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

Chrysalis

masonic said:

bagand96 said:

Can anyone who really understands the Elexon Wholesale market and panel etc explain to an uneducated layman exactly what the current issue with Tomato Energy is and how serious the situation is for the future of Tomato?

I can't claim to "really understand" the market, but maybe my take on the situation may still be somewhat helpful. The energy market relies on various participants fulfilling their respective roles. This includes generators who feed energy into the market and suppliers who sell it to the end users. The suppliers need to buy energy from the market to meet the demands of the customers they supply. They determine how much their customers have been using through their energy meters. In order to balance the books, they need to keep on top of what their customers are using, and this seems to be where Tomato have been / are having some serious problems. They seem to have a large subset of customers with meters that their platform is not compatible with. The problem has got to the point where they have had to stop taking on new customers with this type of meter, and they have had to offer their existing customer base a discount policy, where they partially or fully write off bills depending on how late they are. This has resulted in them being late in settling consumption and providing inaccurate consumption data to the market. 

Elexon became sufficiently concerned that for such a small proportion of the market, Tomato was responsible for a disproportionate amount of issues and has put them into a resolution plan, with milestones they should meet on the way to adequate performance. They have so far shown little to no improvement, and so at the end of last year they took the step of notifying the rest of the market about these failures and have this week formally declared them in default for these failings. That is the minimum action they could have taken at this stage, and they reserve the right to take further action at any time (but likely they are using this as a stick to try and get Tomato to make some progress over the next period). If things carry on as they are, then there is a risk that they could be expelled from the market (subject to the >56 day process I mentioned earlier). If that happens, they would be unable to supply their customers with energy, so Ofgem would need to step in. Whether it would be another SoLR process or something else I have no idea, but there would be scope for an orderly wind-down.

While some of the comments upthread are a bit excessive, I am a little surprised that Ofgem is sitting back and allowing them to market themselves to new customers given all of this was known to them last month. But then again, maybe Ofgem doesn't consider things to be as dire as this thread would suggest. Given this breaking news, I wouldn't have pulled the trigger and joined Tomato, but now I am here I'm currently of the opinion that I may as well keep a close eye on the situation, but not head for the hills just yet.

I think the market already has bigger issues than this that seem to be considered not important, I wouldnt be surprised that the potential disruption to pricing tomato energy is causing is a factor in the situation.

But a simple question, they have already stopped taking on new SMETS1 customers, would kicking the rest from the provider solve this issue, as then they would have no meter reading issues if I understand correctly.  Or alternatively, they could still all these customers on non smart tariffs, in which case this would be no different to customers with smart meters that dont communicate or legacy meters, this is why I see this as a little bit weird.  If they that unhappy about readings not being taken, why isnt the same anger being directed about the smart meters that cant communicate?  There must be something I dont understand here aside from the market disruption.   I suppose TE should at least be billing with estimated usage, but of course thats hard when there is no usage history for the meter.  So I expect they going to need to fairly quickly make SMETS1 customers unhappy because the industry is throwing a fit, so either move them to dumb tariffs and require readings, kicking off those that dont supply readings, or kicking them all off.

geewcee

northernstar007 said:

geewcee said:

Never heard of these guys before, Tomato energy, but today noticed a new direct debit coming out of my account without my authorisation. Very strange how they have obtained my details, I am an Octopus customer and am still being supplied by them for both electric and gas. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this when I ring Tomato up tomorrow!! Seems very shady, so thought I would post on here and let people be aware.

if your not signed upto them yet then they have no right taking anything and the bank should refund the DD straightaway
i'd be in touch with your bank now if thats the case on there 24/7 number

Already spoke to them last night, they told me I would need to contact Tomato directly. Been on hold 40 mins so far... I want to find out how they even got my details.

Bendo

I'd be back onto your bank telling them its an unauthorised direct debit and to sort it. You shouldn't be dealing with Tomato.

Doc_N

geewcee said:

Never heard of these guys before, Tomato energy, but today noticed a new direct debit coming out of my account without my authorisation. Very strange how they have obtained my details, I am an Octopus customer and am still being supplied by them for both electric and gas. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this when I ring Tomato up tomorrow!! Seems very shady, so thought I would post on here and let people be aware.

But how on earth could they possibly have got hold of your bank details to set up the DD?

QrizB

Bendo said:

I'd be back onto your bank telling them its an unauthorised direct debit and to sort it. You shouldn't be dealing with Tomato.

Agreed. This is the bank's problem, they're giving your money away to someone. Your bank needs to cancel the DD and reimburse you under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-guarantee/

"If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society."

bagand96

geewcee said:

northernstar007 said:

geewcee said:

Never heard of these guys before, Tomato energy, but today noticed a new direct debit coming out of my account without my authorisation. Very strange how they have obtained my details, I am an Octopus customer and am still being supplied by them for both electric and gas. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this when I ring Tomato up tomorrow!! Seems very shady, so thought I would post on here and let people be aware.

if your not signed upto them yet then they have no right taking anything and the bank should refund the DD straightaway
i'd be in touch with your bank now if thats the case on there 24/7 number

Already spoke to them last night, they told me I would need to contact Tomato directly. Been on hold 40 mins so far... I want to find out how they even got my details.

You should be able to cancel the DD if you have online banking. The bank should also cancel the DD on your instruction. If money has already left your account the bank should reverse that as part of the DD Guarantee (sounds like they need reminding of this!) 

You'll need to speak to Tomato to see how they got your details, they'll probably only be able to tell you when it was signed up and in relation to what energy account (are they switching your energy?)

Have you ever been signed up to one the auto-switch energy services or comparison sites? 

masonic

Doc_N said:

geewcee said:

Never heard of these guys before, Tomato energy, but today noticed a new direct debit coming out of my account without my authorisation. Very strange how they have obtained my details, I am an Octopus customer and am still being supplied by them for both electric and gas. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this when I ring Tomato up tomorrow!! Seems very shady, so thought I would post on here and let people be aware.

But how on earth could they possibly have got hold of your bank details to set up the DD?

Yes, this is the big question.

From my experience Octopus are very quick to notify of a switching request (same day in my case). As others have suggested, the DD mandate can be easily and safely cancelled if TE has never supplied any property geewcee has been responsible for.

GingerTim

Have any suppliers since late 2021 survived an Elexon notice? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

masonic

GingerTim said:

Have any suppliers since late 2021 survived an Elexon notice? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

This is the first time I've ever heard of a supplier getting an Elexon notice. Would need to also understand which suppliers went bust with and without getting one to see if there's a relationship.

Together Energy and Bulb were the two most recent to go bust I think, Jan 2022 and Nov 2021. I don't think either had a notice from Elexon.

GingerTim

masonic said:

GingerTim said:

Have any suppliers since late 2021 survived an Elexon notice? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

This is the first time I've ever heard of a supplier getting an Elexon notice. Would need to also understand which suppliers went bust with and without getting one to see if there's a relationship.

Together Energy and Bulb were the two most recent to go bust I think, Jan 2022 and Nov 2021. I don't think either had a notice from Elexon.

Neon Reef and Orbit, I think, defaulted out of Elexon's BSC in late 2021 which did for them - but I'm not sure if a notice was issued against them beforehand. Presumably one was as a warning, but I can't find it.