Octopus Nightmare!

IamDan

I have been an Octopus Customer since June 2021, I’ve never had an issue and was always in credit.

In 2023 following the end of my fixed rate, I moved on to the Octopus Go tariff as I purchased an EV in the September of that year and following a conversation with an Octopus agent they said it would be best for me. 

In November 2023, my meters stopped providing reading to Octopus. In the February of 2024, I had noticed I wasn’t being billed for Electricity and raised this with Octopus. They confirmed that they had not been receiving readings since the November and therefore would send an engineer to look at my meters. Following this they visited my property in the summer but were unable to rectify and therefore advised that they would have to change my meters, which they eventually did in the November.

Again I anticipated everything’s was sorted, however, in Feb 25 I noticed I was still not being billed. I queried this again and they confirmed that the new meter were not working but they would try a connects. This eventually worked and they said they would back bill me.

My account when we initially raised concerns went from credit to debit and now they have stated that as my meters where not providing readings they would have to bill my usage on the Flexible tariff as they had no information on what I had used off peak. This has not taken my balance to over £2k in deficit.

i raised my concerns but they Have stated in the TandCs of the EV tariff if they can not obtain readings they can move me to the standard tariff. 

I have advised that my EV app shows my usage by date and time but they will not accept this.

they have offered me approx £900 in compensation but still takes my deficit to £1.2k, which I fee is not my fault as I’ve been trying to sort this issue for a year. They have stated if I go to the ombudsman they will rescind any offers made.

has anyone experienced anything similar? I feel that they have me over a barrel and I cannot do anything. 

Thanks in advance 

D

powerful_Rogue

How much do you think your bill should be for the 15 months you wasn't billed?

masonic

This sounds like what they tend to do. A family member had a meter fault following a power cut and eventually had it replaced. Octopus was never able to retrieve data for the couple of months it took to get an engineer to visit and therefore (over)estimated usage as almost 75% of EAC and billed it all as Flexible. Eventually offered £50 good will. You've done well to get £900.

I don't know if the Ombudsman would be this generous.

Chrysalis

£900 seems very good by Octopus standards.

RavingMad

Less than £100 a month to run your house and car.  That would be a great result for me but obviously your lifestyle might be totally different to mine.

If you have all the figures, are you able to work out roughly what your bill should be?

Once it was fixed, why weren't you actively checking that you were being billed going forward?

wrf12345

But did he have a regular DD, so the £2200 would be in addition to that?

MWT

IamDan said:

In November 2023, my meters stopped providing reading to Octopus. In the February of 2024, I had noticed I wasn’t being billed for Electricity and raised this with Octopus.

They appear to be acting within the T&Cs of the tariff you signed-up for, and that is why you need to be more proactive than not noticing that the half-hour readings were missing for 4 months...

It is a tough lesson for sure, but with these tariffs, and the terms you agree when you use them, you need to be watchful and quicker to respond if the data is not appearing in your account.

It only takes a few minutes each month to scroll through the daily readings online or in their app and it is time well spent to avoid the situation you are currently in...

wrf12345

If you are on the internet anyway or have the app, then it is less than a minute to check consumption/cost every day - and the way the multiple systems that are involved generate gremlins is quite amazing so if on any TOU tariff you have to do it as well as download the monthly bill and keep it safe. Octopus are kind of okay but some of the other companies seem to wipe the bill history in favour of generating fantasy bills.

bristolleedsfan

IamDan said:

f. 

I have advised that my EV app shows my usage by date and time but they will not accept this.

Looks like another case of Octo Inconsistent.

https://x.com/ChrisIngram_UK/status/1788155328917295487

Reed_Richards

I'm on an EV tariff that relies on my supplier getting half-hourly readings from my meter.  I check these readings about once a week by downloading a copy (I use n3rgy for this).  I can't imagine not making frequent checks that everything is being properly recorded and, if I found out it wasn't, I can't imagine not immediately working out with my supplier what they were going to do about billing.  How did you think your situation would be resolved?  Take the £900 and be more careful in future.