Octopus Energy lost our smart meter data for 17 months – now wants to bill on estimates

MWT

jem16 said:

Qyburn said:

jem16 said:

I just set up the Mini last Friday. Looking at the graphs for each day it goes right back to when the meters were installed on the 5th December. 

Is that data you couldn't see in your account, prior to installing the Mini?

I thought it did but now I’m beginning to doubt myself after reading your last post. Thinking about it more it may always have been there. 

I suspect you are correct, the mini adds the ability to see 'Today' in the Octopus app along with the 'Live' option, but the rest of the history was always available in normal circumstances.  

Bendo

Scot_39 said:

The supplier did do something with that knowledge.

It modified its billing and charge rates exactly as per the contract the OP agreed to and entered as a willing party.

And sent statements accordingly - which the OP admits changed format - but paid anyway - no doubt based on estimates (for import anyway).

As not once has the OP said provided manual readings instead - again a condition of tge contract (2.3.1 every 90 days) once on variable tariff terms - when had a non reporting meter -for now best part of 18m.

Imagine how much of a better customer experience it would have been had they emailed and said we can't read your meter, can we book an appointment to get it sorted ? 

That's the difference between good customer service and rubbish customer service.  It really doesn't take much.

Reed_Richards

I'm with E.on Next.  My comms hub stopped reporting on 20th July.  I  noticed the problem after about 10 days and reported it.  I was given an appointment on 10th August, my comms hub was replaced but this failed to fix the problem.  At this point the smart metering team gave up and decided that nothing could be done.  But in September an automated system was alerted to the fact that they weren't getting data and sent me messages asking me to make another appointment.  This took place on 10th October and it was the same engineer who tried and failed in August.  This time he tried really hard, with new equipment that he didn't have in August and eventually got my comms hub working again.

So with E.on Next, my in-person customer service was rubbish but my automated customer service was good.  I got the email that Octopus didn't send the OP saying "we can't read your meter, can we book an appointment" and it was generated by some automatic process.

jem16

MWT said:

jem16 said:

Qyburn said:

jem16 said:

I just set up the Mini last Friday. Looking at the graphs for each day it goes right back to when the meters were installed on the 5th December. 

Is that data you couldn't see in your account, prior to installing the Mini?

I thought it did but now I’m beginning to doubt myself after reading your last post. Thinking about it more it may always have been there. 

I suspect you are correct, the mini adds the ability to see 'Today' in the Octopus app along with the 'Live' option, but the rest of the history was always available in normal circumstances.  

Yes I think it’s the addition of the Today tab that I’m thinking of. It wasn’t there before I set up the Mini but I can see data in the Today section all the way back prior to installation of the Mini.

Scot_39

Bendo said:

Scot_39 said:

The supplier did do something with that knowledge.

It modified its billing and charge rates exactly as per the contract the OP agreed to and entered as a willing party.

And sent statements accordingly - which the OP admits changed format - but paid anyway - no doubt based on estimates (for import anyway).

As not once has the OP said provided manual readings instead - again a condition of tge contract (2.3.1 every 90 days) once on variable tariff terms - when had a non reporting meter -for now best part of 18m.

Imagine how much of a better customer experience it would have been had they emailed and said we can't read your meter, can we book an appointment to get it sorted ? 

That's the difference between good customer service and rubbish customer service.  It really doesn't take much.

Why should they have to ?

Its a contract that costs them more money if operates as used by the OP.

And they explicitly said what they will do and so did in response to the failure.

They are a business not a charity.

This isnt some standard tariff setup - this was dynamic i port and export pricing - far more unregulated territory than Ofgem cap tariifs.

matt_drummer

I echo what Scot says.

Also, you cannot expect the lowest possible prices and somebody monitoring your account for you in minute detail.

I have a similar setup to the OP (although I don't import at lower prices to export at higher prices because I outright object to it in principle) and it is blatantly obvious when there is an issue as long as you conduct regular checks on your account.

You can't expect an energy supplier to babysit you on a tariff that is designed for consumers that are supposed to be extremely interested and incentivised to reduce their energy costs.

On the subject of being a business and not a charity.

In general, energy retailers operate differently to most other businesses.

They don't buy energy and then sell it.

They sell it and then buy it based on the certified meter readings of their customers.

They cannot buy the electricity consumed by the OP at anything other than standard rates as they have no record of when the OP consumed it.

They also cannot pay for any electricity exported by the OP because they have no proof that any was actually exported.

The fact that the OP is involved in brown energy (that is importing at a cheap price and storing it to export later at a higher price) just make it worse.

Some suppliers even prohibit brown energy.

Bendo

Scot_39 said:

Bendo said:

Scot_39 said:

The supplier did do something with that knowledge.

It modified its billing and charge rates exactly as per the contract the OP agreed to and entered as a willing party.

And sent statements accordingly - which the OP admits changed format - but paid anyway - no doubt based on estimates (for import anyway).

As not once has the OP said provided manual readings instead - again a condition of tge contract (2.3.1 every 90 days) once on variable tariff terms - when had a non reporting meter -for now best part of 18m.

Imagine how much of a better customer experience it would have been had they emailed and said we can't read your meter, can we book an appointment to get it sorted ? 

That's the difference between good customer service and rubbish customer service.  It really doesn't take much.

Why should they have to ?

Its a contract that costs them more money if operates as used by the OP.

And they explicitly said what they will do and so did in response to the failure.

They are a business not a charity.

This isnt some standard tariff setup - this was dynamic i port and export pricing - far more unregulated territory than Ofgem cap tariifs.

Well obviously they don't have to.  But for a company that claim to be customer focused, even the likes of Eon Next can put them to shame.

Doesn't surprise me the usuals are defending poor service though,  seems to be the MSE way.

There is no babysitting involved in coding your systems to send an automatic email asking to book an appointment.  Its basic customer service with little to no cost involved  if anything it saves them in the long run with ombudsman fees etc.

matt_drummer

Bendo said:

There is no babysitting involved in coding your systems to send an automatic email asking to book an appointment.  Its basic customer service with little to no cost involved  if anything it saves them in the long run with ombudsman fees etc.

Do you know that they didn't?

born_again

Bendo said:

Scot_39 said:

The supplier did do something with that knowledge.

It modified its billing and charge rates exactly as per the contract the OP agreed to and entered as a willing party.

And sent statements accordingly - which the OP admits changed format - but paid anyway - no doubt based on estimates (for import anyway).

As not once has the OP said provided manual readings instead - again a condition of tge contract (2.3.1 every 90 days) once on variable tariff terms - when had a non reporting meter -for now best part of 18m.

Imagine how much of a better customer experience it would have been had they emailed and said we can't read your meter, can we book an appointment to get it sorted ? 

That's the difference between good customer service and rubbish customer service.  It really doesn't take much.

While we can all agree, it would be nice if they did. With 7.8 million customers in the UK. It's not exactly going to be top of the list for them, given it would have to be software based & clearly not something in place.

Do you know of any other energy co's that do it?

matt_drummer

born_again said:

While we can all agree, it would be nice if they did. With 7.8 million customers in the UK. It's not exactly going to be top of the list for them, given it would have to be software based & clearly not something in place.

Do you know of any other energy co's that do it?

It's not black and white though.

I know I have, and I am sure others have, at times had days where the data isn't there.

But it comes eventually, a few days or even a week or two later.

They can't just send a messages and create panic booking appointments based on a day or twos missing data.

At what point do they recognise an unresolvable issue without an engineer visit?

The clue is in the bills.

And if you have signed up for a complex tariff it's not good enough to sit there and rely on somebody else to pick up the issue and deal with it.

Why would you when it is so important to you?

So important that you spent thousands of ponds on hardware to reduce your bills?

An energy supplier doesn't care that much, they make provision for the scenario in their terms and conditions that you agree to when choosing the tariff, why wouldn't you keep a close eye on it?

These energy companies have millions of customers bombarding them with questions. They have limited resources, imposed on them by keeping costs to a minimum and complying with regulations in terms of pricing.

It's expecting a lot for them to micro manage one individuals personal electricity generation enterprise.

Just handing over to them and assuming all is well is rather foolish when the consequences are clearly laid out.