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

lohr500

@alinwales

Definitely worth joining the Tomato Energy Users Group on FB.
Tons of TE specific info and feedback from folk who have signed up with TE.

I was an earlier contributor to the forum and along with several other early adopters of the TE Lifestyle tariff, flagged up serious errors with the time of use usage reporting on their myWatts website which in turn carried through to billing.

Both my September and October bills we incorrect due to the usage timing being 30 minutes out.

In the end I had little confidence in their ability to sort things out in a timely manner and I was worried that their business model was unsustainable. So I jumped ship in November.

The unit costs and standing charge are too good to be true and I can only assume they are prepared to take a loss with early adopters to build a customer base. Whilst they seem to have resolved some of the billing issues, they appear to be well out of their depth on managing the protocols for SMETS1 and some SMETS2 meters, explaining how their Agile equivalent tariff is billed and correcting the previously issued incorrect historic bills.

I am still waiting for a refund on the September & October overcharges. My case is now with the Ombudsman.

Fortunately I was able to find an alternative supplier (UW) who could offer 7 hours of off-peak electricity at £0.04929 per unit, albeit with a higher s/c than TE. With the imminent arrival of my battery storage, I should be able to avoid the very high £0.35 peak rate on all but the heaviest of demand days. So other than the s/c difference, my bill won't be vastly different to TE anyway.

SVts

SVts said:

I've decided to switch from E.ON Next Flex to Tomato Lifestyle. Main reason is the £4.20 decrease a month in the standing charge. I've been pleased with E.ON's customer service and app but the standing charge irritates me. Anyway will see how it goes as it appears very easy to switch supplier these days so can always move on

Process was almost too easy and had instant emails from Tomato and E.ON so so far so good. Switch is due to complete 1st December I'll post my progress. 

First bill received and it's about £10 less :-) witch is 25% for me.
Obviously I am a light electric user but nevertheless I'm delighted to be making a saving and not wasting potentially £120 a year to the energy broker that is E.ON.

At this point I cannot fault Tomato.

 

Chrysalis

Lifestyle tariff deffo looks interesting, at first glass assuming they can do variable DD, then risk should be low, but the posts indicating TOU errors is concerning.

I might email Octopus and tell them of my intentions, give Octopus the chance to give me an exception to join Cosy to keep me as an electric customer.

Chrysalis

tlcgrantham said:

Unless they’ve changed it recently they only offer full payment by variable direct debit on receipt of your energy statement so you can’t alter your DD. I remember their estimation on their quote page was way over for me too but it’s irrelevant as you only pay for what you use. It’s hard to see how Go could be cheaper for you as the SC, peak rate and cheap rates are all lower with TE. IF ( and they may well not ) they do go bust you will owe them money, rather than the other way round, and you will have saved a lot of money while they exist. 

Thats a good approach to be honest if that is their policy.

Chrysalis

So assuming the Octopus Mini stops working, how would I get live usage from the smart meter with Tomato to my phone?  Really dont want to fire up the IHD again.

masonic

Chrysalis said:

Lifestyle tariff deffo looks interesting, at first glass assuming they can do variable DD, then risk should be low, but the posts indicating TOU errors is concerning.

I might email Octopus and tell them of my intentions, give Octopus the chance to give me an exception to join Cosy to keep me as an electric customer.

There are reports of Octopus letting people join Cosy without any checks.

Chrysalis said:

So assuming the Octopus Mini stops working, how would I get live usage from the smart meter with Tomato to my phone?  Really dont want to fire up the IHD again.

MyWatts doesn't quite show live data, but it will show data a few hours in arrears. I don't think there are any options on a par with the Mini.

(Variable DD is still the default payment option, having signed up yesterday, TOU timing errors seem to have been sorted out now. I was not going to join until people started getting correct bills)

Chrysalis

Ok will learn to live without it I guess.  I scrapped the cosy idea, lifestyle blows it out of the water.  I think its good Octopus has a decent competitor now, it felt like they were getting too comfortable.

Great news on the faster updates, Octopus has got very slow at it now.

Newbie_John

Chrysalis said:

Lifestyle tariff deffo looks interesting, at first glass assuming they can do variable DD, then risk should be low, but the posts indicating TOU errors is concerning.

I might email Octopus and tell them of my intentions, give Octopus the chance to give me an exception to join Cosy to keep me as an electric customer.

They do variable DD, 2 paid already.
TOU errors are gone for most, some ppl on SMETS1 who joined in early days still waiting for their bills but they get 15% for 3 months delay, 30% for 6 months delay.. discount. Anyway, no new SMETS1 allowed.

My IHD works fine showing live data. MyWatts gets updates every 3h at ...9am, 12, 3pm.. so it's almost live data.

Anyway, till mid November it was quite worrying for me as nothing worked - all sorted now and it's quite boring especially after being on Agile for a while - I don't care anymore - everything is scheduled to run 0-6am, don't need to check rates, bills cover full month 1-31 unlike Octopus was in my case 26-25th.. 

My only worry now is - will they drop the 5p tarrif in a year time?

Doc_N

Currently an Octopus Tracker customer (electricity only having ditched gas for an Octopus fix at 29.43p/5.74p a few days ago).  Octopus Tracker is getting increasingly more expensive (regardless of wholesale prices) as Octopus get greedier and jack up the conversion formula.  So good to see a competitor in the market.

Played around a bit on Tomato but I have to say their Lifestyle (East Midlands) doesn't look too appealing. Have they pushed their prices up?

 

masonic

Doc_N said:

Currently an Octopus Tracker customer (electricity only having ditched gas for an Octopus fix at 29.43p/5.74p a few days ago).  Octopus Tracker is getting increasingly more expensive (regardless of wholesale prices) as Octopus get greedier and jack up the conversion formula.  So good to see a competitor in the market.

Played around a bit on Tomato but I have to say their Lifestyle (East Midlands) doesn't look too appealing. Have they pushed their prices up?

This one looks better than the solar tariff you have above:

Or there is the pensioner one: