Tomato Energy Standard Meter

HillStreetBlues

Joined of the 2nd Sep and received my first bill today although it's dated 3rd Oct.
The opening reading (32250) is not what I submitted (32330) to Octopus on the 1st Sep.The next reading I gave was on the 1st Oct (32450) 120 units as was away for some of it. They have estimated the reading on the 3rd Oct to be 32550  so 100 units in 3 days.
It all seems a bit of a mess
EDIT I'm still waiting for the final bill from Octopus, if the end/start reading don't match, which one do I complain too?

MWT

When you switch suppliers there is a 3rd party industry body in the middle that is allowed to alter the readings submitted on the basis of past consumption. There is a tolerance allowed and the amount you report is well within that limit.

That altered figure is used by both losing and gaining suppliers, so as long as your closing invoice from Octopus uses the same meter reading as the opening one from Tomato there is no grounds for a complaint.

If the number is different then contact the gaining supplier (Tomato) and ask them to raise a dispute, but this may just be a temporary problem cause by giving a meter reading to the losing supplier (Octopus) as you should really just give the reading to the gaining supplier and let the system handle passing the agreed meter reading to the losing supplier.

HillStreetBlues

@MWT I just checked and gave both suppliers the same 32330. I'm happy as long as both readings are the same, if fact I'm I will be about £2 better off if they both use 32250 .
EDIT 32250 was the reading I gave Octopus on the 1st Aug.

MWT

HillStreetBlues said:

@MWT I just checked and gave both suppliers the same 32330. I'm happy as long as both readings are the same, if fact I'm I will be about £2 better off if they both use 32250 .

It is mostly a sequence problem, you are supposed to just tell the gaining supplier the reading, then the losing supplier just gets the agreed reading from the industry body and uses that to produce the final bill with no risk of confusion.

One thought with Octopus, if you were on a tariff that depended on half-hour data like Agile or one of the EV tariffs, there can be a problem producing the final bill as they lose access to the meter data and that can stall the billing on those tariffs.

If this results in them failing to provide a final bill to you within 6 weeks then they owe you £30 compensation. It sounds like you are already past that point so you may need to call them up and remind them about the missing bill and ask for the compensation at the same time...

HillStreetBlues

@MWT  Just a standard meter so thought it would be simple. Octopus credited the £30 to my account on the day it passed the 6 weeks. They have also just added WHD so now have over £400 in my account

bob2302

When I moved to Octopus, they sent me an email apologizing for this adjustment. It does seem pointless to apply it to an account with a fully functioning smart meter.

HillStreetBlues

DD taken on due day by Tomato.

What is the best way to get final bill from Octopus?  I've had the £30 compo for delay but I believe that's just a one off, if they had to pay it every 6 weeks I wouldn't be chasing them,
The bill from Octopus is only for one day the 1st Sep, as Tomato started the 2nd but the issue is the penultimate bill from Octopus that ended on the 31st Aug the end reading I gave and used for the bill was 32330 but the the opening reading used for Tomato was 32250. that would mean the one day bill from Octopus will be for -80 units.

HillStreetBlues

A further thought, the 32250 reading Tomato used was my reading I gave to Octopus on the 31st August. That leads me to think the delay to my final bill is because Octopus gave Tomato the wrong final reading (only Octopus had that reading) and now they are working out how to correct that error.

MWT

HillStreetBlues said:

A further thought, the 32250 reading Tomato used was my reading I gave to Octopus on the 31st August. That leads me to think the delay to my final bill is because Octopus gave Tomato the wrong final reading (only Octopus had that reading) and now they are working out how to correct that error.

The losing and gaining suppliers do not talk to each other, only to the industry body in the middle.

The 'correct' route is you do not tell the losing supplier anything, you only communicate with the gaining supplier, and they pass the closing meter reading to the industry body in the middle, who in turn either approves the reading and passes it on to the losing supplier, or changes the reading and passes it to both losing and gaining suppliers. 

Giving a reading to the losing supplier if where it often starts to go wrong...

HillStreetBlues

MWT said:

HillStreetBlues said:

A further thought, the 32250 reading Tomato used was my reading I gave to Octopus on the 31st August. That leads me to think the delay to my final bill is because Octopus gave Tomato the wrong final reading (only Octopus had that reading) and now they are working out how to correct that error.

The losing and gaining suppliers do not talk to each other, only to the industry body in the middle.

The 'correct' route is you do not tell the losing supplier anything, you only communicate with the gaining supplier, and they pass the closing meter reading to the industry body in the middle, who in turn either approves the reading and passes it on to the losing supplier, or changes the reading and passes it to both losing and gaining suppliers. 

Giving a reading to the losing supplier if where it often starts to go wrong...

I never gave Octopus an end reading, just the normal end of month reading that I always give. When I switched I gave Tomato a reading.
The reading I gave Tomato was ignored and somehow the reading I gave Octopus the month before was used.

wrf12345

When I joined Octopus they said (over phone) they had the reading from British Gas, so that seems the wrong way round (Smart meter fitted) but it was what I expected - but in line with the figure used by Tomato above rather than the way things are supposed to work.