Anyone have Octopus Electricity?

[ExtremelyFedUpNow]

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.)

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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:

1. 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
2. Email the CEO. He just gives it to the customer service team, but it gives them extra focus
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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!

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.

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

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

They often slow down, but not always.

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!

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.

@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 🙂

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.

@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. 😡

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).

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 .

@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.

@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?

@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