Octopus Go (SCAM) ??

[PITA]

I'm on Octopus Go since May 2021...

However, I hadn't had a bill in months so decided to contact them about getting it sorted out.

They eventually billed me from about August to beginning of January 2022. Quite a few months, I checked and thankfully all the billing data was accurate.

Except for 3 days. 3 rogue days where they claim the Smart Meter didn't provide accurate billing data. Costing me an extra £18

So I found out today, according to their Terms and Conditions... any incomplete billing data from the Smart Meters gets charged at your old (non Octopus Go) Rates?

>>>>>>>> Quote

I hope you are well and thank you for your email. We have partial half hourly data for the following days:

17th Aug 2021
28th Nov 2021
30th Nov 2021

In the absence of complete sets of half hourly data these have been billed to your previous standard tariff (E-FLAT2R-VAR-21-04-09-E) in line with our T&C's (https://octopus.energy/blog/terms-conditions-agile-go/)

Part from the following days of partial data which have been billed on our flexile tariff, you have been billed on Octopus Go.

>>>>>>>> End Quote

Luckily it was only a couple of days. But I dread to think if these smart meters had just packed up... and defaulted back onto our old tariff costs.

In my experience, and opinion, if you haven't had a bill from Octopus Energy recently, get one... and make sure you're not being billed on another tariff because of it.

I hate these scammy type things, as they don't contact you to let you know there's a problem. And I never knew about these Terms and Conditions of smart meter data.

Anyways... onwards and upwards

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It doesn't really make sense because smart meters store months of data so a loss of connectivity for a couple of hours wouldn't cause it to go missing.. it just gets uploaded later. If they don't have it they screwed up internally somehow.

 

[PITA]

It doesn't really make sense because smart meters store months of data so a loss of connectivity for a couple of hours wouldn't cause it to go missing.. it just gets uploaded later. If they don't have it they screwed up internally somehow.

I don't have the time right now to check these 3 days... BUT I WILL TONIGHT... as I downloaded all my Smart Meter data.

This fight may not be over yet

 

[pcgtron]

I had a very similar thing. I wasn't billed for months, and called them today. They are missing 3 days of data from my smart meter, and this was on the day the old meter was taken out, and the engineer hadn't made a note of the final reading. This would all go away for me if a final reading of the old meter had been taken, so I would suggest that everyone who has a meter ripped out and a smart meter installed takes their own final reading.
This will be sorted for me in about a week, but would have been much simpler if the engineer had actually taken a final reading before ripping out the old meter

 

[otherslackjaw]

I also wasn't billed for electricity from November up until recently. I've emailed to ask what was happening and they have now corrected it.

Everything appears in order though, no missing data for me.

 

[Tenatious]

I also wasn't billed for months and had it happen before but they seem to have managed to get all the data this time. But like you I use an app to download all the data just in case.

 

[Bonze]

Just emailed them as I haven't been billed for electric since the smart meter was fitted at the end of October.
See how it goes.....

 

[Marvin03]

Just emailed them as I haven't been billed for electric since the smart meter was fitted at the end of October.
See how it goes.....

I had the same. Not billed for 8 months and due to one missing reading defaulted the whole billing for a day back to regular rates. They (and I) can see the reading but as it’s not in the billing system and “it’s a beta product” they couldn’t correct the bill.

complained and they credited the difference.

 

[yessuz]

I hadn't got electricity bill since May and gas since then is "estimation only".

Already contacted them couple days ago and still wait for answer

 

[otherslackjaw]

You'd think they'd have a system in place to spot that they weren't billing customers.

 

[yessuz]

You'd think they'd have a system in place to spot that they weren't billing customers.

My account is like few quid in credit at this moment..

 

[Simavon]

Switched late August. We've asked for a bill. Nothing. They're useless.

 

[otherslackjaw]

My account is like few quid in credit at this moment..

Ah well I suppose it doesn't matter too much for you then (or most people). I have mine set up with a variable direct debit, so I pay a different amount each month depending on what i've used.. as long as they bill me, that is!

 

[Roy B]

This happened to me decades ago. My supplier (Independent Energy, I think they were called) didn't manage to send me a bill for the best part of a year. Apparently this was widespread and, perhaps unsurprisingly, they filed for insolvency not long afterwards.

 

[PITA]

How can they go for Months without billing people?

Especially at the moment on how sensitive costs are?

Doesn't make sense.... unless there's some contract 'technicality' for unbilled 'good will' business to a new buyer, if they went bust??

 

[PITA]

This happened to me decades ago. My supplier (Independent Energy, I think they were called) didn't manage to send me a bill for the best part of a year. Apparently this was widespread and, perhaps unsurprisingly, they filed for insolvency not long afterwards.

I chased my bill because I didn't want any of this 'technicality' risk if they did go bust... and then I get charged at another rate for my last unbilled period.

Could cost me £1000's literally if they got out of their 'Go' obligations...

I'm not trying to get a free ride, I just want my fair billing.

Think I'll be chasing them MONTHLY at this rate.

 

[PITA]

You'd think they'd have a system in place to spot that they weren't billing customers.

They have, it's relying on Customers to contact them...

 

[Marvin03]

Remember if the bills are over 12 months late you don’t actually have to pay them…

 

[PITA]

Remember if the bills are over 12 months late you don’t actually have to pay them…

Yes that's true, but it doesn't stop them selling the debt to a collection agency, and all the grief plus extra charges that goes with it.

And you've still got at least 11 months to deal with.

And get banned from one of the only decent tariffs around

I'd rather just play fair.

 

[Xdama]

I chased my bill because I didn't want any of this 'technicality' risk if they did go bust... and then I get charged at another rate for my last unbilled period.

Could cost me £1000's literally if they got out of their 'Go' obligations...

I'm not trying to get a free ride, I just want my fair billing.

Think I'll be chasing them MONTHLY at this rate.

I had an issue with Scottish Power years about 17yr ago whereby our meter was inside the house & they always called when we were out to read the meter. Consequently they sent estimates all the time which were under by a substantial amount. I rang them to tell them many times but they never did anything about it, after a good few months I estimated how much we ”owed” to be in the region of £1500-£1600. I rang Ofgem who advised me that ana electricity meter had to be inspected every 12mths by law, a suppliers way of proving this inspection was to have an actual reading not an estimate. We were at a 10mth point around this time, Ofgem also advised me to sit on this until it passed 12mths, then give the actual reading to ScotPower because they had not fulfilled their contract at that point the meter readings would be null & void, account owings to be put back to zero.
I followed their advice, rang ScotPower after the 12mth cutoff, they came back with well you owe us £1700, my answer was “not according to Ofgem, would you like the reference number to call them”…….stunned silence. A manager rang tried to convince me I had to pay, I just repeated what Ofgem had said & gave the reference number to him. A few days later new bill ….. £0 owing. All because I was stubborn & would not supply my own readings, because I was paying for a meter reader to read my meters lol.
Did a similar thing with the gas at my new house after we moved too, gas meters have to be read every 2yrs, same reason.