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

masonic

Chrysalis said:

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.

There is a complaints process: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/about-us/contact-us/complaining-about-ofgem

Until you've suffered an actual loss I don't think there would be a case to answer, though highly unlikely TE will now pay up.

This was exactly the situation I was desperate to avoid when being a very squeaky wheel that eventually got the oil.

decentchap100

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.

This winter may be better but my experience of Agile in winter was not very positive.
There was a period of time where some of the evening slots hit £1 per kWh and several where it hit 80p and even the overnight slots weren't that cheap.
But yes, if you have batteries you can probably shield yourself from the worst of it.

Chrysalis

masonic said:

Chrysalis said:

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.

There is a complaints process: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/about-us/contact-us/complaining-about-ofgem

Until you've suffered an actual loss I don't think there would be a case to answer, though highly unlikely TE will now pay up.

This was exactly the situation I was desperate to avoid when being a very squeaky wheel that eventually got the oil.

Thank you as always, as you said I will probably have to wait until its gone further.

Alex_ST

Newbie_John said:

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

Any reason why you didn’t just switch to Good Energy? 

I tried to switch but I’m stuck because the central database records seem to be wrong and the only people authorised to fix them are Tomato —who obviously are incentivised not to even if they were competent to do so. 

Seems like a serious design flaw with the whole switching process. 

Any advice from those in the know appreciated. 

Newbie_John

Alex_ST said:

Newbie_John said:

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

Any reason why you didn’t just switch to Good Energy? 

I tried to switch but I’m stuck because the central database records seem to be wrong and the only people authorised to fix them are Tomato —who obviously are incentivised not to even if they were competent to do so. 

Seems like a serious design flaw with the whole switching process. 

Any advice from those in the know appreciated. 

I came to TE from Octopus, who set up my meter, been on Agile before there for a while so feel very familiar. And they offer a range of smart tarriffs I can hop between.

My only issue with Good Energy was that I use a lot of electricity in winter 1000kWh per month and very little in summer under 200kWh (all during the day), and their EV/HeatPump tarriffs are fixed for a year and I could only benefit from it during winter. They all come with premium day rate of few pence more. Octopus Cosy has flexible and fixed version, so I can jump to Agile in summer..

But tbh Good Energy could still be cheaper, and I'm thinking about it - just need to do some calculations 😉
Hope that helps.

wakeupalarm

I have an ombudsman decision against Tomato Energy, they have failed to implement all of  the remedy's ordered by the ombudsman by the deadline which was almost 2 weeks ago.

They have overcharged me and have been ordered to recalculate my bills and issue a letter of apology, although they have paid me a goodwill payment for other matters.

As Tomato Energy are likely to appoint administrators on/after Friday, are the remedy's ordered by the ombudsman binding on administrators or not?  

As they have overcharged me can I refuse to pay my final bill with them and then argue with the administrator?

Doc_N

wakeupalarm said:

I have an ombudsman decision against Tomato Energy, they have failed to implement all of  the remedy's ordered by the ombudsman by the deadline which was almost 2 weeks ago.

They have overcharged me and have been ordered to recalculate my bills and issue a letter of apology, although they have paid me a goodwill payment for other matters.

As Tomato Energy are likely to appoint administrators on/after Friday, are the remedy's ordered by the ombudsman binding on administrators or not?  

As they have overcharged me can I refuse to pay my final bill with them and then argue with the administrator?

I’d hazard a guess that any overpayment will be safe, because of the Ofgem protection, but not any compensation. The administrator has an obligation to pay only what’s legally required to be paid, and since there’s no legal requirement for a company to comply with an Ombudsman decision it’s possible that it won’t be paid.

masonic

wakeupalarm said:

As they have overcharged me can I refuse to pay my final bill with them and then argue with the administrator?

If the bill remains in dispute (and you haven't paid it) then it will pass to the administrators, who will need to either reach an agreement with you, sell it on to debt collectors, or take you to court. Whomever tries to enforce the debt will need to be able to prove you owe the money. If you have evidence that the bill is incorrect, then that would put you on fairly strong ground.

If the only remedies ordered by the ombudsman are a letter of apology and a correct bill, you'll have to receive at least the latter for any debt against you to be enforced.

savings37

If your eligible for the warm home discount from the government (£150 towards electricity bills) and have just switched away from Tomato to a different supplier how will this get paid? It says it gets paid to your supplier you had on 24th August '25 (Tomato)

Spoonie_Turtle

savings37 said:

If your eligible for the warm home discount from the government (£150 towards electricity bills) and have just switched away from Tomato to a different supplier how will this get paid? It says it gets paid to your supplier you had on 24th August '25 (Tomato)

This is not an answer because I don't know, but it's an interesting question - it is the responsibility of whomever was your supplier on the qualifying date.  Usually it's not really an issue because people's previous supplier is still up and running to be able to get the payment to their former customers.  

It might be that the SOLR takes on the responsibility for WHD payments.

I wonder, does anyone know if any of the small suppliers who went bust during the difficult years had any WHD responsibility, and if so what happened in that situation?  (The customer numbers threshold for suppliers to compulsorily participate in the scheme has been drastically lowered in recent years, so I wouldn't be all that surprised if these are uncharted water.)