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

MWT

Sad to see the 30 mins out thing is still happening.

It does crop up when there is confusion about the labelling of the half-hour slots, Octopus reference the start time of each slot and n3rgy reference the end time of the slot, so it is not like everyone is even using the same standard.

tlcgrantham

lohr500 said:

Apart from being weeks overdue in arriving, my 1st bill was incorrect due to the kWh usages being half an hour out.

A week ago TE agreed to recalculate the bill and issue me with a refund. Haven't seen it yet. 

I did my own calculations using the free raw meter download information from n3rgy (unfortunately no longer available to new subscribers) and Glowmarkt/Bright websites to establish the correct costs.

For a number of reasons I decided to switch away from Tomato Energy yesterday.

Sorry it hasn’t worked for you. I can compensate by changing when I use electricity to allow for the tariff slots being 30min earlier than stated. I’m pleased the MyWatts ap has worked straight away even if it is prone to go down. 

        It’s to be expected that some things won’t work properly to start with but I’m willing to give it a go for now the tariff rates are good.

wrf12345

"I can compensate by changing when I use electricity to allow for the tariff slots being 30min earlier than stated."

It's an energy company, so at some time in the future they may work out how to reset the bill to the correct slot and recharge you based on that timing...

t0rt0ise

Newbie_John said:

I find it very interesting, that they're able to bill you with Smart Meter correctly every month, but once you switch they struggle with additional 6 weeks and are happy to give you extra £30. 

After you leave they no longer have access to your half hourly data. The new supplier does. Presumably something will have to change to make it work for the losing supplier. Either they will have to continue to get access or the new supplier will have to give them the data.

lohr500

tlcgrantham said:

lohr500 said:

Apart from being weeks overdue in arriving, my 1st bill was incorrect due to the kWh usages being half an hour out.

A week ago TE agreed to recalculate the bill and issue me with a refund. Haven't seen it yet. 

I did my own calculations using the free raw meter download information from n3rgy (unfortunately no longer available to new subscribers) and Glowmarkt/Bright websites to establish the correct costs.

For a number of reasons I decided to switch away from Tomato Energy yesterday.

. I can compensate by changing when I use electricity to allow for the tariff slots being 30min earlier than stated. 

I agree with @wrf12345 If you compensate by bring your your usage forward by 30 minutes and start using a lot of electricity between 23:30 and 00:00, then if/when TE recalculate all the bills they have generated in error, you will end up getting charged at the higher rate for that 23:30 to 00:00 slot.

Are you not better raising a complaint with them and asking to either calculate your bill correctly or to issue a refund for any overcharges incurred? 

tlcgrantham

wrf12345 said:

"I can compensate by changing when I use electricity to allow for the tariff slots being 30min earlier than stated."

It's an energy company, so at some time in the future they may work out how to reset the bill to the correct slot and recharge you based on that timing...

Good point. That means that it might be worth being cautious about how much I use in the first 30min slot in any cheaper slot. An inconvenience but the savings over Agile and Tracker at the moment make it worthwhile. Agile was more of an inconvenience in 80pkwh slots.

       The MyWatts is working better and more reliably now it updates every 3 hours showing detailed costs and use. Gradually they seem to be improving. I just hope the bill is right.

coupleuk

Moved 2 meters to Tomato and went live on September 1st

I had usage display on MyWatts for 2 weeks in mid Sept but nothing since.

I've not had a bill yet.

I've emailed Tomato several times and even tried to register a complaint but I no longer get any replies.

I've decided to just sit on my hands now and wait until they deal with it

Any charges older than 12 months cannot then be billed to me.

I've done more than required to make them fully aware of the issue and have a couple of emails back confirming the problem - but zero resolution.

tlcgrantham

Tomato don’t seem to sort out problems very well. I’m only on my third day but so far it’s going much smoother than I expected. MyWatts updates every 3 hours with costs and usuage so I can check everything. For example I was able to spot the tariffs were 30mins out. Even so overall I’m very happy so far. 

             

Shedman

Anybody moved from Octopus Tracker for both Gas & Electric but have stayed on Gas tracker and Octopus still billing OK.  I asked a question on X about whether, if I moved Electric away from Octopus, they would still keep me on Gas Tracker and could access the meter data and I got this response which now makes me wary of moving to Tomato at this point

"Hi, 

Thanks for getting in touch! 

When switching away your electric, this means that we are no longer authorised to collect the data from the meter. 

As gas smart meter data passes through the electric meter, this means that we won't be able to access the data for the gas consumption.

Kind regards,

Emma P 🐙

Community Management Specialist"

tlcgrantham

I’m still on Tracker for gas and just checked my account. It’s showing my consumption and cost for yesterday so they must still have access.