Octopus Energy reviews: Give your feedback

scobie wrote: »

I signed up with EON when i bought my house earlier this year and was getting good rate and was perfectly happy with the price and service.

Then one day I get an email from them saying they are sorry to hear I'm leaving. I had no idea what they meant because I had done nothing to effect a move.

After a bit of investigation it turns out Octopus had effectively stolen by account from EON with absolutely no input or communication either to or from me. I had never heard of them, even. EON were powerless to stop it for some reason, so I immediately contacted Octopus ceaselessly to complain and get it sent back to EON.

According to EON I was with Octopus for around six weeks against my will, having no idea of what tariffs i was on and with no knowledge or consent at all. I have no idea what gas and electricity I used during that time, but I told Octopus clearly - whatever I used will be on them as I did not consent to any switch.

Disgraceful practice.

Hello scobie and, as Hengus says, this sounds like an Erroneous Transfer. Thought it might help if I explain what happens.

As you've experienced, it's where a customer is transferred to or from a company without their knowledge or consent. It sometimes comes about when meter reference numbers and addresses are mixed up on the National Databases. These databases hold details of all electricity and gas meters in the country. All suppliers use them when handling a change of supply and sometimes apply for the wrong account, particularly when two addresses are similar.

It's usually best to contact the supplier wrongly taking the account first. This is because, invariably, when the losing supplier contacts them they claim they've a valid contract.

Once it's been confirmed that a transfer has been wrongly done, all suppliers have a duty to put it right as quickly as possible. The supplier who has taken over wrongly will send a request to the other company asking them to retake the supply. The supply will be taken back and reset as though it had never left. The supply period and billing will be continuous and carry on as though it had never been away. This should be done within 6-8 weeks of the mistake being acknowledged by the supplier taking over.

Customers don't pay the company who took the supply wrongly. A couple of bills might be received whilst it's all sorted but, in the end, only the original company needs to be paid for energy used. The company who took the supply wrongly will cancel all bills and charges.

Hope this explains scobie. Let me know if you need any more information as happy to help.

Malc

Woolco wrote: »

Would not recommend this business.

Signed myself and mum and dad up. 2 accounts that moved over from the Eon electric company.

Everything went well. Got £50 credit for referral etc.

2 months into the supply, they email both me and mum and dad to say previous supplier has confirmed we use more than what I advised during the quotation and they would be increasing the Direct Debit. In my case is was nearly double.

I emailed the Eon who replied saying my estimated annual usage was 1700 but Octopus claim Eon advised them 3400 units.

My actual consumption was 1380 with Eon over 11 months. I input 1500 during my quote.

This Octopus energy might be cheaper, but I am not happy with this crap. Finally they say the DD increase is not mandatory. They seem to blame Eon.

As soon as my credit balance is used up I am off to Utility Point who are the cheapest in the ScottishPower/SSEB region or back to the Eon.

Octopus are now in the same back yard as Iresa in my book. The Ryanair of energy suppliers.

Hello Woolco.

When customers move from us to another supplier, as part of the switch, a series of electronic messages pass between us, the new supplier and certain third parties within the industry. These include the energy distributors, meter operators/readers and national databases. One of these messages concerns details of past usage. Provided we've received regular meter readings, this will be an accurate reflection of the amount of energy used over the past 12-18 months.

Often, the new supplier will take-over before all these messages are through. I can't speak for other companies but, where we're the gaining supplier, we'll initially base monthly payments on the information we're given at the point of the switch and then review later once all the relevant details have been received.

If you had an online account whilst you were with us, you'll still be able to see usage over the previous 12 months before leaving. This is only available through desktop applications and not the mobile app. This information is taken down after the account has been closed for 12 months.

Hope this helps Woolco.

Malc

Third_Uncle wrote: »

I've noticed that the unit rates that the Energy Club savings are calculated on are not what I'm actually paying (even though the name of the tariff is correct - Flexible Octopus). Therefore, the savings I could make by switching aren't as great as the comparisons are stating. Not sure why this is. Need to speak to Octopus anyway as apparently the rates are going up in August.

Energy Club bases its annual cost on three criteria: your postcode; your tariff and your projected annual consumption in kWhs. You need to input this data to get an accurate price comparison. If you are on a fixed tariff with less than 12 months to run, all savings should be ignored. This applies to all price comparison sites.