Octopus billing problems

[Scruffy D]

I was originally a Bulb customer and since their demise, I was moved to Octopus, which was fine by me. But.... since last March, April I've been having problems getting electricity bills from them. I have a Solar and battery system, and have no problems getting FIT and gas bills, and the usage data from electricity used is all there on their app, I suspect the computer reading the data isn't talking to the billing computer. Fortunately I noticed this after a few months and after a number of emails and calls and started to get bills, but it would happen again and Octopus would have to be prodded into action again, and yet again I need to start this process.

Now I say " fortunately", because a colleague of mine has relayed a similar tale with his Octopus account and the overnight charging of his EV's. Like myself, he noticed he had a problem with billing, and informed Octopus months ago but wasn't getting any response , and now they've hit him with an extra £1800 bill for electricity saying they can't distinguish his cheap rate overnight usage from normal rate. My friend obviously has a charging app for both his car and the charging point and the data shows his bill should be a fraction of what Octopus are claiming. He his fighting this and contacted the ombudsman but I wondered if anyone else had encountered anything similar?

 

[Murdoch]

I think you need to raise a complaint against them OR write to their CEO

We’re with Shell, so now by default an Octopus customer and be keeping a close eye on the billing over the next few months. We don’t have any special or off peak tariffs

 

[Badger]

I use octopus watch and diwnload every days usage for each day and also our inverter is programmed to the same time every day to charge the battery i have a record saved every point also from 1st tolast day of month for each billing cycle as proof of what we have uaed as i dont trust them not to delete days a month later i will shpw you what i download for each cycle

 

[Badger]

Our downloaded usage

 

[johnb2713]

I use octopus watch and diwnload every days usage for each day and also our inverter is programmed to the same time every day to charge the battery i have a record saved every point also from 1st tolast day of month for each billing cycle as proof of what we have uaed as i dont trust them not to delete days a month later i will shpw you what i download for each cycle

I have been an Octopus customer for well over 6 years now, not once have they deleted data and they have always been helpful when I've requested longer data dumps than I could get online. They are far from being a 'shady' operator.

 

[Badger]

I have been an Octopus customer for well over 6 years now, not once have they deleted data and they have always been helpful when I've requested longer data dumps than I could get online. They are far from being a 'shady' operator.

I wasnt saying they were shady but computers and meters fo wrong its electronic information and can easily get corrupted thats why i download it myself

 

[johnb2713]

I wasnt saying they were shady but computers and meters fo wrong its electronic information and can easily get corrupted thats why i download it myself

What ever makes you comfortable is good. I do download all of my data to analyse the performance etc of my solar and battery systems. It makes for interesting reading (sad I know but I'm retired now ).

 

[Radiotowers]

I was originally a Bulb customer and since their demise, I was moved to Octopus, which was fine by me. But.... since last March, April I've been having problems getting electricity bills from them. I have a Solar and battery system, and have no problems getting FIT and gas bills, and the usage data from electricity used is all there on their app, I suspect the computer reading the data isn't talking to the billing computer. Fortunately I noticed this after a few months and after a number of emails and calls and started to get bills, but it would happen again and Octopus would have to be prodded into action again, and yet again I need to start this process.

Now I say " fortunately", because a colleague of mine has relayed a similar tale with his Octopus account and the overnight charging of his EV's. Like myself, he noticed he had a problem with billing, and informed Octopus months ago but wasn't getting any response , and now they've hit him with an extra £1800 bill for electricity saying they can't distinguish his cheap rate overnight usage from normal rate. My friend obviously has a charging app for both his car and the charging point and the data shows his bill should be a fraction of what Octopus are claiming. He his fighting this and contacted the ombudsman but I wondered if anyone else had encountered anything similar?

Hi Scruffy,
1 Ive had smart meter problems since last March, where the smart meter stopped working, 21st June, Octopus sent a metering business to change electric and gas meter.
2
I eventually got a bill for unbilled units which were all charged at white meter day rate, I got this refunded as I am on the Agile tariff not white meter and this part of the bill has still to be paid .
3
This new meter stopped sending electric readings( gas is fine) around October and after 3 emails eventually persuaded them to get a metering call to reset the meter on 21 dec. ( more unbilled electric unit to pay). No meter was changed.

4 I checked my Octopus app and noticed two sets of readings, left it for a few days and while checking my readings realised I had now got 2 electric and 2 gas meters assigned to my account !.

5 After reporting this back to Octopus they told me the extra meters were my new meters, I asked them if this is so , please explain why my meters that were allegedly changed were still showing daily unit increases if they were in the back of a van…donkeys !.( and my export is showing fine and its the same meter)

6 I have since raised a complaint for the time and trouble Ive spent taking pictures of my meter with the meter screen showing dates after they were allegedly removed trying to prove I still have the meters.

The story continues, its seems the admin staff are hopeless with no one willing to take responsibility of difficult problems at first request and just kick the job on to someone else.

 

[binky]

Hi Scruffy,
1 Ive had smart meter problems since last March, where the smart meter stopped working, 21st June, Octopus sent a metering business to change electric and gas meter.
2
I eventually got a bill for unbilled units

I'm no expert on this, but I don't believe you cant be billed for units via a failed meter. The onus is on Octopus to get a meter replaced with a correctly working unit.

Old Wheal type meters used to turn backwards when excess solar was being sent back to the grid. No customers of mine have ever been billed for any units 'lost' by this. Which? published an article about this some time ago, and the legalities surrounding it. Might be worth a google to see if you can find it, failing that contact OFGEM.

 

[Radiotowers]

According to one email reply I got , one of the conditions of Agile is if the Half hourly readings fail they will revert you to the standard tariff,
I replied quoting one of their General conditions stating that if the tariff changes to your disadvantage they will email you to let you know.
I received no such email.
Unfortunately the meter will still register units and no doubt they will estimate me..who knows.?

 

[binky]

According to one email reply I got , one of the conditions of Agile is if the Half hourly readings fail they will revert you to the standard tariff,
I replied quoting one of their General conditions stating that if the tariff changes to your disadvantage they will email you to let you know.
I received no such email.
Unfortunately the meter will still register units and no doubt they will estimate me..who knows.?

If a meter fails they cannot estimate your bill, it's not your problem, it's theirs.

 

[Radiotowers]

Unfortunately, in both cases its the hub that fails, the meter still registers and became dumb .So they are unable to differentiate half hourly from the register totals.
If the meter had went blank and stopped registering, I would have been selling charging slots to my neighbours with EV,s.
Still awaiting their latest comments.

 

[Murdoch]

I suspect they would base a bill on previous usage

 

[Badger]

if you have solar and batteries recording data of grid use charging and the times that grid was used or battery solar was used that would be evidence of grid use mine will record our data each day

 

[binky]

Unfortunately, in both cases its the hub that fails, the meter still registers and became dumb .So they are unable to differentiate half hourly from the register totals.
If the meter had went blank and stopped registering, I would have been selling charging slots to my neighbours with EV,s.
Still awaiting their latest comments.

Makes you wonder if that's ' break of contract' ?

 

[baldelectrician]

I have a 3 phase smart meter with Octopus

The meter guy actually found that when the hub was squint (sticking out at left) it worked

Mine has been working fine since then

The meters store data for 12 months and they can remove the meter and download the data

On another note

If you have a decent charger you can ask the company that own it to email you your data on a spreadsheet- then you can have Octopus use this- they could also send it direct to Octopus (with your pernission)

You should have all the data they need- or be able to get it.