Energy Suppliers, Suppliers of Energy. Gas / Electric

I still can't believe they are paying for customers. All feels a bit Bulb in 2016.

I wonder what their end-game is.

I do have these concerns.
They are currently paying 15p per kWh of solar export and I’m paying 24p per kWh for import, which I am thrilled about, but can’t see how that is sustainable or profitable compared to other energy companies.

It is all very odd. I'm over the moon with the tracker tariff - but baffled as to how they are the only company offering it - while the government makes a big splash about maintaining the EPG. Today my gas is half the price of EPG tariff offered everywhere else. Elec is 35% less. And they just put the £50 quid in my account for switching....

Octopus referral code if anyone's interested! £50....

https://share.octopus.energy/grey-snail-101

Anyone know what to do when you've got a PAYG meter and want a credit meter so you can actually choose a tarriff?
In our area no matter who I ring, providers, brokers etc. They all sound as if they can fix it, then when they look up the details and the address, its a firm no, and entire AREA is tied to one provider, kinda mad, legal? Means we are on the worst tariff all the time (basically the cap) at that location. Wasn't too fussed when the cap was what everyone was taking, but right now and rest of year is looking a bit less dramatic, we need to move.
Also has an ancient (fitted in 80s) radio teleswitch*, which the meter company/energy provider refuses to admit even exists, yet won't allow us to remove it, but also won't remove it themselves.

*System is obsolete as of end of this month which means we won't have electric heating anymore short of plugging in a half dozen fan heaters and blowing the ring main as its not designed for it.

Hey, do you happen to be in the North East of Scotland? Are you on THTC and with SSE? I think the first thing to do would be to try and get it all replaced with a smet 2 smart meter. Your provider may still insist on it being prepay but at least at this point you'll be able to choose between a few eco 7 tariffs.

Just tried this but the link doesn't work...

https://share.octopus.energy/noble-lion-647

Dang, seems mine isn't working either.

Edit: Or is it?

Thats weird, thats the link I have..

https://share.octopus.energy/grey-snail-101

Ok I've just tried 3 links from this thread and they all say the page doesn't exist so maybe Octopus have disabled them. Even though there's still an option to use a referral at the sign-up stage.

Your one was working for me a few minutes ago. Doesn't work now, though.

Edit: It's working again.

You can always use a referral code agree you sign up

This is what I was trying. Codes don’t seem to be working at the moment but email address was accepted.

17.55p /kwh for electricity on the Octopus tracker at the moment!
5p / kWh for gas as well.

We might want to pipe down about the tracker now - apparently the 6 month+ waiting list is not moving. Thanks to you I must have squeezed in just before the shutters came down. Think the money saving expert recommended them too and new joiners went crazy. It still seems "too good to be true" to me. Gonna be carnage if they've misjudged this and go bust too.

Moving from Bulb to Octopus has made my monthly direct debit jump £100.

Usage is the same, apparently their charges are the same, but their prediction of cost is £1,200 higher per year?!

Mine went up too - which was annoying as after switching I first went onto the standard tariff. On the online account you can reduce it by a certain amount yourself. Beyond that I think you need to call.

Maybe they trying the "free loan" thing to cover costs by amping all their new customers DD and getting them all a few hundred quid into credit for short term cash flow. Gotta find the cash for all these free £50 referrals somewhere. I thought Ofgem were doing something about that practice.

We had some strange predictions over the first few months when we moved house (staying with Octopus), ours was ridiculously low.

I’m not sure if they have access to historic usage from the property you are in (ours had been vacant) or just their algorithm takes some time to level out.

Yep, Octopus direct debits are based on historical usage for the property and you can't change the DD yourself beyond a certain level.

Our DD is over £150 more per month than our maximum £ usage during the coldest days this winter so it's set waaay more than we need, but the historical property usage data is only refreshed once per year apparently so if you've just moved in you're SOL until you've been there for a while.

Been wondering if I should just cancel the DD and switch to individual invoices or something.

I'm thinking two things:

1. They didn't get the data from Bulb for more than 1m prior to moving us over during their acquisition of Bulb.
   
2. They too get our address incorrect and don't recognise that there are two properties, so perhaps they are basing an estimate on a 3 bedroom house rather than a 2 bed flat (mine) and a 1 bed flat (downstairs).
   

Mine is similar (although recommended rather than actually happened for the moment).

Guess part of the reason is the lack of energy price guarantee rebates (was that £400?) and prices going up but not sure whether that is sufficient for the increase.

Also noticed that I don't appear to have the option to refer new customers.

Yeah, feels like we're 2nd class customers — will probably move off them if that feeling persists too long.

I'm with Octopus myself and have found them to have very good customer service, best when contacted through Twitter, have tried email and phoning and that doesn't get the same results. If you have a smart meter and an EV or some kind of generation/battery/heat pump they can be cheaper, otherwise much and much the same and come July there will be more competition in the markets again for energy customers.

Mine went down a bit shortly before transferring I think and hasn't gone up (yet).

Octopus want to change my funky analog meters for a smart meter. Apparently, I can't contest this, because my meters are near their end of service life.

Can I make them remove the unsightly analog gas meter box that's attached to the side of my house though?