Octopus Energy - registered meter belongs to a different apartment, very stressed......

Stevepd

Hi all. I'm writing this on behalf of my son who is in one of multi apartment conversion of an old building. He moved in and everything was hunky dory and life was good. Then new tenants moved into an adjacent apartment and things started to go wrong. He noticed that his electric bill sharply rose over the coming weeks/months. So he monitored the consumption and over Christmas 24 he was consuming a considerable amount of electric, considering he was physically there and everything bar the fridge freezer was switched off. He contacted Octopus by email and never received a reply. So after the holidays he rang them. They said he needs to do a burn test as it was thought the meter may be over reading. So that was done and the figures provided to Octopus. Nothing was then heard from them (bearing in mind each day the consumption was accelerating). Being in full time employment he could only ring in the evening, due to his work environment. They said they were looking at it and bear with them. He explained that the consumption didn't match the demand, being away from the property for 8 hours of the day and the requested burn test showed consumption was still happening.

No further communication was received from Octopus. So he put in a complaint to the Ombudsman. This investigation showed that some telephone calls were not logged against his account, although he was able to provide the times and names he spoke to. After further weeks (bills getting bigger and the monthly payme too) the Ombudsman upheld his complaint and instructed Octopus to compensate him £xxx amount. However this figure was not paid to him as it would be used to clear some of the outstanding (inflated) bill. They also ordered a new meter be tested and fitted.

There was a further delay as Octopus said there was a shortage of electricians due to the National smart meter switch over. Weeks passed and again speaking with Octopus for updates (still increased bills), with a nonchalant well get back to you (which they didn't). So further calls were made and weeks later after the weeks later a date was given by Octopus.

So he took a day off work and said electrician arrived. He switched off the meter and a neighbour came out to ask why has the electric gone off?. It transpired the meters have been allocated to the wrong apartments. So my son has been paying apartment No2's bill (consumption) since they moved in. This infor has been communicated to Octopus by phone and the electricians report. Octopus won't let him have a copy of the report as it has the electricians personal details on. Octopus have said they contact the No2's energy provider (details provided by neighbour) and instigate the correct action to identify the 2 meters correctly to the apartments.

This has been going on for nearly 2 months now (still paying big bills). Telephoning them and email has resulted in Octopus saying we're still dealing with it and in one email asking him to do a burn test!.

This is the short version (sorry to bore you all) and I'm trying to help our Son with this company. He's more than capable of standing on his own 2 feet, but I feel now it's going on far too long (close to a year) and Octopus simply have no enthusiasm to fix the problem or communicate.

Would anyone be able to offer any advice. I believe the landlord (owns all the apartments) thinks he can't do or influence anything,

Anything you can offer would be greatly received, even if you conclude he's done all he can and must simply wait........

Steve.

WiserMiser

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

Bendo

WiserMiser said:

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

Not entirely sure how that's supposed to help..

On the plus side, now its been established,  it shouldn't be too difficult to get proper bills generated,  although it might take time as they will obviously need to work with the other supplier to get the readings over time and then issue correct bills and appropriate refunds.

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Crossed meters are a known problem, especially in flats and other multi-dwelling buildings. If you or he had posted here before Christmas, we'd have suggested this as the likely cause.

Octopus will be able to sort it out but I'd suggest opening a new complaint, if he hasn't done so already.

It will probably take a couple more months.