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Original poster

Anyone have Octopus Electricity?

116 replies

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 02/03/2025 22:06

I won't go into the full complaint (believe it or not this is the SHORT version!!) basically I had a smart meter installed by Octopus when I bought my house over a year and a half ago and it's been an F*ing nightmare ever since. Even though they were direct debiting monthly, I wasn't getting bills from Octopus. I called them to query this and was told 'not to worry', problems with the smart meter, it's all normal.
Months went by and then a year went by and then after about 13 months I was suddenly getting a flurry of emails from Octopus several times per day every single day for weeks. They were bills going right back to the first day the meter was fitted but the bills were repeating and giving different amounts owed.
As an example I received a bill for say 1 November 2023 to 1 December 2024 saying a owed (can't remember exact figure) £1,000 , then I get another email 30 seconds later saying I owed £89 for dates 9 July 2024 to 10 July 2024, then seconds later I get another bill saying I owed £357 for dates 11 July 2024 to 27 November 2024, then seconds later another bill saying they owe me £247, then seconds later another bill saying I owe £11 for 24 November 2024, then another bill seconds later..... and on and on it went for months. None of it made any sense and none of the figures added up.
I called them twice and was told their system was trying to sort it and to be patient. Meanwhile the monthly direct debits were coming out of my account but they didn't seem to match the dates on the bills and it was hard to work out what I actually owed because some bills were days, some were weeks, some were several months and they all overlapped with repeated bills for some days, weeks and months.

I started to email Octopus, as I wasn't getting anywhere with them by phone, and I said I wanted the constant back billing, repeated emails to stop and going forward I wanted to be billed monthly. They initially said they couldn't do that and that I would be billed per day. I've never heard of such a thing and insisted I wanted to be billed monthly. I continued to received constant emails of bills dating back from over a year ago. After weeks of emails I insisted on escalating to a manager and was told that I couldn't speak to a manager. After weeks of pushing I finally managed to get a manager to contact me. He said he would look into it and that it might take some time, it took several weeks. After much going back and forth the manager finally agreed that I could be billed monthly and he chose that my billing period would be the date of my direct debit (so if my direct debit is 5th of the month then I would be billed from 4th of month X to 5th of month Y, that means the day I receive the bill is also the date the money is direct debited from my bank. This made no sense to me but at least I finally had a monthly billing period which seemed to stop the repeated bills being emailed to me from the past year and I could better view what I actually owed and was paying for. It took them months to actually get the monthly billing into place and then it only lasted two months before I was told that they were changing my tariff for some reason.

I was offered £30 to close my complaint but that has never materialised.

Even though I have storage heaters and an electric hot water heating (which work overnight and uses a significant amount of electricity) they have changed me to a flat rate tariff. When I questioned this they responded the same day and said they didn't know what my electrical use was and questioned why I wanted to be on a cheaper overnight rate. :O How can Octopus not know what my usage is?

When I explained that 90%+ of my electrical use is overnight and included pictures of my usage charts from my Octopus account they suddenly went quiet and haven't responded. After waiting a week, and worrying about how much this new tariff is costing me, I emailed their complaints team and also their ceo (it says on their website to email him if you're having problems that are not getting resolved). Again I've had no response. I also haven't been billed for the past 6 weeks so it looks like I'm no longer being billed monthly?

WTF is going on?? I'm getting so fed up with all this and the hassle of having to contact them all the time to figure out what is happening with my account.
Has anyone else had similar problems? I keep hearing how amazing Octopus is but all I've had are problems.
I've heard there is no point in complaining to the Obudsman but I don't know what else to do. I want a monthly bill, not a bill every couple of days or every 3-4 months or repeated overlapping bills that cover 14 months. I don't understand why they can't bill me monthly. I also don't understand why I am not on a cheaper overnight tariff. I've turned my heating down to 14 degrees because I can't afford the flat rate tariff. What else can I do??

I'm thinking about changing suppliers but who to chose if Octopus are suppose to be the best out there how much worse are the other providers??

AIBU to want a monthly electric bill and an explanation as to why they changed my tariff to a flat rate?

(Apologies for the long email I'm so frustrated that it's been like therapy to write this all out :) Thanks for reading.)

OP posts:
burnoutbabe · 14/03/2025 19:46

My electricity only runs to the night circuit at whatever time the elec company sets. So 12.30-7.30 gmt then 1.30-8.30 in summer.

hot water and heating are on this special circuit. (And also on the normal circuit so I can put on in day if I want). So in theory it only heats up when rates are cheap. It can’t be out of alignment.

Original poster
ExtremelyFedUpNow · 14/03/2025 19:39

Very easy you just have to tell them what tariff you want to be on.

Unfortunately I haven't found it to be that simple.

I emailed Greg a few weeks ago after their main contact email and their complaints email stopped responding.

Octopus has finally contacted me this week, weeks after I emailed Greg. They've pretty much said the same thing they've previously said. The economy7 plan has a 28p daytime rate and a 12p night time rate which is 12:30am- 7:30am. My storage heaters currently start charging at midnight, in fact the peak charging time on mine seems to be 12:00- 12:30am. So that would mean my highest charging time would be 30mins before the economy7 plan lower tariff rate applies. I cannot change my charging time myself, apparently storage heaters are either somehow pre-set to charge during 'off peak hours' (though these times seem to differ per company and even within Octopus' tariff plans) or it can be down to Octopus to control the timings. I don't know how my storage heaters are set up, I don't know if Octopus know how my system is set up.

Octopus have said I can change to the economy7 plan but they cannot guarantee that they can change my storage heaters to start charging from 12:30 instead of 12:00. I was told if I change to the economy7 plan then I'll have to wait to see if I'm being charged 28p from midnight to 12:30 and then contact them again to ask them to look at it to change the time (again). Meanwhile I keep paying 28p for peak charging during the 30 mins each night.
Given how slow and extremely poor the communication with Octopus has been so far, I could be stuck paying 28p for those peak 30 mins for months, years, decades? Obviously that would only apply for the months I have the heaters turned on but still, heating is by far my most expensive charge and the whole point of switching to a plan like economy7 is to have the lower overnight charging rate for all of the heat charging time.

I've previously asked for clarification of whether Octopus can or cannot change my charging time to 12:30. They still don't seem willing or able to answer the question, and I want a guarantee that it can be changed by Octopus before I get stuck paying a higher fee. At the moment we probably only have a few (hopefully) weeks left of using heating this year and then the tariff won't matter quite as much until the autumn when heating is turned back on.

For anyone who has Octopus, is on economy7 and has storage heaters, when do your heaters start charging? Did you have to ask Octopus to change your charging time or did it happen automatically when you switched to the economy7 plan? If Octopus changed it, how long did it take Octopus to do it? How can I know if Octopus can change my charging time or if mine is pre-set within my system somehow?

@burnoutbabe @Longtimelurkerfinallyposts So they still mess up the billing even on the economy7 plan? Scary to think they can switch the day and night rates, on a regular basis! 😮 Their billing really needs sorting it is disgraceful.

OP posts:
Lancrelady80 · 08/03/2025 12:02

I'm with Octopus - electricity only as no gas here. Have had no problems at all, and customer service when needed (rarely) have been fab.

However, we are a simple case as no need for Economy 7 or anything. We also do not have a smart meter as I have read far, far, far too many stories of problems with/due to them. Like a pp, I will be refusing a smart meter until either it is illegal not to have one, or our current one dies and a smart meter is the only option for a replacement.

As far as I can tell, the smart meter roll out has been nothing short of a disaster

FiveBarGate · 08/03/2025 09:43

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 07/03/2025 23:35

@burnoutbabe Very annoying.
Yes!! Yes it is!! I feel your pain!
Good luck!

@FiveBarGate
How are you switching plans seemingly with ease? The Agile rates definitely increased over October, November and December, they came down slightly the first week or so in January and then they skyrocketed. They are now coming back down a bit but still not as low as they were pre-September. Watch what happens in April, but otherwise I would definitely consider a switch back to Agile in the summer months. However, I don't know how you're switching plans so quickly and hassle free?

@BlueyDragon

Thank you! I too am astonished at the high praise I keep seeing for Octopus, it's not been my personal experience with them. I've emailed the CEO, and nothing happened. I will need to set up an X account to post there. I can fully believe they will respond on the account to show willing, but will they actually contact me AND do something about my situation? I'm wondering if it's worth the hassle of joining X. Gathering bills to send to the Ombudsman, that would be a pleasure because my billing is a massive part of the problem. For some reason Octopus have continually struggled to send me regular bills. I might get a bill for one day, I might get a bill for 8 months. I might get another bill for three days but they're three days that are within that 8 month bill period that I've already received. None of it makes sense and they won't explain why it's such an issue for me to have regular, monthly bills. I think the Ombudsman is my next step at this point.

@Allthenameshavegone1972
Can you check your usage on your account in the Octopus app? I have a smart metre so I don't know if that makes a difference to the way Octopus show the usage but I can see a graph in my account that shows my daily usage (in mine there are icons at the bottom of the screen that say 'Home' 'Usage' 'Devices' 'Bills' 'Octoplus'. If you click 'Usage' you can see the graph and at the top is the option to view 'Day' 'Week' 'Month' 'Year'. You can toggle the view to 'kWh' or '£', so you can actually see the kWh they are saying you use and the £ of how much you are being charged. I look at these graphs daily (religiously!) and I know exactly when my usage peaks (when my storage heaters are charging and when my hot water is heating) and smaller blips throughout the day and night like when I turned on the oven or washing machine. According to my graph I paid 7p yesterday morning when I turned the kettle on to make coffee. If you have the option to check your usage it would be a good idea to monitor it and make sure you're on the right tariff for you. In saying that, I know a variable or economy 7 type tariff is best for me but I now seem stuck on a single rate plan.

I just phone them and they switch it. I managed to do it before the 99p rate hit that day. Very easy you just have to tell them what tariff you want to be on.

When I first moved over they didn't put me on E7. I called and the person rebilled it immediately as they could see that's what I'd requested (bringing it down £100 plus).

I'm on fixed rate now but there's no exit fee so can come off it if I want to buy was slightly cheaper over winter when I use the most.

I did have to phone them to get a bill on Agile as if it drops even one half hour reading it can't do it automatically. As soon as I did that they did something behind the scenes and the bill was generated.

Since I moved to E7 it's been automatic.

MemorableTrenchcoat · 08/03/2025 09:08

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 08/03/2025 09:01

They told me it was a problem with their system, which they know about.
They've never been able to explain why they therefore haven't done anything about it - there are loads of possible solutions - like updating their automated billing software to alert them to problem figures.
They then suggested that getting rid of my smart meter and having a new one installed by them might help. I don't believe it will, and in any case would need my landlord's permission to do this.

Unless your landlord pays the bill, you don’t need their permission to change the meters.

burnoutbabe · 08/03/2025 09:08

Th smart meter they fitted me failed to connect to my night circuit so i had no power running to hot water or heating at night for 3 months before they agreed to restore the older one. Luckily it was summer. If you have complicated circuits I'd be wary!

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 08/03/2025 09:01

They told me it was a problem with their system, which they know about.
They've never been able to explain why they therefore haven't done anything about it - there are loads of possible solutions - like updating their automated billing software to alert them to problem figures.
They then suggested that getting rid of my smart meter and having a new one installed by them might help. I don't believe it will, and in any case would need my landlord's permission to do this.

burnoutbabe · 08/03/2025 08:52

@Longtimelurkerfinallyposts snap!

It happens every time there is a price change to be on economy 7.

There will be sone issue and when I raise it they swap around the meter readings (even though I am clear these are correct) abs then demand photos (space tests) to fix. Then it's okay for a few months. Prices change and it goes wrong again.

MemorableTrenchcoat · 08/03/2025 08:51

Singleaftermarriage · 08/03/2025 08:05

I am but have an old meter and it's great. I will never get a smart meter! The issues seem endless

They’re really not. Like anything else, you only hear about them when something goes wrong. The vast majority cause no issues.

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 08/03/2025 08:47

We already had a smart meter and everything worked smoothly for the first few months after switching to Octopus. Then suddenly started getting bills where the day and night readings had been switched. It was really obvious that they were wrong - one came to hundreds of pounds over one month (far more than ever before) and the other resulted in a minus figure - so I phoned them, got it amended, eventually.

Very very glad that I'd deliberately refrained from setting up a direct debit with them. If I had, they'd have helped themselves to loads more than usual from my bank account.

Emailed asking for an explanation for the mistake - surely their automated billing system should have flagged this kind of obvious discrepancy? - and an assurance that it wouldn't happen again - also for a new bill with the correct figures recalculated. No response.

The same problem then happened again. And again. For about 3 months in a row. And to add insult to injury, I started getting emails telling me my account was in arrears. Have just been sent an 'estimated' bill this week, despite having a smart meter, so no idea what they're thinking.

mrsoctopus · 08/03/2025 08:46

Ah sorry, just realised that there aren't any DMs at the moment after the nastiness a few weeks ago. My direct email is [email protected] or you can use [email protected] (I can get access to those emails as well). Really sorry again to those we've let down, I know it's not massively helpful to say 'email again' but I do hope we can turn this around.

blobby10 · 08/03/2025 08:41

@ExtremelyFedUpNow they asked me what resolution I wanted but didn’t offer anything. I said I would like £300, they came back the next day with £150 so I counter offered £200. Could probably have got more but I’m no good at this sort of thing so was pleased with myself that I didn’t just accept their counter 😊😊

mrsoctopus · 08/03/2025 08:19

@ExtremelyFedUpNow we should (and do) answer emails. If it feels safer, I can access emails to the [email protected] email address that someone mentioned above - if you wanted to email there instead of me giving you my personal email address over DM (and just flag that you're from Mumsnet)? I appreciate that this must be 'ffs email them again, I've already emailed a lot' but I will find out what's gone on.

Singleaftermarriage · 08/03/2025 08:05

I am but have an old meter and it's great. I will never get a smart meter! The issues seem endless

BlueyDragon · 08/03/2025 08:04

@ExtremelyFedUpNow the email address [email protected] is the one Octopus actually advertises as being for their CEO. That’s the one I used and got a response, not from him (obvs 🙄) but from the customer service team.

X is a horrible place but I only use it for train delay information and to complain about customer service. It’s been worth it for the latter!

Toooldtopretend · 08/03/2025 07:12

Hortus · 07/03/2025 15:57

Both my meters are way over 10 years old, electricity is near to 20 and gas about 15, no one's contacted me about changing.

Just checked online and gas meters may not need changing for up to 40 years and electricity up to 30 years, depending on make and model, so it's wrong to state they all need changing at 10 years across the board.

Edited
Show quote history

Looks like I shouldn’t have believed Octopus when they said they needed to be changed then! Having said that, the change was really easy and I haven’t had any problems.

autumn1610 · 07/03/2025 23:57

@ExtremelyFedUpNow yes me! Had the smart meters changed in April last year. Got billed for my gas and electric for months no problem. To be fair I didn’t notice that from maybe September time they stopped billing my electric still had gas so don’t really notice it wasn’t coming out and only found out at Christmas when I got multiple bills I queried it with octopus after chasing them a few times turns out they had the wrong meter reading from when it got swapped was charged around £170 for one days use back in April. Happy days or so i thought. I then must have triggered them to check my account a few days later an email from them saying did I get an electric meter fitted or was it just gas fitted back in April as they can’t see my electric meter. Faff about send them the number and the reading. Then I get a back dated bill for £100’s (had £400 credit and was left with -£9 credit) and there is absolutely no way I can even check it’s right. So they weren’t even billing me on estimated. I’m one person pretty much in the house who is out the majority of the day and the usage seems high. So now I’m just going to monitor the next few months and see what happens

Original poster
ExtremelyFedUpNow · 07/03/2025 23:45

@mrsoctopus
I don't know how to tell if this is legit or not. Why do they not respond to emails sent to the company?

OP posts:
Original poster
ExtremelyFedUpNow · 07/03/2025 23:35

@burnoutbabe Very annoying.
Yes!! Yes it is!! I feel your pain!
Good luck!

@FiveBarGate
How are you switching plans seemingly with ease? The Agile rates definitely increased over October, November and December, they came down slightly the first week or so in January and then they skyrocketed. They are now coming back down a bit but still not as low as they were pre-September. Watch what happens in April, but otherwise I would definitely consider a switch back to Agile in the summer months. However, I don't know how you're switching plans so quickly and hassle free?

@BlueyDragon

Thank you! I too am astonished at the high praise I keep seeing for Octopus, it's not been my personal experience with them. I've emailed the CEO, and nothing happened. I will need to set up an X account to post there. I can fully believe they will respond on the account to show willing, but will they actually contact me AND do something about my situation? I'm wondering if it's worth the hassle of joining X. Gathering bills to send to the Ombudsman, that would be a pleasure because my billing is a massive part of the problem. For some reason Octopus have continually struggled to send me regular bills. I might get a bill for one day, I might get a bill for 8 months. I might get another bill for three days but they're three days that are within that 8 month bill period that I've already received. None of it makes sense and they won't explain why it's such an issue for me to have regular, monthly bills. I think the Ombudsman is my next step at this point.

@Allthenameshavegone1972
Can you check your usage on your account in the Octopus app? I have a smart metre so I don't know if that makes a difference to the way Octopus show the usage but I can see a graph in my account that shows my daily usage (in mine there are icons at the bottom of the screen that say 'Home' 'Usage' 'Devices' 'Bills' 'Octoplus'. If you click 'Usage' you can see the graph and at the top is the option to view 'Day' 'Week' 'Month' 'Year'. You can toggle the view to 'kWh' or '£', so you can actually see the kWh they are saying you use and the £ of how much you are being charged. I look at these graphs daily (religiously!) and I know exactly when my usage peaks (when my storage heaters are charging and when my hot water is heating) and smaller blips throughout the day and night like when I turned on the oven or washing machine. According to my graph I paid 7p yesterday morning when I turned the kettle on to make coffee. If you have the option to check your usage it would be a good idea to monitor it and make sure you're on the right tariff for you. In saying that, I know a variable or economy 7 type tariff is best for me but I now seem stuck on a single rate plan.

OP posts:
Carriemac · 07/03/2025 23:32

My smart meter has not worked since 21st January. The octopus customer service is abysmal. I have had to chase and chase , finally getting an engineer out next Tuesday . They DO NOT CARE .

mrsoctopus · 07/03/2025 23:15

Hello @ExtremelyFedUpNow , I work for Octopus, quite senior, and genuinely I'm really sorry we seem to have buggered things up here for you. If you want me to take a look I WILL be able to get this sorted - please do DM me and I will give you my Octopus email address. Don't send me any personal info in the DM, just DM me and I'll send you my octopus email address. Then if you email me your account number only I'll get someone to look into what's gone wrong. (I want to be clear I'm not asking for any personal information that anyone could do anything with, just something that only an Octopus employee would be able to use to access an account).

Really sorry to those others who've had problems (and thank you to those who've said nice things). We genuinely work very hard to look after customers and not muff things up - but we're not perfect, and with a lot of customers now, things can go wrong - it's a complex industry, meters can wobble and certainly sometimes we make mistakes too. Genuinely I'm happy to personally help fix any issue raised here (or bring in someone if I need more skill), so please do feel free to drop me a line (I'm juggling kids tomorrow but will check in, and get the ball rolling with our weekend teams).

Original poster
ExtremelyFedUpNow · 07/03/2025 23:01

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead look at Agile again
Octopus moved me off the Agile tariff. I don't know why. I have no idea why I was moved onto a single rate tariff. I've asked these questions but I've had no response. I agree the Agile tariff rates were getting very high at times, more than once they did hit 99.9p. Everything I'm reading says the rates will increase again in April and then increase yet again later in the year. I'm still monitoring the Agile rates daily (old habits die hard) and they have been coming down these past few weeks.....whilst I've been stuck on a higher, single rate plan with no explanation as to why. 😡

OP posts:
Original poster
ExtremelyFedUpNow · 07/03/2025 22:53

Their emails explaining what I owe are generally as clear as mud and usually contradict each other.

Yes this is exactly my experience when they have replied.

@blobby10 I'm impressed they responded to you and so quickly! 😮 Well done! 🙌
How did you do it?
I was offered £30 at one point but they never paid it. When I chased it there was no response.

OP posts:
Allthenameshavegone1972 · 07/03/2025 20:24

@MemorableTrenchcoat now you've asked, I really don't know! Used to have an immersion water heater in the old days & using the tumble dryer in the middle of the night. Don't do that anymore either, thanks for pointing it out 🙂

MemorableTrenchcoat · 07/03/2025 18:48

Allthenameshavegone1972 · 07/03/2025 18:41

Without meaning to derail the thread we have economy 7 & I don't know why we do. Our heating & hot water is done by our gas combi boiler; so if i change to a single rate tarriff for electricity & ignore the demand to change to a smart meter then it shouldn't affect us? After all, all this pressure to change to a smart meter is about the rtc for e7 being switched off

Why are you still on E7? If you don’t use a big chunk of your electricity overnight, you’re throwing money away on the peak rate. All RTS meters need to be replaced, as many will start to misbehave when the radio signal ceases. There is pressure to replace them for good reason, not as a ruse to install smart meters. Smart meters just happen to be standard now, so that’s what will be fitted.