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

Newbie_John

@masonic compensation depends when Octopus issues your bill - honestly I don't see reason why they are late with mine - it was £0.5 on Agile, let's say max £5 on SVR but they were happy to go with £30 compensation.. anyway - no rush.

If you emailed TE you'd be fine, they're just busy. You'll get your first bill at the begin of March and variable direct debit will follow 7 days later.

masonic

Having set up n3rgy again (had to also register with Loop so they'd let me back in), I've now set things up to integrate downloads from there into my data obtained from the Octopus API. It is a shame MyWatts only lets you download data day by day. As a test, I have run the numbers for the first 4 days...

Tracker Dec 23 cost: £18.65

Flexible Octopus (SVT surrogate): £15.48

TE Lifestyle standard: £8.62

My consumption over these days is shockingly high (avg 14 kWh/day) and that's due to the cold snap and my first use of heating for almost 12 months. It was the impending cold snap that prompted me to jump ship from Tracker, but I was doubly lucky in avoiding a period where I would have paid more on even the older Tracker formula than SVT. I haven't bothered to download the pricing data from Agile, but given the shocking prices there I've no doubt that would have been even worse.

I expect the 45% saving vs SVT I've made so far will come down in the coming weeks.

lohr500

@masonic

If you chose the monthly view on the MyWatts overview page and make sure the data type further down the page is set to "half-hourly", then hit the download button, you should get the half hourly data for the full month.

Hope this helps. 

masonic

lohr500 said:

@masonic

If you chose the monthly view on the MyWatts overview page and make sure the data type further down the page is set to "half-hourly", then hit the download button, you should get the half hourly data for the full month.

Hope this helps. 

Thanks, I don't know how I missed that! I was fixated on the panel under the graph.

tlcgrantham

masonic said:

Having set up n3rgy again (had to also register with Loop so they'd let me back in), I've now set things up to integrate downloads from there into my data obtained from the Octopus API. It is a shame MyWatts only lets you download data day by day. As a test, I have run the numbers for the first 4 days...

Tracker Dec 23 cost: £18.65

Flexible Octopus (SVT surrogate): £15.48

TE Lifestyle standard: £8.62

My consumption over these days is shockingly high (avg 14 kWh/day) and that's due to the cold snap and my first use of heating for almost 12 months. It was the impending cold snap that prompted me to jump ship from Tracker, but I was doubly lucky in avoiding a period where I would have paid more on even the older Tracker formula than SVT. I haven't bothered to download the pricing data from Agile, but given the shocking prices there I've no doubt that would have been even worse.

I expect the 45% saving vs SVT I've made so far will come down in the coming weeks.

I’m using an average of 20kwh/day in the cold weather and getting proportionately the same 40-50% savings vs SVT. It makes the gamble of them going bust worthwhile. 🤗

dwl999

Has this been posted already? The MSE website won't let me post the link. 

masonic

dwl999 said:

Has this been posted already? The MSE website won't let me post the link. 

Yes, posted and discussed at length earlier this week. See this post and the following discussion: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81210031/#Comment_81210031

There are some other links posted that put more flesh on the bones about the background.

bristolleedsfan

masonic said:

It looks like without TE having processed my opening read, things are rather stuck. 

There appears to have been delays Octopus applying final readings and until they are applied telling ex-customers not had final reading from T. 

JohnPo

Similar situation to several of the above members this is my story so far, left Octopus to Tomato on 14/11/24, gas is still with Octopus (Tracker).

I did a manual read on the 12/11/24 of SMETS2 meter and submitted those to Octopus - 2 registers as at one point historically Octopus Go used R1 & R2. Read again on the 13/11/24 and tried to submit online at Tomato - gave them then online the R1 reading and separately sent them an email with pictures of the register reads - rang them up and spoke to CS and informed them of issue around the final read.

I was aware of the final day issue when switching on a TOU tariff and did not use any of the IOG 'cheap hours' period on 13/11/24 and Octopus account only pulled data until 12/11/24 - so confirmed.  As of today 11/01/25 I have had no final bill and not been billed by Octopus for any electricity after 18/10/24.

Tomato billed me from 14/11/24 onwards - they did not setup the direct debit although I gave them the details when signing up.  I have raised a complaint as my contract shows the rates off-peak 4.77p KWhr, mid-peak 13.37p and standard rate rate 22.16 with standing charge 40.82p and no mention at all of these being prices excluding VAT but they just added 5% on the bottom on the Dec and Jan bills. Have paid the Dec one in full by bank transfer but will pay Jan's bill less VAT and deducting Dec's VAT and send them an email explaining why - referencing the complaint made on 03 Jan - which so far they have not replied to.

Let see how this goes - if they fold - I will make sure I have got a paper trail so that when Barrett Smith & Brown get hold of debt and start chasing - I can tell them where to go.

Newbie_John

@johnpro this is an example how we will kill them. It's only 5% vat, everyone everywhere said 5p tarrif, so when you see 4.77p it should be obvious or shouldn't make much difference. Long term savings with them can be great - but complaining about 5% will just clog their customer services and among all other various complaints is unnecessary. 
There aren't any good competitive tarrifs elsewhere sadly - so I prefer to just enjoy their current rates while they last. 

Just my thoughts.