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

chuckie851

Thanks @masonic  It looks as though the bills are slightly lower than Prime.
There has been a metering issue since last year, caused by a very poor installation of replacement meters.  Octopus sent an engineer to fit a bigger aerial, then all the readings began going through.  The electricicty meter and IHD are still showing as not commissioned though.  TE won't send anyone out, and say they never send commands to the meter.
I forgot I'd signed up to Bright, but that says no readings available.

MWT

chuckie851 said:

TE won't send anyone out, and say they never send commands to the meter.
.

Technically they are correct, they do not send commands to the meter, but they do issue requests to the DCC which are then passed on to the meter by the DCC and the results returned to the supplier.

chuckie851

Sorry if this has been asked before.  Would the "not sending commands" also mean they don't attempt to pull missing readings?

MWT

chuckie851 said:

Sorry if this has been asked before.  Would the "not sending commands" also mean they don't attempt to pull missing readings?

It isn't just missing readings, if they do not make a request to the meter via the DCC they would get nothing...

The meter does not send anything without receiving a request first.

If they hadn't already sent a security certificate to the meter via the DCC they would never have been able to request any readings from it at all...

masonic

I seem to recall they built their own framework to avoid using a third party adaptor, so perhaps they haven't yet built the functionality to allow them to do this.

MWT

masonic said:

marlot said:

I thought people might find this amusing ...

"The owner of British Gas has called for rival Octopus Energy to be banned from taking on new customers amid an industry spat over new cash requirement rules.

Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, claimed new financial resiliency requirements were not being properly enforced as he accused the regulator Ofgem of “criminal” double standards.

He said suppliers who were not meeting the new capital rules already should be prevented from accepting new customers until they do so amid fears they may pose a “systemic risk”.

This would include Octopus, which overtook British Gas to become the UK’s biggest supplier of gas and electricity in January."

It looks like someone has spat their dummy out. But it looks like there is backpeddling abound, as the quoted text no longer appears in the diatribarticle. Neither does the accusation against Ofgem. Not sure what it has to do with TE. One issue they aren't implicated in.

Edit: NVM, I see this is quoting from a newer article linked here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6619879/centrica-bg-calls-for-octopus-being-prevented-from-new-customers

Ofgem already confirmed that he is wrong, he would be well advised to properly understand the regulations before shooting from the hip.

As a CEO I'd say he was past his 'best before' date, time for some new blood at Centrica \ BG.

FreeBear

chuckie851 said:

TE stopped receiving half-hourly readings on 1 June and I asked them to investigate.  I made a formal complaint last week because they only used estimated readings since then.  I received my bill for June, which has only estimated readings. Despite being a small (£32) bill, it's nothing like my actual usage because I never use the washing machine or vacuum after 10am. I could dispute the bill, or just wait for a response to my complaint.
The first day of June seems a rather suspicious day for the readings to stop and Octopus have been receiving my gas readings without any problem,
Loop won't show my readings so I signed up with Snugg hoping to get them from n3rgy.com.  That didn't work because it says "data collection turned off" even though it confirms I have provided consent.  Does anyone have suggestions?

Octopus generated a gas bill automatically earlier this month, but not one for electricity. Had to supply a reading to trigger a bill. Looking at the stats, it would appear that the electricity meter stopped sending readings on 11th July.

Also noticed the IHD is only getting data for gas, yet the Home Mini is still collecting electricity data and I'm able to pull readings via an Octopus server (that data will be useful should there ever be a dispute). Both the gas and electricity meters are collecting data, and the hub is transmitting some of it (gas at least).

nikkijayne28

I switched away from Tomato back to Octopus in April and I’ve just been sent three bills for April, May and June from Tomato saying they’re going to collect my DD in 5 days! What the hell?! 

Edit: Called them and got through immediately. Spoke to a really nice bloke. Should be being sorted. But still, that’s quite concerning!

debitcardmayhem

nikkijayne28 said:

I switched away from Tomato back to Octopus in April and I’ve just been sent three bills for April, May and June from Tomato saying they’re going to collect my DD in 5 days! What the hell?! 

Have Octopus been charging you?

MWT

nikkijayne28 said:

I switched away from Tomato back to Octopus in April and I’ve just been sent three bills for April, May and June from Tomato saying they’re going to collect my DD in 5 days! What the hell?! 

Edit: Called them and got through immediately. Spoke to a really nice bloke. Should be being sorted. But still, that’s quite concerning!

Have you cancelled the DD or do Tomato still owe you money?