MSE News: Octopus Energy to take on Iresa's 90,000 customers - here's what you need to know

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  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,583
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    I'm intrigued by how fast Octopus/IRESA has managed to contact customers and produce a deemed final reading - I had an E-Mail on 1st from Octopus and my IRESA account already has a deemed final reading. I dont know if that's the situation with all 90,000 of IRESA's customers but it seems pretty impressive so far.

    How is that all possible when you consider that IRESA was supposed to be a total shambles and I'm not sure that Octopus could have marshalled sufficient resource in such a short time to cope with it all unless this has been boiling gently in the background for few weeks before the actual announcement
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • martyp
    martyp Posts: 1,044
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    matelodave wrote: »
    I'm intrigued by how fast Octopus/IRESA has managed to contact customers and produce a deemed final reading - I had an E-Mail on 1st from Octopus and my IRESA account already has a deemed final reading. I dont know if that's the situation with all 90,000 of IRESA's customers but it seems pretty impressive so far.

    How is that all possible when you consider that IRESA was supposed to be a total shambles and I'm not sure that Octopus could have marshalled sufficient resource in such a short time to cope with it all unless this has been boiling gently in the background for few weeks before the actual announcement
    Good point, I imagine this would be an awful lot of administrative and technical work for Octopus to do this so whether they have got existing staff to work extra hours and or subcontracted resources from elsewhere or something as it must be a lot of work for any company to take on thousands of customers in a week.
    It's not just the taking them on, communications and setting up the accounts etc. but processing credit/debit balances etc. and then the no doubt significant proportion that will then move on elsewhere.
  • beardiedog
    beardiedog Posts: 658
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    martyp wrote: »
    I do agree it might seem insane to some but as someone else said they'd rather have the extra money in their pocket than the suppliers. I don't think the suppliers fail that regularly to make it not worth taking the risk as if everyone wanted to be with a safe supplier they can pay much more for that security. As long as the ofgem safety net pulls through as it should then it's just a case of doing another switch to another cheap supplier ( for however long they last), getting my credit balance back from Iresa due to paying so little for my electric. My gas is with Bristol Gas and they remain very cheap but also have some good backing (which I appreciate Octopus also has) so can appreciate that Iresa was a risk as it pretty much just came out the blue offering unsustainably low prices. I've had about 18 months of really cheap electricity and now just have to switch to another supplier as ofgem also switched to a fairly reasonably priced tariff in the interim.
    In any case also (I might be one of a minority), switching for me hasn't been any trouble as I've switched quite a few times the last few years and had no issues really apart from with British Gas which would be deemed a safe supplier and one worth paying the extra to be with...
    In this case now I'm only due to be out of pocket by about £6 in the interim between switching cheap suppliers.
    So in any case I am happy to keep switching and taking the risk as so far doing so has saved me money which I'm happy about. :D

    I had very few issues with Iresa with whom I saved several hundred pounds over the 16 months I was with them, and I would have stayed with them even if they had increased their prices to more sensible rates. I had expected to pay more for the second year but they were, surprisingly, lower than the first year for me.

    It's the suppliers' lookout if they don't produce a workable business model and we are crazy if we don't take advantage of that, albeit in the relative short term. The customer is the winner in this situation as Ofgem guarantees our supply and credit balances.

    I don't particularly go with the cheapest supplier myself but I balance price and customer service and if they go belly up, move on to the next.

    If Octopus, as they say, are working on a 5% margin then the many cheaper suppliers must be running at a loss? I don't think so.
  • oldwiring
    oldwiring Posts: 2,452
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    martyp wrote: »
    I do agree it might seem insane to some but as someone else said they'd rather have the extra money in their pocket than the suppliers. I don't think the suppliers fail that regularly to make it not worth taking the risk as if everyone wanted to be with a safe supplier they can pay much more for that security. As long as the ofgem safety net pulls through as it should then it's just a case of doing another switch to another cheap supplier ( for however long they last), getting my credit balance back from Iresa due to paying so little for my electric. My gas is with Bristol Gas and they remain very cheap but also have some good backing (which I appreciate Octopus also has) so can appreciate that Iresa was a risk as it pretty much just came out the blue offering unsustainably low prices. I've had about 18 months of really cheap electricity and now just have to switch to another supplier as ofgem also switched to a fairly reasonably priced tariff in the interim.
    In any case also (I might be one of a minority), switching for me hasn't been any trouble as I've switched quite a few times the last few years and had no issues really apart from with British Gas which would be deemed a safe supplier and one worth paying the extra to be with...
    In this case now I'm only due to be out of pocket by about £6 in the interim between switching cheap suppliers.
    So in any case I am happy to keep switching and taking the risk as so far doing so has saved me money which I'm happy about. :D

    To the first emboldened piece, I say Yeally?

    To the second I'm speechless about your cavalier attitude. That protection costs us all. It makes me doubt if protection should be limited or means tested.
  • martyp
    martyp Posts: 1,044
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    edited 5 August 2018 at 6:39PM
    oldwiring wrote: »
    To the first emboldened piece, I say Yeally?

    To the second I'm speechless about your cavalier attitude. That protection costs us all. It makes me doubt if protection should be limited or means tested.


    Looks like an interesting article although it asks me to subscribe to FT. :(


    Realistically I didn't go with them in the hope they'd go bust as it's not really a win for me that happening as it is hassle switching again to a potentially much higher tariff which might be the cheapest available at that point. I'm sure the thousands of other Iresa customers probably had at least some idea of the problems and me personally I hoped they'd sort themselves out and considered that all new suppliers are liable to have problems potentially (I guess for many Iresa had many).
    Although like beardiedog says it's not down to the consumer how the supplier manages their business model. As a consumer I'm only looking to pay less for the same product available from a number of suppliers. I'd rather save myself money and maybe try and support a small new company than fund directors pockets for big companies etc. I don't look too much into the background or sustainability of an energy company when choosing them, just the same as probably many people - do a search and switch to the cheapest and consider the feedback. On the point of feedback also, people always have a tendency these days to shout about negative experiences more than positive ones so having a handful of people with bad experiences can make a company look much worse than it is so I always take feedback with a pinch of salt too (although do respect there was a big impact with Iresa).
    It's an insurance policy by Ofgem if anything, I don't know the details of this levy but it's no doubt like things such as car insurance where you could be claim free but annoyed by people making lots of claims or false claims and bumping costs up.
    Is it much different to financial compensation for banks etc? Surely it's up to Ofgem and the government to determine to control suppliers etc. If they dish out licences for it easily and they fail then the consumer shouldn't suffer.
    I had a credit balance over £100 so should I not be allowed that back or have it reduced?

    Should Iresa customers be punished then for their supplier going bust just because they were choosing the cheapest supplier when doing a search? Would that apply to people that purchase good and services elsewhere and the places go bust? Unless you're following the financial standing of all the places you interact with you can't always be sure how long they'll be around for. I can appreciate Iresa were seen as a sinking ship but it would seem unfair to punish people that rely on the scheme by Ofgem to help those people out when a supplier goes bust.
    It's not like they went with Iresa as some kind of scam or act of fraud or anything.

    In my view it was literally - they'll save me the most money, they'd been around for a little while so may have some issues (at the time) and some people had some bad experiences with them (at the time).
    So it was simply being the same as no doubt all the other Iresa customers, a case of wanting to save money...
  • martyp
    martyp Posts: 1,044
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    I feel a little like people are starting to troll this thread a bit to point fingers and mock Iresa customers with a 'told you so' now they've gone bust.
    I'm happy for everyone that isn't with Iresa and has maybe paid more for the privilege of having a supplier that is more sustainable but I don't think it's fair to now have a go at those who stuck with Iresa until the end and saved some money as a result (quite a lot in many cases) as they're simply thinking of works best for their finances which in the end is what this site is for.
  • psamuel
    psamuel Posts: 40
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    It seems octopus have sent out emails to past iresa customers stating their energy is to be moved to Octopus, in the press today.
    They blamed iresa for a database innacuracy.
  • beardiedog
    beardiedog Posts: 658
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    martyp wrote: »
    I feel a little like people are starting to troll this thread a bit to point fingers and mock Iresa customers with a 'told you so' now they've gone bust.
    I'm happy for everyone that isn't with Iresa and has maybe paid more for the privilege of having a supplier that is more sustainable but I don't think it's fair to now have a go at those who stuck with Iresa until the end and saved some money as a result (quite a lot in many cases) as they're simply thinking of works best for their finances which in the end is what this site is for.

    I agree. If some are willing to pay more for the same gas and electricity from suppliers with a great/good customer service then that's their choice.

    Those that prefer to pay less and are happy that the customer service may not be great then, that's their choice too.
  • martyp
    martyp Posts: 1,044
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    psamuel wrote: »
    Logged into my iresa account today and I can see that an estimated usage has been completed for August 1st.
    Also Iresa offering me another yearly contract at the same daily charger though 0.5p more per unit.:)
    Hoping to move quickly from octopus , 34 suppliers have cheaper tariffs according to u switch.
    Though as stated previously and a reply to my ttustpilot octopus review, expect them all to go bust.
    Just noticed an estimated (quite accurate too) reading on mine too as:
    "Deemed (Settlement Registers) or Estimated (Non-Settlement Registers)" for 1st August.
    Did you respond to that e-mail about your plans to stay or leave?
  • martyp
    martyp Posts: 1,044
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    This is just a thought but could the possible downfall have been that Iresa anticipated a much larger customer base and bought 'in bulk' as such for that but were unable to cope. As a result they had issues with customer service and technical side resulting in the ofgem cap on new customers so they were unable to fulfil their energy purchase obligations? They maybe tried to save money with the customer service element which resulted in their demise? I don't know anything about purchase of energy etc. so that concept may be totally illogical but there are other suppliers able to offer cheap tariffs and they don't all go bust so they must have ways of making savings somewhere that they can pass on to the customer.
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