Page 3 | Anyone have Octopus Electricity?

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 2025-03-02T22:06:08+00:00

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.)

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

Notgoodatpoetrybutgreatatlit · 07/03/2025 17:52

I found octopus bizarre to deal with. When I switched to them they were fine until I came off the prepaid meter and got a normal smart meter. They then didn't send me a bill for 11 months then sent with a threat.
I was horrible right back and I think that meant I was passed to some sort of specialist team who gave me a £100 discount. Then it was back to threats. I carried on being horrible to them, seriously I'm a secondary school teacher I have the hide of a rhino, and we managed to settle our grievances.
I still pay monthly to keep the upper hand. They make me laugh. They are very incompetent and seem to have a split personality!

MemorableTrenchcoat · 07/03/2025 17:40

User19876536484 · 07/03/2025 17:37

Judging from how they work, I’d expect any error due to wear to be in my favour.

Show quote history

They often slow down, but not always.

User19876536484 · 07/03/2025 17:37

MemorableTrenchcoat · 07/03/2025 17:20

It probably had a 20 or 25 year certification life, but it’s long overdue for replacement now. Meters become less accurate as their components wear out over time, and not necessarily to your benefit.

Show quote history

Judging from how they work, I’d expect any error due to wear to be in my favour.

MojoMoon · 07/03/2025 17:20

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 05/03/2025 19:11

Reading the above is confirming to me that potentially no other energy supplier is better to deal with than Octopus <holds head in hands and dreads maybe switching from bad to worse>

I have definitely written 'formal complaint' in my emails to Octopus yet they don't seem to be treating the situation as such. Thank you for letting me know that it's not a complete waste of time going to the Ombudsman. I'll be sending them an email this week. <holds head in hands and dreads having to write further detailed correspondence outlining over a year's worth of problems with Octopus>

Such was their incompetence they eventually issued my compensation twice over. 😂

I will have a look at Resolver thank you I've never heard of them before.

If OP doesn’t understand the Agile tariff, which seems to be the case, she had no business being on it in the first place.

I'm not sure where this comment has come from. I completely understood the Agile tariff and continually monitored the Octopus pricing on that tariff to ensure I was avoiding the higher rate times. Octopus, for some reason, changed me from the Agile tariff to a fixed, single rate tariff. I never asked for that changed. I questioned why they were doing it as well as the single rate tariff they put me on, Octopus haven't responded. When I was on the Agile plan I didn't receive a bill for months and Octopus said that was because their smart meter wasn't working properly. Octopus started the conversation about their smart meter not working.

@blobby10 Good luck! Although £300 probably doesn't even come close to paying for the amount of time you've probably had to spend trying to contact them and stress and worry about your billing over the past 7 months. I hope you don't have to wait another 7 months for them to respond. Tell them you want £300 plus interest?

When my first Agile year was coming to a close, I got an email asking me to choose to continue it - you had to actively select to continue or they put you onto the standard contract again.

This is so you have to confirm you understand how the tariff works and so can't claim later that you didn't understand some hours would be expensive

MemorableTrenchcoat · 07/03/2025 17:20

User19876536484 · 07/03/2025 17:07

Our meter obviously didn’t get that memo. It was installed in 1983. 42 years ago!

Show quote history

It probably had a 20 or 25 year certification life, but it’s long overdue for replacement now. Meters become less accurate as their components wear out over time, and not necessarily to your benefit.

BlueyDragon · 07/03/2025 17:09

It’s so reassuring to know I’m not alone! 2.5 years of Octopus’s dire customer service: hundreds of emails, tens of phone calls, 12 engineer visits, 4 gas meters and all the while being told how amazing Octopus’s customer service is (Consumers’ Association/ Which? Magazine I am looking at you).

Top tips for getting their attention:

Post on X. Very very quick response. Just don’t expect them to mean it when they say they will sort it but they do hate negative social media
Email the CEO. He just gives it to the customer service team, but it gives them extra focus
Complain to the Energy Ombudsman. Ombudsman has been a model of quick response and resolution. The filing process is a PITA though as they ask for bills over the period but it was worth it. Also they will have internal targets around numbers of Ombudsman complaints, and that data is published too
Submit a data subject access request. You should get all internal correspondence relating to you, which can be enlightening and also helps with having paperwork to file with the Ombudsman. Octopus should also file the same info, but it can help with building your case if you have everything, particularly the phone calls
Keep going! They rely on wearing customers out. I was also told in an unguarded moment by a customer service rep that how much help they can be over meter appointments varies depending on how busy they are, so sometimes they will give you the number of the engineering team and sometimes they won’t. Also do not buy into the “that’s not my department so I can’t help” - your contract is with Octopus, you are contacting their customer service department, so any issue needing another department’s involvement is Octopus’s customer service problem not yours!

Good luck, you will get there!

User19876536484 · 07/03/2025 17:07

Toooldtopretend · 07/03/2025 15:25

I resisted changing from my old meters as I though smart meters would just stress me out 😂 but once your old meters are over 10 years old they have to be replaced and can legally only be replaced with a smart meter. They have been fine though.

Our meter obviously didn’t get that memo. It was installed in 1983. 42 years ago!

MemorableTrenchcoat · 07/03/2025 16:47

Toooldtopretend · 07/03/2025 15:25

I resisted changing from my old meters as I though smart meters would just stress me out 😂 but once your old meters are over 10 years old they have to be replaced and can legally only be replaced with a smart meter. They have been fine though.

It depends on the meter. Modern electric meters have a 10 years certification life, but for older meters it can be much longer.

Hortus · 07/03/2025 15:57

Toooldtopretend · 07/03/2025 15:25

I resisted changing from my old meters as I though smart meters would just stress me out 😂 but once your old meters are over 10 years old they have to be replaced and can legally only be replaced with a smart meter. They have been fine though.

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.

Toooldtopretend · 07/03/2025 15:25

I resisted changing from my old meters as I though smart meters would just stress me out 😂 but once your old meters are over 10 years old they have to be replaced and can legally only be replaced with a smart meter. They have been fine though.

honeyandbutterontoast · 07/03/2025 15:21

Contact the ombudsman.

I had a different problem with OE and had the most appalling customer service from them. Outright lies and false claims, they owed me a lot of money. Ombudsman were fantastic, got me the money back and compensation, and are keeping the case open for a couple of months in case the issue happens again.

FiveBarGate · 07/03/2025 15:20

LovedFedAndNoonesDead · 07/03/2025 15:03

Reading this, I felt I needed to comment about Octopus Agile tariff.

This tariff works by changing tariffs every 30 minutes so, during typically low usage hours (overnight, mid morning and lunchtime to early afternoon) they charge lower rates than during 6:30-8:30am and teatime when usage is generally higher; what it doesn’t do is have a set rate for daytime and night time. About 5 months ago, Agile suddenly became very expensive and, as it’s not bound by the energy price cap, they can charge up to £1 per kWh. It should come down price wise in the coming weeks and then it’s a better tariff for all electric users who have night storage heaters and immersion tanks/heaters.

I agree you should be on a dual rate tariff as an all electric customer and they should offer you one as Octopus do offer one (we have a Smets 2 smart meter and are on an E7 tariff) and then, when the weather picks up and usage traditionally goes down, look at Agile again.

Show quote history

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead that's interesting to hear.

I came off it in October as once I put the storage heaters on and needs to charge the battery overnight I need a more reliable cheap rate. It was good over the summer but the first day of the 90p rates I decided to change. By early October even the overnight rates were higher than they had been.

As you then can't see the rates on the app and nice you switch I had wondered how it had been. Pleased to see economy 7 was the better option.

Might consider it again in the days with longer day light though.

burnoutbabe · 07/03/2025 15:11

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead

Thanks -it's defiantly the wrong way round -day units charged at 12p and night 35p ish.

I get emails then every week -we are looking into your emails and soneone will get beck to you soon. But let us know if we can help!! (Yes you can help by answering the email!!)

It's been 2 months since I raised this query. Very annoying.

LovedFedAndNoonesDead · 07/03/2025 15:03

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 03/03/2025 18:26

Thank you for your responses it's been a relief in some ways to learn that it's not just me who has a problem with Octopus. I can't see where all their positive reviews come from.
Those who have asked about a smart meter I can only say that my experience with it has been horrible so I personally wouldn't recommend getting one if you can avoid it. When I bought my house I had a key meter type thing and I had to drive out to a shop to put money on the key every week or so. I knew I didn't want to continue with that. I was told the only alternative option was to go with a smart meter. I didn't actually want one but felt forced to get it. The black box they gave me (to see my electrical use?) when they installed the smart meter has never worked (it won't turn on), and when I told Octopus they said 'we know they don't work', well why did you give it to me then???

I do have one of those black radio box things attached to my old meter system, so I guess I would have been forced to change to a smart meter now anyways since the radio signal is going to be switched off.

Thanks for the recommendation of EON and advice to avoid Scottish Power. I don't have gas in my area we only have electric and I've realised that some companies won't supply just electric.

For those who asked, I was on the Octopus Agile plan which had lower prices overnight. When I signed up to that plan I told them it was because I had storage heaters and electric hot water tank. For some reason I was changed to a fixed rate plan which is a single rate for day and night. I've queried this because I think I should be on an economy 7 type plan but they still haven't responded.
I think you're right about going on social media and I will try the Ombudsman at this point as well because waiting for Octopus is getting me nowhere. I'm so fed up of dealing with this company. Just when you think the situation is sorted they F it up again and then you're back chasing them evenings after work and weekends when I want to enjoy my time off.

Reading this, I felt I needed to comment about Octopus Agile tariff.

This tariff works by changing tariffs every 30 minutes so, during typically low usage hours (overnight, mid morning and lunchtime to early afternoon) they charge lower rates than during 6:30-8:30am and teatime when usage is generally higher; what it doesn’t do is have a set rate for daytime and night time. About 5 months ago, Agile suddenly became very expensive and, as it’s not bound by the energy price cap, they can charge up to £1 per kWh. It should come down price wise in the coming weeks and then it’s a better tariff for all electric users who have night storage heaters and immersion tanks/heaters.

I agree you should be on a dual rate tariff as an all electric customer and they should offer you one as Octopus do offer one (we have a Smets 2 smart meter and are on an E7 tariff) and then, when the weather picks up and usage traditionally goes down, look at Agile again.

LovedFedAndNoonesDead · 07/03/2025 14:54

burnoutbabe · 03/03/2025 09:04

But they are getting it wrong on economy 7 even without the smart meter.

My bill actual shows

On one side -the tarrif showing 10p night and 30p day.

Then on the left side, with the actual calculation-units correct under day/night but using the wrong prices! How does that happen? It's like someone typed the whole bill by hand. Surely if you put a price in from x date it fills in the rest. Madness.

Heck whether the amount on the right side of the bill is 5% more than the figure used in the calculation section of the bill. If so, it will be because they quote rates including VAT on the “your tariff” bit but have to calculate without VAT and then add it as a separate section.

blobby10 · 07/03/2025 09:22

blobby10 · 05/03/2025 16:09

Octopus asked me what resolution I would like following the 7 month wait to get my account sorted out. I've asked for £300 will let you know if I get it!!

In case anyone is interested, Octopus countered my request with an offer of £150 - I settled for £200 as its all become too much of a PITA. However I do wish I had gone in at £500 now if they were going to offer half

Barleycat · 05/03/2025 20:00

I'm with octopus and pay a variable amount monthly. Their emails explaining what I owe are generally as clear as mud and usually contradict each other.

FiveBarGate · 05/03/2025 19:54

If you call ask to be put through to the complaints department. It made things much easier with Utilita once that happened.

They have eight weeks to resolve before deadlock and then you can go to the ombudsman.

I think they'll resolve it before then though. I got £100 credit from octopus for delays in fitting my smart meter.

I've found them very good to deal with and they do at least answer the phone which is an improvement on some.

Letstheriveranswer · 05/03/2025 19:29

What a nightmare!

I'm on Octopus with a smart meter and haven't had any problems. I don't have economy 7 though and just use a standard fixed tariff, not the agile tariff or anything. I pay a fixed monthly amount so am in credit over summer and in debt over the winter.

I've only had to email customer service to change direct debit amount, when I what I want to pay each month is different to their suggested amount.

MemorableTrenchcoat · 05/03/2025 19:21

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 05/03/2025 19:11

Reading the above is confirming to me that potentially no other energy supplier is better to deal with than Octopus <holds head in hands and dreads maybe switching from bad to worse>

I have definitely written 'formal complaint' in my emails to Octopus yet they don't seem to be treating the situation as such. Thank you for letting me know that it's not a complete waste of time going to the Ombudsman. I'll be sending them an email this week. <holds head in hands and dreads having to write further detailed correspondence outlining over a year's worth of problems with Octopus>

Such was their incompetence they eventually issued my compensation twice over. 😂

I will have a look at Resolver thank you I've never heard of them before.

If OP doesn’t understand the Agile tariff, which seems to be the case, she had no business being on it in the first place.

I'm not sure where this comment has come from. I completely understood the Agile tariff and continually monitored the Octopus pricing on that tariff to ensure I was avoiding the higher rate times. Octopus, for some reason, changed me from the Agile tariff to a fixed, single rate tariff. I never asked for that changed. I questioned why they were doing it as well as the single rate tariff they put me on, Octopus haven't responded. When I was on the Agile plan I didn't receive a bill for months and Octopus said that was because their smart meter wasn't working properly. Octopus started the conversation about their smart meter not working.

@blobby10 Good luck! Although £300 probably doesn't even come close to paying for the amount of time you've probably had to spend trying to contact them and stress and worry about your billing over the past 7 months. I hope you don't have to wait another 7 months for them to respond. Tell them you want £300 plus interest?

Fair enough, that wasn’t clear from your post. A smart tariff like Agile can only work if the supplier is reliably receiving data from the smart meter. If they’re not, reverting to a single rate tariff is inevitable. Clearly Octopus has handled the situation very badly.

Original poster

ExtremelyFedUpNow · 05/03/2025 19:11

Reading the above is confirming to me that potentially no other energy supplier is better to deal with than Octopus <holds head in hands and dreads maybe switching from bad to worse>

I have definitely written 'formal complaint' in my emails to Octopus yet they don't seem to be treating the situation as such. Thank you for letting me know that it's not a complete waste of time going to the Ombudsman. I'll be sending them an email this week. <holds head in hands and dreads having to write further detailed correspondence outlining over a year's worth of problems with Octopus>

Such was their incompetence they eventually issued my compensation twice over. 😂

I will have a look at Resolver thank you I've never heard of them before.

If OP doesn’t understand the Agile tariff, which seems to be the case, she had no business being on it in the first place.

I'm not sure where this comment has come from. I completely understood the Agile tariff and continually monitored the Octopus pricing on that tariff to ensure I was avoiding the higher rate times. Octopus, for some reason, changed me from the Agile tariff to a fixed, single rate tariff. I never asked for that changed. I questioned why they were doing it as well as the single rate tariff they put me on, Octopus haven't responded. When I was on the Agile plan I didn't receive a bill for months and Octopus said that was because their smart meter wasn't working properly. Octopus started the conversation about their smart meter not working.

@blobby10 Good luck! Although £300 probably doesn't even come close to paying for the amount of time you've probably had to spend trying to contact them and stress and worry about your billing over the past 7 months. I hope you don't have to wait another 7 months for them to respond. Tell them you want £300 plus interest?

OP posts:

blobby10 · 05/03/2025 16:09

Octopus asked me what resolution I would like following the 7 month wait to get my account sorted out. I've asked for £300 will let you know if I get it!!

MemorableTrenchcoat · 05/03/2025 09:00

FiveBarGate · 03/03/2025 20:43

Octopus Agile has different prices every 30 mins. That might be why there is so much confusion.

It's not a straight cheap overnight tariff as it is tied to the wholesale price so is cheap when there's a surplus of renewables i.e. it's windy. Some half hours can be really low (occasionally negative) but others can be up to 99p a kWh.

I'm unsure why you'd have been on that rather than E7. It's a good tariff if you have solar and a battery so can avoid the expensive times.

Mine wasn't generating bills on this automatically as if the signal drops temporarily they have to do some kind of manual input. It was resolved easily but was only for one month.

I was also put on standard tariff but they just rebilled on the correct rate.

I had issues more like yours with Utilita who were a nightmare. Such was their incompetence they eventually issued my compensation twice over. I didn't bother telling them that!

Hopefully the above makes some sense of why they are generating so many readings. It could be in your interest to ask them just to bill the period on E7 (with compensation for their failure to bill you correctly).

Are you dealing with complaints rather than normal customer service? You need to lodge as a formal complaint before it can go to the ombudsman so make sure you say your email is a formal complaint.

Edited

Show quote history

Exactly. If OP doesn’t understand the Agile tariff, which seems to be the case, she had no business being on it in the first place. It doesn’t sound like the smart meter isn’t working properly, but that hasn’t stopped the anti-smart meter brigade chiming in.

Nannyfannybanny · 04/03/2025 09:36

I think it's a case of the lunatics running the asylum these days. Definitely steer clear of Scottish power,I unfortunately got put back with them after extra went bust. It took them a staggering 4 months to give me an account number. Well when you ring first thing is "please state or key in your account number". I have economy 7 plus solar and 2 batteries. The put the day and night readings the wrong way round! So it was in my favour of course, but I could for sea a big bill coming,it took 9 months to sort out, with the account on hold, so I couldn't change supplier and wasn't paying anything. British gas, they told me I had 2 electric meters in my home, I obviously had one,that took months (they also messed up a service,big time left and essential part out, almost flooded and ruined our ceiling.