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

QrizB

born_again said:

It really is time that any new players in the energy market place are fully monitored by the regulator for at least 2 years to make sure that they are competent to run a energy company, have the funding in place & are limited on growth, so they do not exceed their capacity to run a stable & growing company. 

This is exactly what's happening with Tomato. They started small, but once they reached Ofgem's threshold they came under close scrutiny and failings were found. Ofgem stopped them taking on more new customers some months ago.

MWT

born_again said:

It really is time that any new players in the energy market place are fully monitored by the regulator for at least 2 years to make sure that they are competent to run a energy company, have the funding in place & are limited on growth, so they do not exceed their capacity to run a stable & growing company. 

The problem is that the monitoring is already in place, but it depends on the directors being honest and disclosing when they are close to one of the 'warning' metrics, and providing accurate reporting. It is a failure in these, and other aspects, that has prompted the Ofgem actions (along with other failings).

Not sure what more you can do in that regard.

Having a cap on growth by number and value might make sense though, also preventing them from offering Half-Hour billed tariffs until they have proven they can handle the data collection and billing might make sense.

Difficult to introduce individual liability though in the context of a limited company, but I would suggest banning the outsourcing of essential services to related entities as that is a common trick that has been used many times now to shift funds and value outside of the regulated entity meaning if the worst happens and the supplier fails, the owners can still have gained significant value in their other entities which is not available to settle debts in the failed supplier... 

Newbie_John

bob2302 said:

Newbie_John said:

tlcgrantham said:

@ Newbie John Did you change your Tariff to default Lifestyle? If so is it any cheaper or better for you? 

      Switching to the EV version has made little cost difference for me but the switch went through quickly and without a hitch. Plus I have my prices fixed till next May and I can switch back if I don’t like it later.

Yeah, I'll do it later - maybe around September - the difference in summer would is negligible.

But would love to lock in for another cheap winter for a year.

Has anyone tried bringing forward the renewal without changing the Lifestyle variant?

I'd be interested in that too!

born_again

QrizB said:

born_again said:

It really is time that any new players in the energy market place are fully monitored by the regulator for at least 2 years to make sure that they are competent to run a energy company, have the funding in place & are limited on growth, so they do not exceed their capacity to run a stable & growing company. 

This is exactly what's happening with Tomato. They started small, but once they reached Ofgem's threshold they came under close scrutiny and failings were found. Ofgem stopped them taking on more new customers some months ago.

Needs to be from when they start to set up. As the number of complaints over issues such as they had the timings wrong on the 30 min sections. Failing to bill people etc Should have been flagged straight away as a major issue.

MWT

born_again said:

QrizB said:

born_again said:

It really is time that any new players in the energy market place are fully monitored by the regulator for at least 2 years to make sure that they are competent to run a energy company, have the funding in place & are limited on growth, so they do not exceed their capacity to run a stable & growing company. 

This is exactly what's happening with Tomato. They started small, but once they reached Ofgem's threshold they came under close scrutiny and failings were found. Ofgem stopped them taking on more new customers some months ago.

Needs to be from when they start to set up. As the number of complaints over issues such as they had the timings wrong on the 30 min sections. Failing to bill people etc Should have been flagged straight away as a major issue.

Ofgem are not staffed to act as a 'coach', they are a regulator and that level of hand-holding is well outside their purview.

No new suppler is going to be perfect from the outset, but unless we want to get into the certification of billing and reporting systems we are going to have to accept that there will be some issues for any new supplier.

In this case it was not the first time the billing system had been used anyway, it is the same as Logicor was using.

Chrysalis

masonic said:

JohnPo said:

So I have a 'decided' ombudsman decision against Tomato for 'mis-selling - online' which was confirmed on the 13th June based on their incorrect website pricing in November last year.  They have until the 11th July to implement the decision (financial redress).

I'd almost like to run a sweep stake as to whether I actually get to see the £160  awarded to me - LOL!

They owe me £80, but it will be another 7 weeks before I can even go to the Ombudsman. I am rooting for them to survive at least that long.

Meanwhile, so far this month, I have actually made a saving on Agile Octopus, though I don't expect that to continue, especially with everything kicking off in the middle east.

How did you contact them, I guess its time for me to do so now myself as well.

I guess I am going to have to make it clear I am doing a complaint, for the 8 week countdown to ombudsman (cant go from general query to it, has to be formal complaint).  I dont think it will go that far, it only seems to be Octopus who stone block these sort of things, but will see.

Emailed them now.  I noticed they have backdated the bill so the date on it is different to the date it was issued, the issue data is not within 6 weeks, the date I got emailed with the bill was In June.  So maybe I am dealing with another cowboy outfit who is putting fake dates on bills.

masonic

Chrysalis said:

masonic said:

JohnPo said:

So I have a 'decided' ombudsman decision against Tomato for 'mis-selling - online' which was confirmed on the 13th June based on their incorrect website pricing in November last year.  They have until the 11th July to implement the decision (financial redress).

I'd almost like to run a sweep stake as to whether I actually get to see the £160  awarded to me - LOL!

They owe me £80, but it will be another 7 weeks before I can even go to the Ombudsman. I am rooting for them to survive at least that long.

Meanwhile, so far this month, I have actually made a saving on Agile Octopus, though I don't expect that to continue, especially with everything kicking off in the middle east.

How did you contact them, I guess its time for me to do so now myself as well.

I guess I am going to have to make it clear I am doing a complaint, for the 8 week countdown to ombudsman (cant go from general query to it, has to be formal complaint).  I dont think it will go that far, it only seems to be Octopus who stone block these sort of things, but will see.

Emailed them now.  I noticed they have backdated the bill so the date on it is different to the date it was issued, the issue data is not within 6 weeks, the date I got emailed with the bill was In June.  So maybe I am dealing with another cowboy outfit who is putting fake dates on bills.

My issue date matches the email date. I emailed using complaints address. I may follow up with a phonecall, but decided to give them a couple of weeks to respond.

Chrysalis

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

masonic said:

JohnPo said:

So I have a 'decided' ombudsman decision against Tomato for 'mis-selling - online' which was confirmed on the 13th June based on their incorrect website pricing in November last year.  They have until the 11th July to implement the decision (financial redress).

I'd almost like to run a sweep stake as to whether I actually get to see the £160  awarded to me - LOL!

They owe me £80, but it will be another 7 weeks before I can even go to the Ombudsman. I am rooting for them to survive at least that long.

Meanwhile, so far this month, I have actually made a saving on Agile Octopus, though I don't expect that to continue, especially with everything kicking off in the middle east.

How did you contact them, I guess its time for me to do so now myself as well.

I guess I am going to have to make it clear I am doing a complaint, for the 8 week countdown to ombudsman (cant go from general query to it, has to be formal complaint).  I dont think it will go that far, it only seems to be Octopus who stone block these sort of things, but will see.

Emailed them now.  I noticed they have backdated the bill so the date on it is different to the date it was issued, the issue data is not within 6 weeks, the date I got emailed with the bill was In June.  So maybe I am dealing with another cowboy outfit who is putting fake dates on bills.

My issue date matches the email date. I emailed using complaints address. I may follow up with a phonecall, but decided to give them a couple of weeks to respond.

Oh mine matches as well, the one in the email is dated 4 June, but one I clicked on mywatts is dated 4 April.  I was looking at the wrong bill, it seems they havent put my final bill on mywatts.

I emailed customer.care I guess I need to find the complaints address.

Thanks.

masonic

Chrysalis said:

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

masonic said:

JohnPo said:

So I have a 'decided' ombudsman decision against Tomato for 'mis-selling - online' which was confirmed on the 13th June based on their incorrect website pricing in November last year.  They have until the 11th July to implement the decision (financial redress).

I'd almost like to run a sweep stake as to whether I actually get to see the £160  awarded to me - LOL!

They owe me £80, but it will be another 7 weeks before I can even go to the Ombudsman. I am rooting for them to survive at least that long.

Meanwhile, so far this month, I have actually made a saving on Agile Octopus, though I don't expect that to continue, especially with everything kicking off in the middle east.

How did you contact them, I guess its time for me to do so now myself as well.

I guess I am going to have to make it clear I am doing a complaint, for the 8 week countdown to ombudsman (cant go from general query to it, has to be formal complaint).  I dont think it will go that far, it only seems to be Octopus who stone block these sort of things, but will see.

Emailed them now.  I noticed they have backdated the bill so the date on it is different to the date it was issued, the issue data is not within 6 weeks, the date I got emailed with the bill was In June.  So maybe I am dealing with another cowboy outfit who is putting fake dates on bills.

My issue date matches the email date. I emailed using complaints address. I may follow up with a phonecall, but decided to give them a couple of weeks to respond.

Oh mine matches as well, the one in the email is dated 4 June, but one I clicked on mywatts is dated 4 April.  I was looking at the wrong bill, it seems they havent put my final bill on mywatts.

I emailed customer.care I guess I need to find the complaints address.

Thanks.

It is probably there. They highlight the latest bill in a big box above the others. I almost didn't see it.

For complaints, see https://www.tomato.energy/contact#dissatisfied

Shedman

I see on Facebook quite a few people (including me) reporting that they can't log in to MyWatts (get a Failed Logging In error message).  Another bill they haven't paid perchance......?