Octopus energy: Public Service Announcement.

[SerendipityJane]

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.

Yeah, I got one on the 25th saying they were taking my usual amount. Then one on the 27 telling me they had taken the £600.

I won £1 today 😂

@QuestionableMouse that's pretty disgusting. The law should be on your side here.

@QuestionableMouse is that £600 not what they've charhed July to October? Not what they have taken as they take £40 per month?

It's just a monthly DD. They shouldn't be taking any more without at least letting me know first.

Just in case anyone doesn't believe me.

I don't think they have taken more than the £40. They're saying you've used £600 of energy but have paid £120 in that time via a £40 DD. Have you seen a £600 deduction on your bank statement?

It usually takes them 10 days to change a direct debit, so I assume they've not actually taken £600 off you since 26th October?

I think they're saying that they've charged your £599.96 usage to your account with them - not that they're taking it from your bank account. I think you're showing the £329 positive balance because the bill hasn't yet been fully applied to your account - it can take a couple of days after a bill or direct debit for the totals to make sense across the account.

I am with octopus and happy enough. I have a smart meter so I don't have to input meter readings etc. My direct debit has recently gone down.

Oh god, Octopus energy customer service is terrible, so unprofessional. Ex Bulb customer here too.

I have just joined their Octoplus scheme and got 62p, for anyone who's not had luck on the spinning wheel.

Looks like fun ...

Last year, they increased my DD from £153 to £370. I queried it and they said it was because of wholesale gas prices. I did an online comparison and they still came out cheapest.

In April, I gave readings and they said it was wrong, so I sent in new ones, with photos.

They said that I was £800 odd in credit and that my bill would be £173 per month. 2 weeks later, they said I owe them £800 and my bill went back up to £370.

I queried it and got a reply to the effect that they were sorry I couldn't afford it and some links to help struggling customers. I replied and pointed out that they hadn't addressed my questions, only to get a similar reply to the first one.

@QuestionableMouse The charges is the bill and the payment is the DD amount.

But if your bill is averaging £200 pm and your DD is only £40, you'd expect to go from credit to debit like that over 3 months.

Your account looks correct and the problem is that the DD is far too low.

Unless the meter readings are wrong if course so that's the first thing to check.

It’s very interesting that it’s ex Bulb customers who have had horrendous experiences whilst everyone else sings their praises. I have one final account with Octopus, once i’ve sorted this latest cock up I’ll be switching pdq!

I've won £1, a few years ago. I refuse to go smart meter and we watch our use monthly. Entering readings monthly generates bills for both fuels quickly.

My Dad moved to them too as he was with EDF who billed him every 6 months and knowing where he was when prices were high was impossible. They just ignored readings if you put them in. Now he knows where he is as readings generate bills. He pays by DD and will do a one off payment in when he gets his WFA.

I was moved to Octopus after Avro went bust and after some initial teething problems (they didn't bill us for a couple of months and didn't increase the DD in response to price rises so we got into a large debt with them, which was fine for us but could have caused others to struggle) they've been great so unless they become uncompetitive on price, we'll probably stay long term.

Everything online works, we have control over payments and the DD amount now and we've won 2 x £1 on the wheel of fortune for people asking about that.

The savings sessions have been fun even though we only got about £8 from them despite me doing them obsessively and I've now signed up to the WhatsApp alerts for when they bring them back this winter.

/Daily Mail Sadface/

I've never won owt on their bloody wheel.

Me too. Never had an issue with what they take, what I want them to take, refunds or answering emails.

They are amazing
I have 3 accounts each with different providers
Octopus are the best. Instant billing. Great customer service by email and then you get in a 1 to 1 email with the person for as long as you need
And cheapest.

I’ve found them really good, been with them for years. Always put my meter readings in every month or two online. Have a smart meter now, works great and don’t even need to do that.

I don’t however like their pronouns on email replies and signing them off with”Love and Power”. I don’t care Daniel whether you are a he/him.

that’s a recent thing and it’s bollocks.

also never won on the wheel, but in the early days someone asked for an introduction code on MN and I gave mine. That code was used tonnes of times by MNetters reaping me about 2k in introductions, so thank you for that Octopus!

@tentacles1001 I was listening to R4 a few weeks ago, and the amount that the energy companies hold on credit for their customers is HUGE… like £8.1 billion.

Surely if you’re holding that kind of cash (and I appreciate that Octopus is not the only energy supplier…) you must be reaping a huge amount of profit/ interest from our credit that you hold ‘on our behalf’.

For the record, I’m an ex Bulb customer and apart from wrangling back some of my credit ( DD about £130 pm) and you hold over £1k of mine…. You get 7/10 so far!

How big is your house? Family homes (4/5 bed) were using about £300 of gas/elec last winter. We have solar so electricity is almost free and our DD with Octopus is still about £100. I was paying £50 a month on a two bed, very well insulated semi 8 years ago. Did you realise £40 was extremely low?

You should be able to just log in to your account through the app or website and get most of that repaid within a few days. If the system won't let you take back as much as you want just email them.

Alternatively you can continually mess around with your DD date and/or amount and run your balance down to zero.

I've never had strong thoughts either way about an energy provider before but I've found Octopus to be fantastic.

Yes!
£1

I've never had any trouble with Octopus (apart from what's detailed in the second paragraph). They do change your direct debit amount without always notifying you, but I check the app a couple of times a month and put it back to the amount I want it to be if it's been changed. I've never had any difficulty getting excess credit returned to my bank account. They charge me every time I submit a meter reading, which I do once a month.

I have stubbornly resisted getting a smart meter, and will continue to do so until they come with the bailiffs to physically remove my fully functional conventional meter. I don't have any "smart" devices in my house and don't want any. The one thing that does irritate me about Octopus is that they keep trying to cajole, coerce or bully me into getting a smart meter, mainly by lying that it would be in my interest rather than theirs. But I think all energy "providers" do this.