Nightmare experience with Octopus/potential ombudsman action

The_Boss

Hi all

I'm having nightmares with Octopus energy. Would appreciate some advice please.

At the start of October we notified them that we were moving and we wanted to move our energy account to our new address. After moving, the in home smart reader display still showed "Welcome to EDF" and EDF rates for several days. I emailed Octopus to ask if our account had been moved because we were seeing EDF rates and I received an email asking us to confirm our new address and then an email saying our account had been cancelled and refunding the balance we had.

A week later and the in home display was still showing EDF rates so called Octopus and was told they hadnt set up an account for us at our new address. The person apologised and stated the account would be set up in 4 working days. However, whenever we logged into the app or online account it said our address was not with Octopus and showing no other info than our monthly payment amount by direct debit (which we couldnt change), though they were sending me emails about our account. We also received an unaddressed letter from Octopus stating that they supplied energy to our address but they did not know who we were so we should contact them to let them know(!).

I went back and forward with Octopus several times by phone and email about our new address/account info not showing in our account so we had no info about it at all and they stated we were a customer and we should log in/out. This didnt work at all and the quality of responses was poor so we decided to switch to EDF.

Octopus then sent us a final bill. This was based on higher than expected energy unit rates which after more emails they said was because we were on a flexible rate (which was a surprise to us when we were on a fixed contract before moving home). They hadnt informed us that we were on this rate and because nothing showed in our account we couldnt see anything about it there. Even so, the unit costs they quoted in our final bill were higher than their advertised flexible rates including VAT. I emailed asking why this was and they ignored it and just said they could sort the account issue out (completely failing to understand that we switched to EDF a few weeks ago)

I am getting nowhere with Octopus other than going around in circles because people are just not bothering to read the emails I have sent properly. The email trail clearly lists all of the issues. I have asked for clarification about the energy rates they have charged us in the bill but they have not answered

The final bill is due to be paid by 3 December but I want to raise this whole saga with the ombudsman in two weeks when it becomes eligible to be passed on, partly because of their incompetence ever since we moved but also because they should have charged lower unit rates than they have used to generate our final bill. If I pay this bill then am I still able to refer this complaint to them for a retrospective reduction in the bill based on the fact they should have charged lower rates? I feel Octopus should also compensate a small amount for the huge amount of wasted time and stress but assume that wont happen.

Neil_Jones

As a general rule you don't usually take your energy supplier with you when you move house.

You give the supplier at your old address a closing meter reading(s) on the day you move out.

You find out who the supplier is at your new address and you phone them up and say I've moved into 17 Cherry Tree Lane, can I have a new account please my opening meter readings are <whatever> for gas, and <whatever> for electricity.

In due course you get a final bill for your old address and and any credit refund.

Your entire saga could have been avoided had you done this.

I suspect your "switch to EDF" was simply one tariff to another, standard to <whatever>.  Your final octopus bill was most likely for your old address.

The_Boss

Neil_Jones said:

As a general rule you don't usually take your energy supplier with you when you move house.

You give the supplier at your old address a closing meter reading(s) on the day you move out.

You find out who the supplier is at your new address and you phone them up and say I've moved into 17 Cherry Tree Lane, can I have a new account please my opening meter readings are <whatever> for gas, and <whatever> for electricity.

In due course you get a final bill for your old address and and any credit refund.

Your entire saga could have been avoided had you done this.

I suspect your "switch to EDF" was simply one tariff to another, standard to <whatever>.  Your final octopus bill was most likely for your old address.

We already paid the final bill for our old property the week after moving out.This final bill from Octopus is for our new address and states the time period it covers. Given the dire customer service and the fact nobody could resolve the issue we had to switch to someone else after they set this up. We gave them more than ample time to resolve this.

The below link is what we followed before we moved. We submitted the form that is linked to within that page, confirming the date we were moving, the new address and ticked the option to remain with Octopus when we moved. So we gave Octopus the information required. On the phone they agreed they had messed up by not setting up a new account in line with the home move request we submitted to them in advance

https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/moving-home-or-just-movedin

Because EDF were supplying us in the two weeks it took for Octopus to set up a new account we also paid for the energy used at our new address before Octopus set up a new account in the 21st (but with absolutely no information about this showing in the app or logging in via browser)

Ectophile

You've tried to break the system, and it didn't work the way you expected.

When you move into a new home, you are automatically a deemed customer of whoever is currently supplying that property.  That's set out in the Electricity Act and Gas Act.  You can start a switch to another provider if you wish.  But the switch process takes a couple of weeks.  No amount of form filling before you move can change this process.

Keep_pedalling

Ectophile said:

You've tried to break the system, and it didn't work the way you expected.

When you move into a new home, you are automatically a deemed customer of whoever is currently supplying that property.  That's set out in the Electricity Act and Gas Act.  You can start a switch to another provider if you wish.  But the switch process takes a couple of weeks.  No amount of form filling before you move can change this process.

When we moved last year Octopus sorted out the switch to our new place on the day we moved, so it can be done. We had no break in our Octopus Intelegent Go service and did not have to pay anything to the previous suppler.

Gas was not quite the same story and it took months to switch from BG because of an issue with the meter records for this house. 

Swipe

I'd take this as a warning for anyone thinking of using their moving home service.

QrizB

Swipe said:

I'd take this as a warning for anyone thinking of using their moving home service.

We've seen similar things before, and not only with Octopus's home move service; other suppliers have similar offers and can end up in the same messy situation.

The_Boss said:

I am getting nowhere with Octopus other than going around in circles because people are just not bothering to read the emails I have sent properly. The email trail clearly lists all of the issues. I have asked for clarification about the energy rates they have charged us in the bill but they have not answered

Have you followed Octopus's complaints process to its conclusion?

https://octopus.energy/unhappy/

I would expect them to offer you a few tens of pounds for customer service shortcomings.

Ms_Chocaholic

If you had have asked here before you moved we could have told you that you needed to set up a contract with EDF and then sign up with Octopus at your new address once that had been done.

bristolleedsfan

Ms_Chocaholic said:

If you had have asked here before you moved we could have told you that you needed to set up a contract with EDF and then sign up with Octopus at your new address once that had been done.

Octopus as well as a few other suppliers offer customers option to keep existing tariff when moving home, depending on timings possible for customer to be on existing tariff from day 1 at new address, mentioned within link O/P post 3 on this thread.

The_Boss

QrizB said:

Swipe said:

I'd take this as a warning for anyone thinking of using their moving home service.

We've seen similar things before, and not only with Octopus's home move service; other suppliers have similar offers and can end up in the same messy situation.

The_Boss said:

I am getting nowhere with Octopus other than going around in circles because people are just not bothering to read the emails I have sent properly. The email trail clearly lists all of the issues. I have asked for clarification about the energy rates they have charged us in the bill but they have not answered

Have you followed Octopus's complaints process to its conclusion?

https://octopus.energy/unhappy/

I would expect them to offer you a few tens of pounds for customer service shortcomings.

Yes, followed that process. I had been using the main Octopus email originally then changed to the complaints one. Farcically the person I complained about (having been told on the phone it was their fault that a new account had not been set up at our new address) replied to that and obviously ignored all the points related to the fact that it was down to them. I asked for a senior manager to review and this was ignored. I then forwarded the whole trail to the greg@octopusenergy email stating as a last resort I needed someone to review the email trail and to resolve the issue or we would switch and someone replied a week later asking if I could share details of what the problem was.

It's been nigh on possible getting a sensible and senior person to look at this, so I think I'm going to need to write to the UK postal address when I'm back from holiday.

The_Boss

Rewinding for a second. I need to pay the final Octopus bill, but I dont agree with the calculations per my original post. If I pay this bill (due in two days) then if the ombudsman agrees can Octopus be made to retrospectively refund excessive costs? I assume this would be better than not paying as Octopus could then record miss payments on credit file, but I don't want to harm our case.

I asked Octopus to note on our account that we dispute the calculation and asking for clarification of but of course they ignored that too and repied with more waffle about setting up the online account even though we switched weeks ago now.