Octopus energy company. Anyone use 'em?
Discussion
Seasonal Hero said:
BG kept telling me my smart meter wasn't working for the year or so before I moved to Octopus. It worked from day one with them.
I switched to Octopus thanks largely to BG's utter inability to get the meter to work. It took Octopus a couple of visits but it's been rock-solid since.Mine are working. I switched to Octopus last week but my gas usage isn't showing on their app.
I emailed them and they responded that it could take some time for the meter details to update in the app as I'm still within the cooling off period, and to wait until after this date to see if the usage details appear.
Odd that as the lecky usage is there from the off.
I emailed them and they responded that it could take some time for the meter details to update in the app as I'm still within the cooling off period, and to wait until after this date to see if the usage details appear.
Odd that as the lecky usage is there from the off.
I've been with them since June 23, I'm starting to see through the cracks of their "excellent" customer service.
Things stated going wrong on the 27th December when my smart meter stopped reporting, a bit of self diagnosis suggested that it couldn't phone home as it was flashing rapidly. I'm on intelligent go due to having an EV so wanted to get it fixed quickly.
I called them in the new year and they eventually came out on the 7th march to power cycle the meter.
They still haven't received old meter readings despite me being able to see them on the loop energy app, but that's one problem.
The big problem I've discovered is that they've changed my tariff over to flexible octopus at a night rate double what I was paying before without any notification whatsoever.
So a 29 minute call yesterday mostly on hold speaking to the most useless call handler ever who said that I was out of contract so they moved me to flexible. I asked how long contracts last for and she said a year, I said I've been with them for 9 months so how could that be. I asked her to raise a complaint and she said she couldn't.
I've fired off an email to complaints so hopefully they'll sort it out but if big things go wrong then good luck with that, they're as clueless as the other providers.
Things stated going wrong on the 27th December when my smart meter stopped reporting, a bit of self diagnosis suggested that it couldn't phone home as it was flashing rapidly. I'm on intelligent go due to having an EV so wanted to get it fixed quickly.
I called them in the new year and they eventually came out on the 7th march to power cycle the meter.
They still haven't received old meter readings despite me being able to see them on the loop energy app, but that's one problem.
The big problem I've discovered is that they've changed my tariff over to flexible octopus at a night rate double what I was paying before without any notification whatsoever.
So a 29 minute call yesterday mostly on hold speaking to the most useless call handler ever who said that I was out of contract so they moved me to flexible. I asked how long contracts last for and she said a year, I said I've been with them for 9 months so how could that be. I asked her to raise a complaint and she said she couldn't.
I've fired off an email to complaints so hopefully they'll sort it out but if big things go wrong then good luck with that, they're as clueless as the other providers.
silentbrown said:
Greshamst said:
Just moved house, was with octopus before, new house is already with octopus.
New house has an electric standing charge of 54p a day! Never seen one so high, last place was 39p. Bit annoyed.
Have you moved far? Standing charge varies according to region. New house has an electric standing charge of 54p a day! Never seen one so high, last place was 39p. Bit annoyed.
That’s what surprised me.
Greshamst said:
Just moved house, was with octopus before, new house is already with octopus.
New house has an electric standing charge of 54p a day! Never seen one so high, last place was 39p. Bit annoyed.
On standard variable they go up to 70p - https://octopus.energy/blog/energy-price-cap-april...New house has an electric standing charge of 54p a day! Never seen one so high, last place was 39p. Bit annoyed.
Maybe it’s changed as you were on a fix before, or it’s moved from Shell??
CharlieCrocodile said:
The big problem I've discovered is that they've changed my tariff over to flexible octopus at a night rate double what I was paying before without any notification whatsoever.
This happened to me as well, fortunately, I was only charging a PHEV overnight at the cheap rate so the delta wasn't massive but they did go back through my bills and credit my account with the difference between the Octopus Go tariff and Flexible Octopus that they'd switched me onto. That was about a year ago though and I'm still stuck on Flexible Octopus until they get my meters working. Luckily we can charge our EV at work for free so it's not the end of the world but still very annoying and, as you say, pretty off not to notify the customer!clockworks said:
Have Octopus managed to get dual rate tariffs displaying properly on the IHD?
I'm on Octopus Go. I charged the car last night (5 kwh) and the immersion was on (1.5 kwh), and the display was showing £1.60 at 6:45 this morning for just over 8kwh total usage.
IHD don’t cope well with tariff that change all the time. I'm on Octopus Go. I charged the car last night (5 kwh) and the immersion was on (1.5 kwh), and the display was showing £1.60 at 6:45 this morning for just over 8kwh total usage.
Better to use one of the many apps to check the true cost of your consumption.
KTF said:
IHD don’t cope well with tariff that change all the time.
Better to use one of the many apps to check the true cost of your consumption.
I'm using Octoaid to get the true price. Recently received an Octopus Mini, so I can see "instant" pricing on Octoaid too.Better to use one of the many apps to check the true cost of your consumption.
My IHD used to show the correct numbers, but obviously all at the day rate + standing charge.
Since the latest tariff update, the "cost so far today" displayed doesn't match with the day rate set in the IHD.
This morning it is showing 4.51 kwh at a cost of £1.29.
Stored tariff is 26.78p day rate and 65.12p standing charge.
That should be £1.86.
Wondering why the display is under reading since the tariff change?
I've just come off the phone to them and they're going to come out in May to fit a different type of communications hub to my electric meter which will hopefully get it working - I won't hold my breath!
How did you manage to go about getting an Octopus Home Mini? Seems like there's only the option to be on a waiting list...
How did you manage to go about getting an Octopus Home Mini? Seems like there's only the option to be on a waiting list...
Somebody said:
clockworks said:
Wondering why the display is under reading since the tariff change?
Because it takes weeks for the rates to update in the IHD.Prior to the latest tariff change, the IHD had the correct tariff price for the daytime rate, and the correct standing charge. It would always "over read" compared to the Octoaid app, because it calculated the cost of every unit at the daytime rate.
On days when the car wasn't charged, it over read by a few pence.
On days when the car was charged, it over read by by nearly 2 quid.
It is now "under reading" in the morning, and is within a few pence of being correct by the end of the day, even on days where the car is charged ( between 6 and 9 kwh at the overnight rate).
To me, it looks like it is very close to being correct - if it is using the off-peak rate to do the calculations in the 4 hour window.
The tracker formula has changed if you sign up from April 3. Existing tracker customers will not get these changes until you renew after 12 months.
Example prices after April 3:
South England
Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.1846) + 10.2928 p per kWh
Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.5478 p per kWh
Standing charge also increases to 60p+ per day in line to match with the other Octopus tariff.
Price before April 3:
South England
Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.1846) + 9.7767 p per kWh
Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.4978 p per kWh
They will also be reviewing the formula every 3 months in line with the OFGEM price review every 3 months.
Full details here: https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/
Example prices after April 3:
South England
Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.1846) + 10.2928 p per kWh
Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.5478 p per kWh
Standing charge also increases to 60p+ per day in line to match with the other Octopus tariff.
Price before April 3:
South England
Electricity unit charge: (W * 1.1846) + 9.7767 p per kWh
Gas unit charge: (W * 0.03604) + 1.4978 p per kWh
They will also be reviewing the formula every 3 months in line with the OFGEM price review every 3 months.
Full details here: https://octopus.energy/tracker-faqs/
As was predicted on here earlier in the week... some interesting Agile pricing tomorrow.
You can't give the stuff away.
Easy visualisation https://www.agiledashboard.co.uk/
You can't give the stuff away.
Easy visualisation https://www.agiledashboard.co.uk/
clockworks said:
My point is, it DID update, and is now "doing the maths" incorrectly!
Prior to the latest tariff change, the IHD had the correct tariff price for the daytime rate, and the correct standing charge. It would always "over read" compared to the Octoaid app, because it calculated the cost of every unit at the daytime rate.
On days when the car wasn't charged, it over read by a few pence.
On days when the car was charged, it over read by by nearly 2 quid.
It is now "under reading" in the morning, and is within a few pence of being correct by the end of the day, even on days where the car is charged ( between 6 and 9 kwh at the overnight rate).
To me, it looks like it is very close to being correct - if it is using the off-peak rate to do the calculations in the 4 hour window.
My old house IHD used to work fine with Go, had a countdown bar shown between 00:00 and 00:30 indicating time to tariff change, don’t know what version it was and ive now moved. New house IHD (all new meters and IHD installed 6 months ago) now just go blank between midnight and 6am, and im on tracker now.Prior to the latest tariff change, the IHD had the correct tariff price for the daytime rate, and the correct standing charge. It would always "over read" compared to the Octoaid app, because it calculated the cost of every unit at the daytime rate.
On days when the car wasn't charged, it over read by a few pence.
On days when the car was charged, it over read by by nearly 2 quid.
It is now "under reading" in the morning, and is within a few pence of being correct by the end of the day, even on days where the car is charged ( between 6 and 9 kwh at the overnight rate).
To me, it looks like it is very close to being correct - if it is using the off-peak rate to do the calculations in the 4 hour window.
Have you ever looked at your IHD between midnight and 00:30?
Philvrs said:
My old house IHD used to work fine with Go, had a countdown bar shown between 00:00 and 00:30 indicating time to tariff change, don’t know what version it was and ive now moved. New house IHD (all new meters and IHD installed 6 months ago) now just go blank between midnight and 6am, and im on tracker now.
Have you ever looked at your IHD between midnight and 00:30?
I've seen a few posts elsewhere saying the same thing about countdown timers etc., but loads more saying "only capable of single tariff ".Have you ever looked at your IHD between midnight and 00:30?
I'm always asleep by midnight. The last time I was up before 6am, the display was blank.
Now that I've got a few days' data to compare between the IHD and Octoaid, the IHD is consistently 7 or 8p over on the daily total.
This is because the standing charge in the IHD is wrong - 65 point something, while Octoaid says 56 point something - and the rounding error.
The IHD still disagrees with Octoaid at 8am, but it gets closer as the day goes on. Maybe the devices are applying the standing charges differently - one as a lump sum at a certain time of day, the other pro-rata as the day progresses?
In conclusion, it looks like since the last tariff update the IHD is now using the 2 different rates, but not giving a true real-time readout for the current day.
Edit:
I've checked on the Octopus app, and that says my standing charge is 65.13p - the same as the IHD says.
Strange that Octoaid, which apparently uses data from the meter network, has got it wrong?
Edited by clockworks on Saturday 6th April 08:36
clockworks said:
I've seen a few posts elsewhere saying the same thing about countdown timers etc., but loads more saying "only capable of single tariff ".
I'm always asleep by midnight. The last time I was up before 6am, the display was blank.
Now that I've got a few days' data to compare between the IHD and Octoaid, the IHD is consistently 7 or 8p over on the daily total.
This is because the standing charge in the IHD is wrong - 65 point something, while Octoaid says 56 point something - and the rounding error.
The IHD still disagrees with Octoaid at 8am, but it gets closer as the day goes on. Maybe the devices are applying the standing charges differently - one as a lump sum at a certain time of day, the other pro-rata as the day progresses?
In conclusion, it looks like since the last tariff update the IHD is now using the 2 different rates, but not giving a true real-time readout for the current day.
Edit:
I've checked on the Octopus app, and that says my standing charge is 65.13p - the same as the IHD says.
Strange that Octoaid, which apparently uses data from the meter network, has got it wrong?
Good investigative work, I can’t offer any explanation either!I'm always asleep by midnight. The last time I was up before 6am, the display was blank.
Now that I've got a few days' data to compare between the IHD and Octoaid, the IHD is consistently 7 or 8p over on the daily total.
This is because the standing charge in the IHD is wrong - 65 point something, while Octoaid says 56 point something - and the rounding error.
The IHD still disagrees with Octoaid at 8am, but it gets closer as the day goes on. Maybe the devices are applying the standing charges differently - one as a lump sum at a certain time of day, the other pro-rata as the day progresses?
In conclusion, it looks like since the last tariff update the IHD is now using the 2 different rates, but not giving a true real-time readout for the current day.
Edit:
I've checked on the Octopus app, and that says my standing charge is 65.13p - the same as the IHD says.
Strange that Octoaid, which apparently uses data from the meter network, has got it wrong?
Edited by clockworks on Saturday 6th April 08:36
I have noticed my ihd now reports the correct standing charges since the 1st april when the cap changed, even though im not on the standard cap tariff, so they must push updates at certain times.
It previously used to show the total started at 37p at 6am, now about 99p.
I just call it the guess-o-meter like others now.
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