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Original poster

Octopus energy: Public Service Announcement.

108 replies

SerendipityJane · 28/10/2023 18:28

Think you sorted your direct debit after discovering you were several hundred pounds in credit ?

Think again. They will up it (and not tell you) because they can. At least that was the TL;DR of my interesting call with them.

Apparently my expectations of customer service are unrealistic - although they haven't put that in writing.

OP posts:
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5
Riverlee · 28/10/2023 21:56

@tentacles1001 i’ve emailed Octopus with photos of my meter readings. My whole credit has been wiped out in one month, despite paying the recommended amount. When I did the maths, it should have been £200 lower.

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:20

[email protected] is our email (found on our website if you want to check validity). If you email with ‘Mumsnet’ as the subject line I’ll take a look tomorrow 🙂

thesnailandthewhale · 28/10/2023 22:28

Moved from Shell Energy and Octopus are a million times better - one happy customer here!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Cost of living
tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:28

@SeventhIdiot pls do drop us an email so I can take a look and see what went wrong. Or as another poster noted our CEO Greg is very accessible on Twitter if you’d prefer to go there - I’ll ask him to keep an eye out.

As I said before, we’re only human, I’m sorry if we’ve got it wrong - and yes, when we’ve taken over other company customers sometimes there are particular complexities because we don’t know what kind of account data we’ll get from the other side. I do appreciate how bloody irritating it is because we’ve all got stuff to do other than talk to our energy companies, but all I can say is please let me help fix it.

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:29

Thank you @thesnailandthewhale we do try, honestly 💕

HundredMilesAnHour · 28/10/2023 22:29

SeventhIdiot · 28/10/2023 19:52

Their customer service is appalling too. I've lost count how many emails and phone call conversations I've had with them with promises and assurances things had been set in motion. Only to find nothing of the sort had been done and me going into an anxiety spiral checking I'd emailed and rang the right place and not been scammed.

My experience has been the exact opposite. I've been with them for 15 months and they've been absolutely amazing. My switch to them was really complicated as my meter had never been registered with a MPAN and it was such a nightmare sorting it out. Octopus were fantastic at sorting the mess out. They gave me proactive regular updates and even waived a bill. They are so responsive via email. I love them!

Mirabai · 28/10/2023 22:33

As @tentacles1001 is here - my criticism, which is true of so many firms these days, is the length of time it takes on hold if you do need to phone, and the bloody hold music which deserves a prize of the worst of all time.

Other than that I’ve found them much better than our previous provider. Our total energy only for last year cost around half what I was expecting with the price rises, and I have the heating on all day as I work from home. I don’t think we would have got a better deal anywhere else.

SeventhIdiot · 28/10/2023 22:35

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:28

@SeventhIdiot pls do drop us an email so I can take a look and see what went wrong. Or as another poster noted our CEO Greg is very accessible on Twitter if you’d prefer to go there - I’ll ask him to keep an eye out.

As I said before, we’re only human, I’m sorry if we’ve got it wrong - and yes, when we’ve taken over other company customers sometimes there are particular complexities because we don’t know what kind of account data we’ll get from the other side. I do appreciate how bloody irritating it is because we’ve all got stuff to do other than talk to our energy companies, but all I can say is please let me help fix it.

I've lost count how many emails I've sent to that email address. The last one came back to ring them...to be told to email them. I shouldn't have to tweet the CEO of an organisation to have basic customer service. Perhaps someone could be so kind as to send him the link to this thread?

SeventhIdiot · 28/10/2023 22:36

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:28

@SeventhIdiot pls do drop us an email so I can take a look and see what went wrong. Or as another poster noted our CEO Greg is very accessible on Twitter if you’d prefer to go there - I’ll ask him to keep an eye out.

As I said before, we’re only human, I’m sorry if we’ve got it wrong - and yes, when we’ve taken over other company customers sometimes there are particular complexities because we don’t know what kind of account data we’ll get from the other side. I do appreciate how bloody irritating it is because we’ve all got stuff to do other than talk to our energy companies, but all I can say is please let me help fix it.

I appreciate you being on here at 1030pm being so kind about it all though!!

Roystonv · 28/10/2023 22:40

I have a complaint being investigated atm. Part of it is the very poor way the people I spoke to listened, didn't understand the point I was making despite much effort from me, failure to escalate my concern to a more experienced person and then failure to pass on my complaint to the correct department. It was a tech glitch apparently which is why I tried so hard to get some attention as maybe many others were being affected. Octopus is yet another company that will not accept that call handlers cannot solve every problem and that when something comes in out of their understanding it must be escalated not repeatedly fobbed off/ignored. Moved over from Bulb who I never had a problem with.

mrsbyers · 28/10/2023 22:41

I just change my dd on the app ?

mrsbyers · 28/10/2023 22:41

Sorry that should be website not app

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:47

Thanks @Mirabai . Sorry if you don’t like the hold music, it’s actually a bit unusual - if we’ve got your date of birth we play you the song that was number 1 when you were 14….scientifically proven to give you a warm bit of nostalgia…if you do have to wait. But if it’s a song you don’t like you can change it in your online account. PS without sounding like an advert, we talk about this here.
https://octopus.energy/blog/why-we-do-things-differently-from-love-power-to-the-wheel-of-fortune/

Doing things differently, from 'Love & Power' to the Wheel of Fortune

I wanted to talk a bit about some of the ways we work hard to win your trust: from obsessing about our email and bill language to creating unexpected features to surprise and delight.

https://octopus.energy/blog/why-we-do-things-differently-from-love-power-to-the-wheel-of-fortune/

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:50

@SeventhIdiot yeah deffo sounds like we’ve not covered ourselves in glory. I am sorry, and also v happy to take a DM if you do want a slightly more direct route (just trying to reassure @FlissMumsnet that I’m not dodgy by also giving our general email address where I should be able to pull out specific emails too).

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:53

@Roystonv our energy specialists are trained to be able to look after anything you need. We don’t like to pass people around from team to team through never ending IVRs and second line teams BUT energy is complex, I’ve worked in it 20 years and still occasionally come across stuff I’ve never seen. Again, can’t comment without knowing your details and perhaps we did just get it wrong but v happy to help and fix.

Mummypete · 28/10/2023 22:55

Oh god they’re awful. Pestered me to have a smart meter installed which I eventually agreed to. Smart meter doesn’t work but customer service takes months to get back to me. I’ve built up a huge amount of credit as they haven’t been billing me. However, the amount we use is tiny in comparison to the size of our house so I would like to withdraw some of that credit but I can’t because I can’t give them meter readings because the meter they told me I needed doesn’t work.
I’ve been calling and emailing since June and they’ve eventually agreed the meter doesn’t work and they will need to call me so that I can get it working for them. Apparently there is a month long waiting list for this phone call and it will take me an hour to fix the meter while they talk me through it over the phone! But this still may not work so if I can’t get it working they will need to send out an engineer but apparently this is unlikely to be this year!

tentacles1001 · 28/10/2023 22:55

Sorry just finally - if anyone does want to get in touch and not via email - you are welcome to DM me just your Octopus account number and I will make sure we reach out to you.

Fangdango · 28/10/2023 22:56

Sunsept · 28/10/2023 20:45

I’ve also never had an issue with them.

But a win on their blasted wheel of fortune has thus far alluded me! Has anyone ever won on it?

Yes I won £1🏆

The same week I won a pepsi max on Just Eat wheel of fortune 😂

Fangdango · 28/10/2023 22:57

Love Octopus

Justrolledmyeyesoutloud · 28/10/2023 22:59

LizzieSiddal · 28/10/2023 19:56

I’m really surprised to hear this, I’ve been with them for 5 years. I used to change companies every year but found Octopus’ customer service so brilliant that I decided to stay with them. They’ve just paid me back my surplus and reduced my DD with no issues at all.

Same here!

EliflurtleAndTheInfiniteMadness · 28/10/2023 23:07

SerendipityJane · 28/10/2023 19:33

So they claim that they're not subject to the Direct Debit Guarantee?

I paraphrase slightly, but: "What's that then ?"

To be fair, you can't be subject to something you don't know about.

Laws and regulations apply whether you're aware of their existence or not. Ignorance isn't a defence for breaking the law.

Milkybarsareonmeeeee · 28/10/2023 23:17

Just cancel the direct debit and pay what you use . Give a metre reading every month.
Thye are taking the P since the peace cap lifted . They charge what they like to make interest on your money .

Roystonv · 28/10/2023 23:17

Thank you for replying tentacles however being rather brutal your staff are NOT trained to deal with everything as they could not/would not/did not assist me. Whoever I spoke to just kept giving me the same incorrect response/explanation. Surely there must be occasions when additional knowledge is required or are management just naive and blind to the problem? Unless someone complains and a full investigation is made how do you know your staff are all brilliant all the time? My complaint is being managed atm so I will see what happens and may contact you later. If you wish to check what I have said I can give you my account number?

SeventhIdiot · 28/10/2023 23:31

Roystonv · 28/10/2023 23:17

Thank you for replying tentacles however being rather brutal your staff are NOT trained to deal with everything as they could not/would not/did not assist me. Whoever I spoke to just kept giving me the same incorrect response/explanation. Surely there must be occasions when additional knowledge is required or are management just naive and blind to the problem? Unless someone complains and a full investigation is made how do you know your staff are all brilliant all the time? My complaint is being managed atm so I will see what happens and may contact you later. If you wish to check what I have said I can give you my account number?

You must have spoken to the same person as me!

I wish companies would empower their staff to say they don't know an answer and will escalate the matter rather than fluff a load of bullshit and completely fuck up.

ReturnOfTheRainMac · 28/10/2023 23:36

Don't they send an email every month saying your DD is £x and will be taken on y date? I get this every month and if it changes they tell me and who to contact if I disagree.