No gas usage recorded on DCC since April. - Octopus billed for unreasonable amount of usage.

Chrysalis

MWT said:

brianposter said:

Interesting. Who says "they cannot use TOU data" ?

I'll go digging through the licence T&C's when I have more time, but as far as I recall the billing for the SVT for example has to be between the register readings on two dates, with HH data you don't get a daily register reading which is also why suppliers (other than Tomato) insist on switching customers to a standard tariff before moving them to a HH based tariff. 

It is also why some suppliers prefer to use multiple registers for their more innovative tariffs rather than HH data.

In short it gets messy when you try to mix data from the two separate datasets.

If they are not allowed to use TOU data in the issue of a non functioning meter and to help resolve a estimated usage dispute, then someone has messed up somewhere, logically you would use whatever data is available to you.
Regardless I refuse to pay the multiple of my usage they are expecting, its over 3x what the most recent data reported and over 4x what I am using.
Its not that messy, use the legacy readings up until the last one, then convert TOU to metric data for the final week.  This seems to be a limitation of their software, staff training rather than a unsolvable mess.

mmmmikey

Don't know what's gone wrong here but even given any regulations and complexity in using both sources of data for routine billing, it seems perfectly reasonable to use whatever half hourly data is or was available as the basis to generate an estimated bill.

Now you've got your new meter, you can presumably collect the data from that and presumably it will show little to no gas usage? You can add that to the evidence you present to the ombudsman in support of your complaint.

It's very clear from some of your posts that your pis - err I mean hacked - off with Octopus beyond belief. But that frustration is best kept out of your communication with the ombudsman. Just a simple, factual presentation of what you've presented to Octopus and why you're complaining is the way to go. I would avoid the stuff about them being devious, etc. To be honest, to me it makes you sound a bit like a nutty conspiracy theorist - they're all out to get me sort of thing. I know you're not and so does everyone who reads your posts here - even those that disagree with you (which includes me on plenty of occasions ) I'm not saying this to wind you up and hope it doesn't. I've just got my fingers crossed that you submit your complaint when the weather's a bit cooler just in case the red mist comes down and you're tempted to be a bit more frank with your views than is helpful to your complaint.

Chrysalis

mmmmikey said:

Don't know what's gone wrong here but even given any regulations and complexity in using both sources of data for routine billing, it seems perfectly reasonable to use whatever half hourly data is or was available as the basis to generate an estimated bill.

Now you've got your new meter, you can presumably collect the data from that and presumably it will show little to no gas usage? You can add that to the evidence you present to the ombudsman in support of your complaint.

It's very clear from some of your posts that your pis - err I mean hacked - off with Octopus beyond belief. But that frustration is best kept out of your communication with the ombudsman. Just a simple, factual presentation of what you've presented to Octopus and why you're complaining is the way to go. I would avoid the stuff about them being devious, etc. To be honest, to me it makes you sound a bit like a nutty conspiracy theorist - they're all out to get me sort of thing. I know you're not and so does everyone who reads your posts here - even those that disagree with you (which includes me on plenty of occasions ) I'm not saying this to wind you up and hope it doesn't. I've just got my fingers crossed that you submit your complaint when the weather's a bit cooler just in case the red mist comes down and you're tempted to be a bit more frank with your views than is helpful to your complaint.

Of course, thats how I approached my previous case as well.  Thank you for the advice.  For the record, I havent accused them of been devious directly, have kept my cool as much as I can on the communication which has been frustrating.

mmmmikey

Chrysalis said:

mmmmikey said:

Don't know what's gone wrong here but even given any regulations and complexity in using both sources of data for routine billing, it seems perfectly reasonable to use whatever half hourly data is or was available as the basis to generate an estimated bill.

Now you've got your new meter, you can presumably collect the data from that and presumably it will show little to no gas usage? You can add that to the evidence you present to the ombudsman in support of your complaint.

It's very clear from some of your posts that your pis - err I mean hacked - off with Octopus beyond belief. But that frustration is best kept out of your communication with the ombudsman. Just a simple, factual presentation of what you've presented to Octopus and why you're complaining is the way to go. I would avoid the stuff about them being devious, etc. To be honest, to me it makes you sound a bit like a nutty conspiracy theorist - they're all out to get me sort of thing. I know you're not and so does everyone who reads your posts here - even those that disagree with you (which includes me on plenty of occasions ) I'm not saying this to wind you up and hope it doesn't. I've just got my fingers crossed that you submit your complaint when the weather's a bit cooler just in case the red mist comes down and you're tempted to be a bit more frank with your views than is helpful to your complaint.

Of course, thats how I approached my previous case as well.  Thank you for the advice.  For the record, I havent accused them of been devious directly, have kept my cool as much as I can on the communication which has been frustrating.

I suspect "frustrating" is a classic British understatement  

brianposter

Deliberately ignoring evidence is unlikely to get very far in legal terms. I would suggest that you simply put together your own reasonable version of how much you owe and stick to it (unless Octopus can demonstrate that your calculation is incorrect).

The ombudsman seems to be the place to go but remember that you have the "small claims court" as a backstop. 

Chrysalis

New meter is now showing data on my account.

Chrysalis

Another update, Also showing on bright, so whatever process they followed, it seems a seamless migration on that side of things.

Chrysalis

Looks like Octopus have an automated system to try and avoid the Ombdusman.

The latest manual communication was to tell me it would be passed up the chain to get a dead lock approved, but nothing followed it up, I then got some more emails saying we want to close the complaint which I ignored.

Now I have an email saying 8 weeks has passed and I can click a link for a dedicated customer happiness specialist which I am going to do as I am trying to be as reasonable as possible.

mmmmikey

Chrysalis said:

Looks like Octopus have an automated system to try and avoid the Ombdusman.

The latest manual communication was to tell me it would be passed up the chain to get a dead lock approved, but nothing followed it up, I then got some more emails saying we want to close the complaint which I ignored.

Now I have an email saying 8 weeks has passed and I can click a link for a dedicated customer happiness specialist which I am going to do as I am trying to be as reasonable as possible.

Good luck - let us know how you get on

masonic

Chrysalis said:

Looks like Octopus have an automated system to try and avoid the Ombdusman.

The latest manual communication was to tell me it would be passed up the chain to get a dead lock approved, but nothing followed it up, I then got some more emails saying we want to close the complaint which I ignored.

Now I have an email saying 8 weeks has passed and I can click a link for a dedicated customer happiness specialist which I am going to do as I am trying to be as reasonable as possible.

Worth trying, and in my experience those customer happiness specialists are very agreeable indeed. Should only take a few days to figure out whether you'll be able to reach a settlement or need to escalate to EO.