Octopus Energy Bills

[DrFfybes]

The latest news is that my scheduled refund has been rejected (by their computer system?). This is apparently because my balance changed because my payment method changed. I don't understand this. They're taking this month's payment on 22nd Jan. I've now asked for a new refund to be done after that payment has been made.

Octopus replied within two hours. The guy ignored my request to wait until after the payment on 22nd Jan. I should receive my newly-calculated refund of £56-01 within 7 to 10 working days.

I suspect their systems can do one thing at a time, and with things like payemtns and DDs you need a few days to start/stop them rather like you need to give notice to a bank to cancel a DD or amend a standing order.

It wasn't that long ago you could only choose from 4 payment dates each month for bills and credit cards, system are getting more flexible but they still aren't all 'instant' to update.

Paul

[clissold345]

Octopus replied within two hours. The guy ignored my request to wait until after the payment on 22nd Jan. I should receive my newly-calculated refund of £56-01 within 7 to 10 working days.

I received another energy statement from Octopus today. It would appear that when they changed my payment method they discovered they hadnt billed me for gas from 15th November 2020 — 15th December 2020 (three years ago!) so they took money for that, which meant I couldn't have the original refund. All I asked for was to change payment method and get a refund - but Octopus didn't find it a simple task.

[DrFfybes]

I received another energy statement from Octopus today. It would appear that when they changed my payment method they discovered they hadnt billed me for gas from 15th November 2020 — 15th December 2020 (three years ago!) so they took money for that, which meant I couldn't have the original refund. All I asked for was to change payment method and get a refund - but Octopus didn't find it a simple task.

ISTR underpayments can only be reclaimed by the supplier for a limited period of time, and I had 2 years in mind.

[servodude]

I received another energy statement from Octopus today. It would appear that when they changed my payment method they discovered they hadnt billed me for gas from 15th November 2020 — 15th December 2020 (three years ago!) so they took money for that, which meant I couldn't have the original refund. All I asked for was to change payment method and get a refund - but Octopus didn't find it a simple task.

ISTR underpayments can only be reclaimed by the supplier for a limited period of time, and I had 2 years in mind.

I think this should cover it https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

[monabri]

I received another energy statement from Octopus today. It would appear that when they changed my payment method they discovered they hadnt billed me for gas from 15th November 2020 — 15th December 2020 (three years ago!) so they took money for that, which meant I couldn't have the original refund. All I asked for was to change payment method and get a refund - but Octopus didn't find it a simple task.

ISTR underpayments can only be reclaimed by the supplier for a limited period of time, and I had 2 years in mind.

12 months.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... nths%20ago.

"Under back billing rules, your supplier cannot usually send you a bill for energy you used more than 12 months ago. The back billing rules don’t apply if the supplier sent you a bill before the year passed and you didn’t pay. In this case, the supplier can still charge you."


My advice would be contact your Citizens Advice after trying to sort it with Octopus.

I had a hell of a time with eon next and it was only through them that they sorted it! viewtopic.php?p=580617#p580617

Edit
Eon next REALLY didn't want to take "no" for answer...they even created false bills).

And finally viewtopic.php?p=595193#p595193

[Howard]

Octopus replied within two hours. The guy ignored my request to wait until after the payment on 22nd Jan. I should receive my newly-calculated refund of £56-01 within 7 to 10 working days.

I received another energy statement from Octopus today. It would appear that when they changed my payment method they discovered they hadnt billed me for gas from 15th November 2020 — 15th December 2020 (three years ago!) so they took money for that, which meant I couldn't have the original refund. All I asked for was to change payment method and get a refund - but Octopus didn't find it a simple task.

Something similar happened to me on several occasions. Not as long a gap as three years but bills for weirdly short historical periods that the Octopus "smart" meter missed. These usually occurred after I had to send a reading after pointing out that bills were not arriving.

As I mentioned in a post above, Octopus customer service can be quite maddening. Generally speaking the pricing looks ok.

regards

Howard

[monabri]

Octopus replied within two hours. The guy ignored my request to wait until after the payment on 22nd Jan. I should receive my newly-calculated refund of £56-01 within 7 to 10 working days.

I received another energy statement from Octopus today. It would appear that when they changed my payment method they discovered they hadnt billed me for gas from 15th November 2020 — 15th December 2020 (three years ago!) so they **** took money for that, which meant I couldn't have the original refund. All I asked for was to change payment method and get a refund - but Octopus didn't find it a simple task.

I think you missed out the word "incorrectly" located about here ****. I should email them to pay it back to you. They, of course, will ignore you or say "no". No matter

1. raise a complaint with them - they have to reply within 8 weeks.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consu ... ombudsman/


2. they will probably say "no" thinking you don't know the 12 month carry back rule (I'd make it plain in your complaint that you understand the 12m rule and they cannot charge you for their mistake from 3 years ago).

3. Refer it to the Ombudsman.

It's been more than 12 months so they cannot charge you for their mistake.

Basically - these energy companies are all trying it on!

edit...ask for interest to be credited to YOUR money as well!

[clissold345]

I think this should cover it https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

Thanks to everyone for pointing out Octopus's error, particularly servodude who gave the link to the Ofgem page.

Octopus replied seven hours ago: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I apologise for any confusion caused by the energy statement you received. I can confirm that we have identified the error and have reversed this bill for you."

The refund they sent me last week is slowly on its way (it takes 7 to 10 working days). My balance is still just over two months energy bills. I'm assuming this balance will reduce to zero now that I'm paying by variable direct debit.

My impression of Octopus (based on emails over the last two weeks) is that they're not an organised company, so I suggest that all Octopus customers keep a careful eye on how they're being billed.

[servodude]

I think this should cover it https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

Thanks to everyone for pointing out Octopus's error, particularly servodude who gave the link to the Ofgem page.

Octopus replied seven hours ago: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I apologise for any confusion caused by the energy statement you received. I can confirm that we have identified the error and have reversed this bill for you."

The refund they sent me last week is slowly on its way (it takes 7 to 10 working days). My balance is still just over two months energy bills. I'm assuming this balance will reduce to zero now that I'm paying by variable direct debit.

My impression of Octopus (based on emails over the last two weeks) is that they're not an organised company, so I suggest that all Octopus customers keep a careful eye on how they're being billed.

I've had this happen to me three times

Twice in the UK and once in Australia (where the rules are similar except they can go back 6 months)

In each case I've been prepared, chapter and verse, for putting my "rights" across forcibly on the phone
- on EVERY occasion all that happened was "yes mr dude we'll send you the correct bill"
Absolutely boils my pi** that they do, and are allowed to do this, relying on people's inertia and fear to extort what can be painful amount of funds from them
- the regs are already in the favour of the user but they're subject to a weird loophole that means you've got to know about it
...grrrr

[DrFfybes]

My impression of Octopus (based on emails over the last two weeks) is that they're not an organised company, so I suggest that all Octopus customers keep a careful eye on how they're being billed.

I think they have some very clever automated systems which rely on the hardware performing properly, and no error checking for when the data fails. Any glitches in the data harvesting and someone has to go in and do it manually, and they seem to rely on the customer pointing out the problem. This time I'm not going to bother and will just let it run.

I just had this month's bill - Electric only, from 21-31 Dec. The Smart meter stopped sending readings on 1 Jan, started again at the weekend. The meter keeps 3 months of data so now it has reconnected it should infill. They have all my 30 min gas data on their site, but haven't billed me for it (yet). I'm showing as £700 or so in credit, but in reality there's about 300kWh electric (£90) and 200m3 (£160) of gas not billed plus £25 standing charges. We pay the same each month, build up a credit, and are in a position not to have to worry about bills like this, but for a lot of people who rely on their website and don't look into the headline figures it could be a real problem.

Paul

[clissold345]

I just had this month's bill - Electric only, from 21-31 Dec. The Smart meter stopped sending readings on 1 Jan, started again at the weekend. The meter keeps 3 months of data so now it has reconnected it should infill. They have all my 30 min gas data on their site, but haven't billed me for it (yet). I'm showing as £700 or so in credit, but in reality there's about 300kWh electric (£90) and 200m3 (£160) of gas not billed plus £25 standing charges. We pay the same each month, build up a credit, and are in a position not to have to worry about bills like this, but for a lot of people who rely on their website and don't look into the headline figures it could be a real problem.

Paul

You've checked Octopus's billing, which is sensible. Yes if someone is on variable direct debit and Octopus "underbills" for two or three months, he/she could then get a large bill (the "catchup" month), which could be a shock.

[staffordian]

I've recently transferred to Octopus.

I've not encountered any problems, but the billing is a little strange. We have a smart electricity meter but are stuck with a dumb gas meter because of an issue with the fitter not being able to trace where the pipes are.

We seem to automatically get an (accurate) electricity bill on the 15th of each month, (probably because I transferred to them around the 15th of the month) and then, because I submit both gas and electricity readings at the end of each month (when I read them for my own records) I get a bill for both shortly afterwards.

I dare say I could contact them and change their default billing date, but the mid month bill doesn't cause any problem, so I'll probably leave it.

I just wonder if they would ever get round to asking me to submit a gas reading if I didn't give them monthly readings.

The only other thing I've noticed is that it takes them up to a week to credit my account with the direct debit they take on the first of the month. At first I worried that the credit had been lost or misallocated, but it just seems that this part of their system isn't as quick to update as the rest of their software.

[DrFfybes]

I'm adding to this thread, rather than starting a new one.

As mentioned, Octopus only seem to want to bill me for Electricity unless I send them a manual gas reading or email and request they do so, and despite them having 30 min readings on their system they haven't invoiced me for any gas this year.

Whilst it really grates with my OCD to have a credit showing that is a false figure, I do wonder what would happen if I just let things run and see if it goes an entire year, after which time I gather the earlier period cannot be billed. It also feels slightly unethical to take advantage of their failures especially as they come across as such a warm caring supplier, but with a net profit of over £200m I'm guessing they won't miss it.

DAK what would happen if it did go over the year? - I guess I'd need the balance to be below what hadn't been billed in order to make sure they just didn't wake up and collect it? This might be difficult as we're currently £800 in credit, probably owe £500, but the solar panels will soon be covering more than we use so any payments will increase our credit to them.

Paul

[Maroochydore]

, I do wonder what would happen if I just let things run and see if it goes an entire year,

That won't happen I think. According to their blurb: If you have a non-smart meter, we do things a little differently. We won’t send you a statement every month. Instead, you can send us your readings and we’ll send you a statement within a few days. If you don’t send us readings, we’ll send you an estimated bill every three months.

[DrFfybes]

, I do wonder what would happen if I just let things run and see if it goes an entire year,

That won't happen I think. According to their blurb: If you have a non-smart meter, we do things a little differently. We won’t send you a statement every month. Instead, you can send us your readings and we’ll send you a statement within a few days. If you don’t send us readings, we’ll send you an estimated bill every three months.

Thanks, hadn't seen that, mainly as we do have a smart meter, they installed it last July. They have the readings on their system, they just seem unable to send us a bill based on them.

Perhaps I'll wait and see, we're in month 3 now.

Paul

[Nimrod103]

That won't happen I think. According to their blurb: If you have a non-smart meter, we do things a little differently. We won’t send you a statement every month. Instead, you can send us your readings and we’ll send you a statement within a few days. If you don’t send us readings, we’ll send you an estimated bill every three months.

Thanks, hadn't seen that, mainly as we do have a smart meter, they installed it last July. They have the readings on their system, they just seem unable to send us a bill based on them.

Perhaps I'll wait and see, we're in month 3 now.

Paul

Beware Octopus estimated bills. We have just been transferred from Shell, and our first Octopus bill was estimated because they have different billing dates (I don’t have a smart meter, I just send in readings when requested).
Their electricity estimate was roughly correct, but their gas estimate was 10 times bigger than expected. I sorted it out quickly on the phone, but they had no explanation for their wrong estimate.

[mutantpoodle]

quote
Beware Octopus estimated bills. We have just been transferred from Shell, and our first Octopus bill was estimated because they have different billing dates (I don’t have a smart meter, I just send in readings when requested).
Their electricity estimate was roughly correct, but their gas estimate was 10 times bigger than expected. I sorted it out quickly on the phone, but they had no explanation for their wrong estimate.[/quote]
uq

estimated bills are deliberately and imo sensibly always crazy high

it focuses the minds of people who have not given correct readings and without doubt encourages them to get their act together for the future

[XFool]

estimated bills are deliberately and imo sensibly always crazy high

Not in my experience - at least as a long term customer of BG - and the same was true when I used a separate electricity supplier. But then I'm not a customer of Octopus and, possibly more important, I have hardly ever changed my supplier.

[didds]

Beware Octopus estimated bills. We have just been transferred from Shell, and our first Octopus bill was estimated because they have different billing dates (I don’t have a smart meter, I just send in readings when requested)..

we are still waiting to be transferred. i get a request for a meter reading each month from both - even though octopus are not billing ius yet.

I was reticent to send a reading to octopus as well as shell lest octopus end up also charging as well as shell!

sounds like i maybe better off risking that than a stupid level of estimation?

[mutantpoodle]

my comment on estimated b ills was a general comment and not aimed at Octopus

I am with Octopus and have no problems at all, tho I always submit actual readings in view my opinion of estimates...all businesses not just energy suppliers
estimates are almost always on the low side usually in order to get the business!!
or the high side is business already captured