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

Chrysalis

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

masonic said:

If they cannot read people's smart meters, and require them to enter monthly manual readings, at the minimum that will create a level of dissatisfaction.

Still no follow up from my original reply on the late final bill, I just sent an email reminder, as I had almost forgot.

It's the 7th working days since I was promised the compensation would be in my bank account within 10 working days. That was after an email reminder, phonecall, and even then took another week. We're now just entering the 5th week since my formal complaint, so not long for them to cough up now. I will be pushing the EO for additional compensation should I need to involve them.

Yeah I should have gone straight to complaint like you did, the quick reply to make me think everything is good and nothing since.  I will give them until Monday, do a phone call, if nothing, then I will do the complaint, which means my clock starts ticking much later.

GingerTim

Provisional order against Tomato has been confirmed

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/tomato-energy-limited-provisional-order

It appears that Tomato has still failed to demonstrate its liquidity (repeated winding-up orders being evidence of that), still hasn't complied with its legislative and regulatory obligations, and still isn't notifying OFGEM about its risk of Trigger Points occurring.

OFGEM is now asking Tomato to demonstrate its liquidity by 31 August, and put in place systems to comply with its legislative and regulatory obligations (which seems highly unlikely after all this time). It's still forbidden from taking on new customers, and from making payments to any third party that are not essential to running the business.

And from https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2025-07/PO6.Notice-of-Reasons-to-Confirm-a-Provisional-Order-Tomato-Energy-Unsigned.pdf 

"M. The Authority further notes that the Report indicates Tomato Energy’s ability to meet its reasonably anticipated financial liabilities over the next 3-6 months appears challenging without external investment."

masonic

Looks like another kick of the can down the road, with at least one more to come before anything is actually done.

"BB. If Tomato Energy fails to comply with the Confirmed Provisional Order, the Authority may issue a notice to rectify any non-compliance which, if not complied with, may result in the Authority initiating the process for revocation of Tomato Energy’s electricity licence or taking other action to enforce the requirements of the Confirmed Provisional Order."

Although,

"GG. ... The Authority is actively considering whether it is appropriate to impose a financial penalty on Tomato Energy in relation to this matter."

No need for me to panic yet about not being able to extract my money before it's too late.

MWT

masonic said:

No need for me to panic yet about not being able to extract my money before it's too late.

The process takes a while to go through the steps required to revoke their licence, but it can all come to a natural end if the directors form the opinion that the company (either of them) is insolvent.

They seem to have managed to avoid that opinion so far, which is somewhat impressive, but it must be getting very hard to continue to do that as much like Ripple, you can only maintain the legitimate belief that you are going to acquire external investment very soon now while there are actually negotiations in progress.

masonic

MWT said:

masonic said:

No need for me to panic yet about not being able to extract my money before it's too late.

The process takes a while to go through the steps required to revoke their licence, but it can all come to a natural end if the directors form the opinion that the company (either of them) is insolvent.

They seem to have managed to avoid that opinion so far, which is somewhat impressive, but it must be getting very hard to continue to do that as much like Ripple, you can only maintain the legitimate belief that you are going to acquire external investment very soon now while there are actually negotiations in progress.

True, they could decide to throw in the towel at any stage. Though I think the risk of this is very low, given how much they've already brazened out. Also https://youtu.be/RR-IqXsJLi8?si=BdDkh9_HOJgJ5OrZ

Newbie_John

So July and August seem safe.
September possibly too.

But then fun could start - looking at how quickly Rebel cusotmers got sorted - there isn't much to worry, especially they also got a "similar" Rebel like tarriff till end of their fixed date.

So based on recent SOLR experience it may be worth to renew TE deals for another year if anyone's is also expiring soon!

masonic

Newbie_John said:

But then fun could start - looking at how quickly Rebel cusotmers got sorted - there isn't much to worry, especially they also got a "similar" Rebel like tarriff till end of their fixed date.

If your billing is reliable and up to date, and you've had no grounds for complaint or compensation, then no need to worry. If you have billing gaps that have not been back-filled, disputed meter readings, unpaid compensation, etc, then would be cause for concern. It would also be prudent to assume you'd be moved to a SVR-like tariff, given SOLR will not be forced to sell energy to you at a loss. But likely you'd be trapped there only for a few weeks with new switching timescales.

There is also an open question about what happens to those on HH billing, since the SOLR will take an opening meter reading, but there will be some unbilled energy where the data will prabably not be available to SOLR, who will need to prepare the final bill. Perhaps this will be billed on the Prime tariff based on SOLR reading minus previous change of supply reading plus total HH consumption billed.

Newbie_John

Yep, I have maybe a total of 5kWh missing - so I'd expect that to be < £2. Sure, nothing guaranteed and a lot of unknown but worth a try - especially when you have a look and major providers they all have "similar" tarriffs around EON Next with 6p, Octopus.. even Good Energy has a 8p TOU tarriff

Also Rebel had 80k customers and TE only around 10k.
And Rebel's timeline was:
1 April ceased trading
6 April they were switched to BG to a special "Welcome Rebel Energy v1" tarriff.

BTW,
Emailed TE and they responded in 15 minutes asking for clarification which new tarriff I'd be interested in - so quite possible - and if somehow they make it through to next year - that would be a BIG winner.

Newbie_John

Ok, few hours later I got confirmation that my tariff will switch on 1st August and will run till October 2026. (Changing from 5p 0-6 to 5p 1-6 so I can get the cheaper earlier evening slot of 20:30-22:30).

Getting ready for winter! 

tlcgrantham

Glad  you got your switch ok. Wouldn’t it be funny if Tomato were still going when it runs out in October 26. 👺🤗