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

crumpet_man

masonic said:

crumpet_man said:

bristolleedsfan said:

crumpet_man said:

I'm thinking of switching back to Octopus as well but might be able to get the refer a friend bonus as I have never been an Octopus customer.  My wife has the Octopus account for gas and I have the Tomato account for electric.

£100 between us and an extra free weekly coffee would be nice.  I'm saving between £15 and £20 a month with TE compared with Octopus tracker or fix and my TE usage and billing has been correct. 

Referrals are not usually paid when property is already supplied by Octopus.

Has this come up before?  I did a quick Google and it indicated that you can refer someone at the same address as long as that person is a new customer.

I think this is ok if the premises isn't already supplied by Octopus.

See 7.5.2 for the exclusion:

Octopus supply gas to the address and the account is in the name of my wife.

Can you be an Octopus customer and not live at the address where Octopus supply gas or electric?  Landlord of a rented property or unoccupied property perhaps?

masonic

crumpet_man said:

masonic said:

crumpet_man said:

bristolleedsfan said:

crumpet_man said:

I'm thinking of switching back to Octopus as well but might be able to get the refer a friend bonus as I have never been an Octopus customer.  My wife has the Octopus account for gas and I have the Tomato account for electric.

£100 between us and an extra free weekly coffee would be nice.  I'm saving between £15 and £20 a month with TE compared with Octopus tracker or fix and my TE usage and billing has been correct. 

Referrals are not usually paid when property is already supplied by Octopus.

Has this come up before?  I did a quick Google and it indicated that you can refer someone at the same address as long as that person is a new customer.

I think this is ok if the premises isn't already supplied by Octopus.

See 7.5.2 for the exclusion:

Octopus supply gas to the address and the account is in the name of my wife.

Can you be an Octopus customer and not live at the address where Octopus supply gas or electric?  Landlord of a rented property or unoccupied property perhaps?

It doesn't matter where you live if the premises is already supplied by Octopus. If your wife was your landlady and lived in the south of France, then you still wouldn't be able to be referred for elec at the property owing to the fact that the current supplier of gas to the property is Octopus.

crumpet_man

masonic said:

crumpet_man said:

masonic said:

crumpet_man said:

bristolleedsfan said:

crumpet_man said:

I'm thinking of switching back to Octopus as well but might be able to get the refer a friend bonus as I have never been an Octopus customer.  My wife has the Octopus account for gas and I have the Tomato account for electric.

£100 between us and an extra free weekly coffee would be nice.  I'm saving between £15 and £20 a month with TE compared with Octopus tracker or fix and my TE usage and billing has been correct. 

Referrals are not usually paid when property is already supplied by Octopus.

Has this come up before?  I did a quick Google and it indicated that you can refer someone at the same address as long as that person is a new customer.

I think this is ok if the premises isn't already supplied by Octopus.

See 7.5.2 for the exclusion:

Octopus supply gas to the address and the account is in the name of my wife.

Can you be an Octopus customer and not live at the address where Octopus supply gas or electric?  Landlord of a rented property or unoccupied property perhaps?

It doesn't matter where you live if the premises is already supplied by Octopus. If your wife was your landlady and lived in the south of France, then you still wouldn't be able to be referred for elec at the property.

Yep I understand.  I was working off the incorrect assumption that Octopus allow you to refer someone living at the same address and it isn't possible for Octopus to supply an address you do not reside in.

Wires now uncrossed, thanks all.

MWT

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

I couldnt find proof anywhere but someone has reported siphoning of money, 5 million loaned to a sister company northern gas heating limited.

Possibly refers to this line in their accounts:

In that year they also paid out £5.7m in "Software expenses", presumably to parent company Senapt (whose accounts are still late so cannot confirm).

But it is very difficult to get a clear picture of what is occurring from these crude financial snapshots.

The reference is in the notes to the accounts:

I'm at least surprised that the Auditors did not feel it necessary to question this, but as the accounts filed for both entities only cover up to 2023 the real answers will not be public until/if the following year is published.

I saw nothing in the published accounts that would have given me that degree of confidence though as the cash had been converted to stock, which by value was now 15x higher than the previous year with no other signs that they were equipped for a huge increase in business activity.

However perhaps the fact that the debt was shown as due after more than one year in the Tomato accounts, but due in less than one year in the Northern Gas Heating Limited accounts played some part in that...

MWT

masonic said:

In that year they also paid out £5.7m in "Software expenses", presumably to parent company Senapt (whose accounts are still late so cannot confirm).

But it is very difficult to get a clear picture of what is occurring from these crude financial snapshots.

Sorry, I forgot to comment on this bit...

In the opening notes to the account you'll find this:

Interesting to note that the payments to the Group are priced on an 'arms length' basis, I wonder if that would stand up to scrutiny as that is a lot of money to be paying for a CRM solution given their size and staff numbers... The total figure may also cover something beyond CRM for billing, TMA etc. though....

masonic

Have created the following thread to update on the journey from Tomato back to Octopus to avoid clogging up this one any more: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6601406/return-to-octopus-from-tomato

lohr500

Looks like the press have picked up on the Ofgem order : 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/34455751/energy-supplier-banned-new-customers-unpaid-debt/

GingerTim

lohr500 said:

Looks like the press have picked up on the Ofgem order : 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/34455751/energy-supplier-banned-new-customers-unpaid-debt/

I expect coverage like this will cause more customers to abandon the sinking ship.

bagand96

I guess they knew the Sun article was coming as they've made a statement on their own Facebook page, seems they've got someone with PR experience to reign in the CEO's tone. 

Tomato Energy

A message from our CEO

"We remain confident in our products and financial resilience and will be working closely with Ofgem to resolve any concerns.

The company enjoyed rapid growth in recent months so we temporarily paused the acquisition of new customers. This allowed us to review our processes and expand our teams to provide a faster and smoother customer journey.

This was already having a positive impact but there was more work to be done, so we plan to use this additional time to make further improvements and to settle any late payments.

I would like to reassure our existing customers that they are unaffected by this announcement.

We look forward to satisfying Ofgem's requirements and welcoming new customers again soon."

CEO, Farouk Alhassan

I think they definitely grew too quickly, I wonder if it was faster than they planned. Probably helped by forums like this, especially when Octopus ruined Tracker. 

They also seem to have quietly launched mobile apps for myWatts and they're pretty good. 

MWT

bagand96 said:

I guess they knew the Sun article was coming as they've made a statement on their own Facebook page, seems they've got someone with PR experience to reign in the CEO's tone. 

Tomato Energy

A message from our CEO

"We remain confident in our products and financial resilience and will be working closely with Ofgem to resolve any concerns.

The company enjoyed rapid growth in recent months so we temporarily paused the acquisition of new customers. This allowed us to review our processes and expand our teams to provide a faster and smoother customer journey.

This was already having a positive impact but there was more work to be done, so we plan to use this additional time to make further improvements and to settle any late payments.

I would like to reassure our existing customers that they are unaffected by this announcement.

We look forward to satisfying Ofgem's requirements and welcoming new customers again soon."

CEO, Farouk Alhassan

I think they definitely grew too quickly, I wonder if it was faster than they planned. Probably helped by forums like this, especially when Octopus ruined Tracker. 

They also seem to have quietly launched mobile apps for myWatts and they're pretty good. 

Still plenty of spin in there though, the pause in onboarding new customers had nothing to do with DNO blocking switching due to non-payment of course

Either way, it would be good to have a strong competitor in the market at the lower end of the price range, but when you look at the published accounts for the businesses in the group they do not look to be robustly funded and at least in the period up to the end of 2023 they seemed to be heavily dependent on cash-flow being redirected from the energy business which seems to have resulted in them being unable to keep up with their obligations...

Perhaps the 2024 accounts will tell a different story, or even the 2023 accounts for the parent company which are currently unfiled and overdue...