opening reading, validating it, and communicating it to Octopus via D0086 flow. Until that happens, Octopus is not supposed to produce a final bill, because any reading they use may not match the opening reading used by TE. The silly high reading comes from TE, and it sounds like they have not yet sent it to Octopus in your case, so you have that still to look forward to.

Does this mean that Wibble is a) still an Octopus customer or b) somewhere in limbo between the two? (looking to enhance my understanding here)

There's no reason to think the switch didn't complete in this scenario. In every reported instance where a switch was prevented or in limbo, TE never gained access to the HH data for the meter, whereas Wibble has had no such issue.

There is a separate issue that has affected a lot (perhaps all) customers switching to TE, in which the opening read they provided to TE was not used by their old supplier as the final read. Under normal circumstances, the new supplier is supposed to retrieve the midnight register reading on the supply start date (SSD) and send that to the new supplier by SSD+8. This hasn't been happening. Instead TE has been asking for a customer read, which apparently isn't used either. Because of this, the Change of Supply (CoS) read defaults to a deemed reading calculated by the new supplier. Before this can happen, they must obtain the meter reading history from the old supplier in order to calculate the Estimated Annual Consumption (EAC), which can then be used to generate the deemed read and communicate this back to the old supplier by D0086 flow. As reported by many new TE customers, this process has taken >6 weeks and resulted in Guaranteed Standard of Performance compensation from the old supplier. When the deemed CoS read does finally arrive with the old supplier, it is found to be quite a bit higher than the customer read provided to TE. Old supplier confirms to those who ask that this is the validated reading they received from TE.

The next problem is that TE doesn't use meter readings at all for billing, so it just bills from SSD using HH consumption data. This results in a period of overlap where the inflated CoS read means that the customer would be billed for the same energy twice. The old supplier can generally be harangued into not billing this overlapping energy as a gesture of good will - another cost in addition to the GSoP compensation it incurs through no fault of its own.

Really clear - many thanks for taking the time to explain!

bristolleedsfan

Gerry1 said:

masonic said:

bagand96 said:

With 3 day switching I'd still be tempted to try and out run SoLR if the worst was to happen to Tomato, which I'm sure would be be reported here quickly. It would take at least 3 days for an SoLR to be appointed and account data to start flowing from Tomato to the SoLR so it should be doable.  Big caveat is it's against Ofgem advice, and you'd have to be proactive and ensure the SoLR don't subsequently start a switch.

The other caveat with this approach is that you never pass to SoLR, so they may not buy your final debit balance from the administrators of TE. You then lose any Ofgem protections around the manner in which that debt is pursued.

.

But does the 28 day block on new switches originated by the customer still apply when a supplier goes bust, and if so when does the clock start ticking?

28 day block on new switches originated by the customer appears not to have applied since maximum 5 working day switching based on several experiences last year.

MWT

Gerry1 said:

masonic said:

bagand96 said:

With 3 day switching I'd still be tempted to try and out run SoLR if the worst was to happen to Tomato, which I'm sure would be be reported here quickly. It would take at least 3 days for an SoLR to be appointed and account data to start flowing from Tomato to the SoLR so it should be doable.  Big caveat is it's against Ofgem advice, and you'd have to be proactive and ensure the SoLR don't subsequently start a switch.

The other caveat with this approach is that you never pass to SoLR, so they may not buy your final debit balance from the administrators of TE. You then lose any Ofgem protections around the manner in which that debt is pursued.

There's also the risk that if the SoLR is someone like BG with bad customer service, their billing system will have been programmed to assume that nobody escaped the migration. If at some future time you happen to switch to the same SoLR, their billing system will believe you were with them continuously from the migration date and will insist on double billing you for the usage and standing charges.

Not sure if it is still the case, but the old problem was that the bulk transfer process did not use the normal flows and hence moved people to the SOLR regardless of where they had managed to switch, hence the advice from Ofgem not to switch until the SOLR process had completed...

WibbleBaaaaaa

GingerTim said:

masonic said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

MWT said:

WibbleBaaaaaa said:

masonic said:

WBCPB said:

Has anyone who has been billed actually had the bill payment taken from their bank via D.D?
My 1st bill for Feb still not taken by direct debit ( which is showing as set up and ready to go in online banking ).

Yes, payment for all three of my bills were taken by DD on the date I was advised.

(and yes 8 weeks after i switched away from Octopus i am still waiting for them to send my final bill and refund, so this week i just started a  complaint to the Energy Ombudsman Octopus nonsense).......so at this point i have more to lose actually switching away rather than holding enjoying that 40p sc for as long as it lasts.

I wonder if you are one of those who have not really switched due to the DNO block, and that is why Octopus have not issued the final bill as they are missing the necessary flows that would normally occur on completion of the switch?

...but i like the way they say on the phone that the have given me £40 credit for the late final bill, as if i should be thanking them. lol

You probably should be, as if Masonic is right then the delay is down to TE failing to complete the flows on their side....

The delay is all on Octopus side, the switch went without a hitch, as verified by the octopus cs rep when i called them 6 weeks later to ask about my final bill and refund, and accoring to the octo rep last week there is no reason on their system as to why a bill was sent out 6 weeks after my switch with 1 day withheld, as the final readings are all on the system, and that should have been the final bill, and at that point i just decided to start a complaint, so let us see just what happens now but i am going to predict that i will get a 1 day bill and it is going to be some silly high cost for 1 day like a week of lekky useage over 24 hours.

TE is responsible for collecting your opening reading, validating it, and communicating it to Octopus via D0086 flow. Until that happens, Octopus is not supposed to produce a final bill, because any reading they use may not match the opening reading used by TE. The silly high reading comes from TE, and it sounds like they have not yet sent it to Octopus in your case, so you have that still to look forward to.

Does this mean that Wibble is a) still an Octopus customer or b) somewhere in limbo between the two until Tomato get their act together, if they ever do? (looking to enhance my understanding, so apologies if this is a stupid question)

Well, talk of the devil and they appear it seems, so just got a phone call from Octopus 30 mins ago, full of apologies for the "mixup with their billing" as according to the CS rep, the bill i recieved 6 weeks after swithcing to TE should have been the final bill, BUT!!, for some reason 2 bills were generated,  1 bill for 14 days and 1 bill for 1 day, the 14 days was sent, which i got, the 1 day bill was shown as sent but was not sent, and this was only found out this week by their billing department, who have today sent the final bill, and with my final bill now being sent my refund of credit should be with me by 28th of this month.

We shall see, but i can tell you never again will i be DD, it will be a varible DD from here on in as i never want to go through that again, lesson learned.

nikkijayne28

I had my first bill a week ago and was informed it’d be taken by DD on Friday… nothing has been taken as of yet. Quite annoying as I have to remember to not spend the money! I know they have my DD all sorted as they paid me the £80 compensation through it. 

Am considering switching back to Octopus because I don’t like the uncertainty of everything, but I might wait until they finally take my money.