I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to snipped-for-privacy@octopus.energy, enquiring about the possibility of swapping to them as an energy supplier. No reply was forthcoming since then. Are they normally this slow, or is this an address the do not monitor?
Alas they’re often slow these days. I think their customer support is lagging after their huge increase in customer numbers. They do often respond much more quickly to Twitter messages though so that might be worth a try. I’m not sure that they *want* more customers at the moment. ;-)
Tim
Thanks, I am just trying to get away from the nightmare which is BG.
It's the modern way. Funny how you are expected to read *their* emails.
I had quite a lot of fun with an outfit that tried to ignore an email. They claimed they had "lost" it at first. Then they they deleted all unread emails after a months (although they didn't like the response that it was an admission that contradicted their "we read all emails" stance to start with).
Everything I read on their website basically says "you probably shouldn't move supplier right now" or "we've closed this and that tariffs to new customers"
So I read that as, we're just swallowing Bulb, so don't need any more customers, kthxbye.
Yes In my experience it usually takes a week or more for a email response despite their claim of shorter turn around times.
Also check your spam folder for replies.
The helpfulness of the response depends who answers it. I've had a few staff who have actually sorted out problems and given a comprehensive explanation as a result of an email. I've also had stock answers back from a few staff.
I was transferred to Octopus from Avro when they ceased trading. The main problems I've had, and which are now sorted, were that my paperless bills were not appearing on my web account for a few months and the smart meter didn't update with the correct tariffs last April.
Despite those problems the customer information Octopus provide if you sign up for a web account (paperless billing) is much better than other suppliers I've used.
They may be under pressure at the moment as 1.5 million Bulb customers are being transferred over.
Why not just phone them?
I am a Bulb customer. Their customer communications are first rate. The only exception was when i decided to change to Smart Meters.
It went OK in the end though.
I am really sorry that they went to Octopus.
I don't like the way they insist on sitting on a wad of my money, i've become £100s in credit, the only option seems to be to reduce the monthly payment by a small amount and my credit continuously rises.
Hardly unique to Bulb ...
Maybe but our previous supplier (OVO IIRC) would let you withdraw a large percentage of the overspend, ergo giving you your own money back. I feel like Bulb have, as it currently stands, hijacked £581.20 of my hard earned.
Getting on for half of our annual gas is used in Dec-Feb and with gas now at over 10p/kWh I expect our balance of around £400 to be used up and our DD to be increased before the winter is over. We may lose a pound or 2 of taxable interest but I think suppliers are right to try to keep payments even, and BG seem to do no more than that. (They also put the excess in a ring-fenced account rather than using it for working capital.)
Bulb has hijacked about £1.5 BILLION of taxpayers money so that its customers can keep their 'credit' and cheap rates.
In the real world Bulb should have called in administrators and all their customers added to the list of creditors (and get none of their credit back).
I've only been with EDF for just over a year, my march-august bill ended-up £75 in debit, they've since increased the D/D from £81 to £310 per month and it's been showing the £66 per month "refund".
So even with the price increases, unless we get Siberian weather, the monthly paymnt seems designed to end-up in credit by the next bill in april.
Octopus have a (beta) facility estimating when you DD payments will be in credit or debit based on your previous consumption/billing figures. I don't know how this will work for new customers.
Octopus put up my £90 DD up to £130 and then back down to £100 after the Government money was announced. They predict any credit will be gone by May 2023. This prediction includes the £300 I'm already in credit. They predict that next April the DD should be £170/month (to build a credit of approx £300 by this time next year)
Quote Balance Forecast is our best guess on the journey your account balance will take over the next 12 months. It takes into account your current prices and monthly payments, as well as the Government's Energy Price Guarantee and monthly payments of the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
A few things you might like to know: it runs from the last bill we issued, because this is when your account was most up-to-date. Your energy use is estimated by taking into account historical readings (including previous tenants), 5 years of weather patterns in your local area, and local weather forecasts for the next 25 days. Prices without Government support are based on Ofgem's most recent price cap, and Cornwall Insight's most recent forecasts for future price caps.
You can quickly adjust your monthly payments online, or if you've not submitted a meter reading recently, submit one now to make your forecast more accurate. /quote
Indeed EDF prefer to hit me with a monthly charge and refund once a year or so
My friend saw the Chief Exec interviewed on TV. Apparently he said they are accepting new customers but only by phone.
Phones don't work any more. They just play music and a voice saying 'Your call is important to us, We will get to you as soon as possible'.
OK, so EDF requested meter readings by 8th mar for the sep->mar bill and I've send them today.
My account is now £297 in credit as I predicted it would be, which includes the £400 credit, they're going to reduce my D/D from £310 to £111/month, which I suspect will leave me slightly in debit by september, maybe they'll increase it when the price cap increases, or maybe the price guarantee will change in the budget?
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