Final electric bill from Octopus, their billing team at it again. RESOLVED

Chrysalis

14 kWh over the actual reading at change over.

Billed entire month on Flexible tariff even though they had full smart data up to including 8th Jan (only missing one day).  This includes higher SC as well.

MWT

The industry process can alter the change-over meter reading ans both losing and gaining suppliers are obliged to use that reading. 14kWh is well within the allowed margin for that process.

The use of the flexible tariff if there is missing data is also in line with the T&C, annoying though for sure.

Chrysalis

Your advice has been good always for me MWT, I dont doubt what you are saying, regardless I have asked them to amend, because I believe bills should be as accurate as possible.  How many other people on here do you see report their entire final month on Flexible? the common trend is only for the missing days.
Tomato energy also recorded their own reading at 11th January, a day after the move which is 6 kWh below the end reading Octopus used.

QrizB

On your final Octopus bill, was the closing reading shown as Actual or as Estimated?

If estimated, Octopus will refill once Tomato's reading has been validated.

If actual, in your shoes I'd be complaining to Octopus.

MWT

If the missing data is for the final day then it is consistent with what I would have expected unfortunately, as the losing supplier appears to be unable to recover HH data for that day once the switch completes.

Personally if I was switching I'd be inclined to change from a HH tariff to the SVT a couple of days before the switch.

bristolleedsfan

MWT said:

The industry process can alter the change-over meter reading ans both losing and gaining suppliers are obliged to use that reading. 14kWh is well within the allowed margin for that process.

The use of the flexible tariff if there is missing data is also in line with the T&C, annoying though for sure.

There have been increasing instances lately Octopus applying its own estimated readings as final reading, nothing to do with data collector reading, Octopus estimated readings have digits after decimal point which do not usually count for final readings, happened to me with final gas reading higher than new supplier reading which was same as actual smart meter reading.

bristolleedsfan

Chrysalis said:

Your advice has been good always for me MWT, I dont doubt what you are saying, regardless I have asked them to amend, because I believe bills should be as accurate as possible.  How many other people on here do you see report their entire final month on Flexible? the common trend is only for the missing days.
Tomato energy also recorded their own reading at 11th January, a day after the move which is 6 kWh below the end reading Octopus used.

If you get a negative response from Octopus post back and i dig up screenshot showing when they calculated average rate for last day for me as they have done for others.

MWT

Certainly no harm in asking for an amendment to the tariff they used for the final billed month, and yes people do report getting an adjustment, but it is within their T&Cs to say no.

FWIW, I'd suggest using the social media routes as they seem to be more able to get this done than the usual email/phone route.

If Octopus are using estimated final readings then that is irritating and does seem to be getting more frequently used by suppliers in general to avoid the risk of failing to issue the final bill quickly enough to avoid the Ofgem service standard limits which result in penalties of course.

Largs

Can I ask, how much has Octopus overcharged you by please?

Reed_Richards

Surely correct protocol is that your new supplier takes or is given a starting reading.  They pass this reading on to an adjudicator who might adjust the reading.  The adjudicator then passes this reading on to your new and old suppliers so that they both use the same reading.  This might cause your old supplier to issue a revised bill, even if the previous one had been termed the "final" bill.

bristolleedsfan

Largs said:

Can I ask, how much has Octopus overcharged you by please?

60 kWh overcharged initially in this example, great for existing customers when gets sorted out quickly, not everybody is going to notice the difference, completely switched out customers do not always get same service responses from experience.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81258086/#Comment_81258086