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

MWT

born_again said:

MWT said:

masonic said:

JohnPo said:

Noticed a later intention to appoint administrators case has been filed on Friday 24/10/25 case number CR-2025-LDS-001064 https://caseboard.io/cases/4053eebc-8a6c-4bec-8a84-83f8aacf15fe.  So this is dragging on and the case was lodged subsequent to notice of default by Elexon, buying them another 10 working days from the 24/10

A second NOI is not unheard of, but they won't be permitted to keep doing it. It seems unlikely this extra time is genuinely needed to figure out the next steps.

They will have had to show some evidence of a pending deal or other justification, but yes, another extension is highly unlikely without some very solid signs of an immanent solution given the Elexon action.

Being cynical, you could say that they are using the time to offload funds & valuables to the other companies in the group.

Ofgem put restrictions in place a few months ago limiting them to only making 'necessary' payments to group entities and it is something the administrators will look at closely as well, but big movements of cash happened a couple of years ago so remains to be seen how much of that was ever repaid., and the large payments for CRM/Adapter software that didn't properly work would have been questioned in any realistic arms-length situation but probably not in this case...  

Newbie_John

I think Tomato is dead, there isnt really anything that's worth that 12mln debt. They could be in talks regarding possible investment with Senapt.. but keeping Tomato alive only makes sense to give Senapt some breathing space.

I've left too, for me they're gone.

decentchap100

I'm still with them.
Direct debit went through today as usual.
I would move on, guess I will have to soon but I still can't really work out what the best tariff is for me yet.

bob2302

decentchap100 said:

I'm still with them.
Direct debit went through today as usual.
I would move on, guess I will have to soon but I still can't really work out what the best tariff is for me yet.

The reason I went early is that  Lifestyle doesn't yet have much of an advantage  over Agile for me; and by the time it does, I might be in SOLR.

decentchap100

bob2302 said:

decentchap100 said:

I'm still with them.
Direct debit went through today as usual.
I would move on, guess I will have to soon but I still can't really work out what the best tariff is for me yet.

The reason I went early is that  Lifestyle doesn't yet have much of an advantage  over Agile for me; and by the time it does, I might be in SOLR.

Tempting to go back to Agile but I got my fingers badly burnt last winter so its very much once bitten twice shy.
I hate the 16:00-19:00 penalty rates too, especially as I have little choice but to cook then.

Newbie_John

decentchap100 said:

bob2302 said:

decentchap100 said:

I'm still with them.
Direct debit went through today as usual.
I would move on, guess I will have to soon but I still can't really work out what the best tariff is for me yet.

The reason I went early is that  Lifestyle doesn't yet have much of an advantage  over Agile for me; and by the time it does, I might be in SOLR.

Tempting to go back to Agile but I got my fingers badly burnt last winter so its very much once bitten twice shy.
I hate the 16:00-19:00 penalty rates too, especially as I have little choice but to cook then.

I think you need to figure out what's better for you - overall cheap rate through the day, or some super cheap at night EV, or cheaper slots during the day - HeatPump tarriffs.

I've moved to Octopus to give myself time to decide but GoodEnergy seems like a really good alternative.

solarite

I joined Tomato in February just before they stopped taking on new customers. I'm glad I did as I have saved a small fortune charging my batteries at 5p. SC only 40p compared to 65p for my region. It seems that Tomato have been subsidising my electricity and I'm surprised it has lasted this long. My September bill was only £27 including SC. I'm staying as long as I can as everyday I'm saving, but ready to go at any time. Interestingly, someone turned up to read the meter yesterday.  Ofgem taking a reading for SOLR? There doesn't seem to be any supplier that comes close to what Tomato had to offer. I've had no problems with MyWatts or billing, everything working as it should. Looking around to see what is best for me, not many offer tariffs for batteries, mostly for EVs, and then you have to prove you have one. E On's Next Drive is a close contender at around 7-8p. I knew about Octopus's Agile, but never really looked into it as I was happy with Tomato. Looking closer, Agile does seem like a good alternative especially for those with batteries. Mostly, the KWh rate is considerably below the price cap apart from the 4- 7pm slot where the price shoots up. This is when the batteries can kick in. I notice the 12 - 5 am rate is usually sub 10p, sometimes going negative - they pay you to use it, effectively getting paid to charge the batteries! It all depends on supply and demand, but savings can be made compared to SVR. So it looks like I'll be going with Agile. Some clever person has developed a program called SolisAgileManager - here's what it says-"This app is designed to optimally manage the battery charging for your Solar/PV/Battery system, when used with the Octopus Smart tariffs. The idea is that it will analyse upcoming prices for Agile, Cosy, Go, etc, and then apply an opinionated strategy to manage your battery based on the cheapest periods."  This can be run on a Raspberry Pi which it will automatically watch for low prices and tell the inverter to charge during low or negative prices. So there may be a light at the end after all.

t0rt0ise

solarite said:

I joined Tomato in February just before they stopped taking on new customers. I'm glad I did as I have saved a small fortune charging my batteries at 5p. SC only 40p compared to 65p for my region. It seems that Tomato have been subsidising my electricity and I'm surprise delivery it has lasted this long. My September bill was only £27 including SC. I'm staying as long as I can as everyday I'm saving, but ready to go at any time. Interestingly, someone turned up to read the meter yesterday.  Ofgem taking a reading for SOLR? There doesn't seem to be any supplier that comes close to what Tomato had to offer. I've had no problems with MyWatts or billing, everything working as it should. Looking around to see what is best for me, not many offer tariffs for batteries, mostly for EVs, and then you have to prove you have one. E On's Next Drive is a close contender at around 7-8p. I knew about Octopus's Agile, but never really looked into it as I was happy with Tomato. Looking closer, Agile does seem like a good alternative especially for those with batteries. Mostly, the KWh rate is considerably below the price cap apart from the 4- 7pm slot where the price shoots up. This is when the batteries can kick in. I notice the 12 - 5 am rate is usually sub 10p, sometimes going negative - they pay you to use it, effectively getting paid to charge the batteries! It all depends on supply and demand, but savings can be made compared to SVR. So it looks like I'll be going with Agile. Some clever person has developed a program called SolisAgileManager - here's what it says-"This app is designed to optimally manage the battery charging for your Solar/PV/Battery system, when used with the Octopus Smart tariffs. The idea is that it will analyse upcoming prices for Agile, Cosy, Go, etc, and then apply an opinionated strategy to manage your battery based on the cheapest periods."  This can be run on a Raspberry Pi which it will automatically watch for low prices and tell the inverter to charge during low or negative prices. So there may be a light at the end after all.

Be careful of leaving it too long. If you get tied up with the SoLR you can lose much of the savings you've made as you can get stuck with them on a high tariff for weeks or months.

masonic

solarite said:

I joined Tomato in February just before they stopped taking on new customers. I'm glad I did as I have saved a small fortune charging my batteries at 5p. SC only 40p compared to 65p for my region. It seems that Tomato have been subsidising my electricity and I'm surprised it has lasted this long. My September bill was only £27 including SC. I'm staying as long as I can as everyday I'm saving, but ready to go at any time. Interestingly, someone turned up to read the meter yesterday.  Ofgem taking a reading for SOLR? There doesn't seem to be any supplier that comes close to what Tomato had to offer. I've had no problems with MyWatts or billing, everything working as it should. Looking around to see what is best for me, not many offer tariffs for batteries, mostly for EVs, and then you have to prove you have one. E On's Next Drive is a close contender at around 7-8p. I knew about Octopus's Agile, but never really looked into it as I was happy with Tomato. Looking closer, Agile does seem like a good alternative especially for those with batteries. Mostly, the KWh rate is considerably below the price cap apart from the 4- 7pm slot where the price shoots up. This is when the batteries can kick in. I notice the 12 - 5 am rate is usually sub 10p, sometimes going negative - they pay you to use it, effectively getting paid to charge the batteries! It all depends on supply and demand, but savings can be made compared to SVR. So it looks like I'll be going with Agile. Some clever person has developed a program called SolisAgileManager - here's what it says-"This app is designed to optimally manage the battery charging for your Solar/PV/Battery system, when used with the Octopus Smart tariffs. The idea is that it will analyse upcoming prices for Agile, Cosy, Go, etc, and then apply an opinionated strategy to manage your battery based on the cheapest periods."  This can be run on a Raspberry Pi which it will automatically watch for low prices and tell the inverter to charge during low or negative prices. So there may be a light at the end after all.

FWIW, I left in April and I've made a saving each month I've been on Agile vs what I would have paid if I remained on TE Lifestyle. I don't expect that to continue into the winter where I could have made use of 5p energy for heating in the early morning.

Chrysalis

I have told Ofgem they are complicit as a sort of legal threat after I got a reply that even I thought they wouldnt have the balls to send, although I am not sure if its possible to take legal action against a regulator.

So I emailed Ofgem informing them I was in the process of using the ombudsman to get my £80 fine which I have the right to under their own late final bill rules.  Pretty much told them their rules are a failure, inadequate, they should police themselves, and asked them to send a reply on when they plan to consult on changes to the process, to stop people like me losing their compensation.

Got a reply telling me how to use the ombudsman, how to complain to the supplier, no recognition that the supplier is in a state of winding up, and no recognition of the points I made in the email including that I already had made a complaint and already started the ombudsman process, they really are in their own little world and just refuse to acknowledge systemic problems in the system they reside over.