4 ms·

> Greg Jackson from Octopus (who are the largest energy operator in the UK) has been calling for this for some time. I don't live there but his name comes up a

> Greg Jackson from Octopus (who are the largest energy operator in the UK) has been calling for this for some time. I don't live there but his name comes up a lot in several of the clean energy podcasts I follow. Smart person that has a lot of sensible things to say on this topic. I've got a lot of time for Octopus, which is an odd thing to say about a utility company. It's amazing how much of a difference it can make when a company makes it a. pretty easy to speak to someone when you have a problem or question (especially via email) and b. getting that problem sorted or question answered isn't so arduous you want to jump off a bridge. It once took me six months to convince British Gas to actually start charging me for my gas and electric. Plus every time there's a price cap change or something out of the ordinary going on, they send out emails explaining it in plain English (including, as you say, reiterating the case that our pricing model is utterly daft). They also have an API for customers so you can pull your usage data, which is pretty neat.

gambiting 2y ago
I must be the only person in the UK that has had an abysmal experience with Octopus, where they gave me a quote in writing, I attempted to sign up for it, couldn't due to "technical difficulties" on their end but got another email promising that the quote will be honoured once the difficulties are resolved....and of course once they finally fixed their system a month later they refused to honour it. I kept forwarding copies of emails they sent higher and higher up and finally was assigned a "senior customer agent" who basically said their decision is final and I can take them to an ombudsman if I want to. Then they couldn't bill me correctly for 6 months straight because no one knew why my smart meter wasn't sending them data, and then another time they literally provided incorrect information about my IHD when I asked why is the price for my tariff wrong. They are an absolutely useless company and I'd switch in a heartbeat if there was anyone else with a similar offering for charging EVs, no one else gets even close.
- new23d 2y ago
  Exactly the same happened with me. Picking up the phone and responding to email (in weeks, not hours or days) didn't lower my bills. This sort of marketing is perhaps deflection.
- Already__Taken 2y ago
  Are you in the north of the N/S smart meter divide? I wonder if that has a lot do with experiences.
  - danw1979 2y ago
    Please do elaborate …
    - gazoakley 2y ago
      See here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq52382zd1no.amp https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq52382zd1no.amp Octopus have started doing things like connecting properties in the north to cellular type meters (not supposed to) or using Octopus Mini hubs (connects smart meters using WiFi) as a way of trying to solve the problems
      - danw1979 2y ago
        thanks !
  - ninalanyon 2y ago
    Why does the UK have such trouble with smart meters? Everyone here, Norway, has one because they are required by the government. I haven't heard of any significant troubles and we've had them for years. See https://www.nve.no/norwegian-energy-regulatory-authority/retail-market/smart-metering-ams/?ref=mainmenu https://www.nve.no/norwegian-energy-regulatory-authority/ret...
    - rcxdude 2y ago
      Quasi-government incompetence, mostly, though caused by government cowardace: they more or less just shouted "smart meters, do it!" at the energy industry and let them try to sort it out amongst themselves, which means they had several false starts of crap impementations (the first generation didn't think to allow them to be transferrable between providers! The issues in the North are basically because they decided to go for a low-power mesh network, which is a plan that has basically never worked), as well as the fact that the government hasn't made it a requirement for homeowners, but has made it a requirement for energy companies, so they basically just beg the current holdouts (who have little reason to want one) to let them install one.
- tomatocracy 2y ago
  Yes, I am a landlord and have had multiple awful experiences with them on move in/out. The worst involved them referring my tenant to a debt collector for a totally incorrect bill (issued for a period after which they were not responsible for bills, and for electricity which hadn't been consumed) while we were still trying to get them to correct it. Customer service generally seems to stop responding after the first reply.
- physicsguy 2y ago
  I've not had good experiences either as a customer. Oddly enough I interviewed with them a few years ago (before I was a customer) and came away pretty unimpressed, I turned the offer down.
tgpc 2y ago
i like octopus' style too but i called them to sign up, and they told me my house was two apartments. it isn't. it never has been. and when i asked them to update their data, the operator said that isn't something she can do. i would be a customer otherwise. sigh.

gambiting 2y ago

I must be the only person in the UK that has had an abysmal experience with Octopus, where they gave me a quote in writing, I attempted to sign up for it, couldn't due to "technical difficulties" on their end but got another email promising that the quote will be honoured once the difficulties are resolved....and of course once they finally fixed their system a month later they refused to honour it. I kept forwarding copies of emails they sent higher and higher up and finally was assigned a "senior customer agent" who basically said their decision is final and I can take them to an ombudsman if I want to. Then they couldn't bill me correctly for 6 months straight because no one knew why my smart meter wasn't sending them data, and then another time they literally provided incorrect information about my IHD when I asked why is the price for my tariff wrong. They are an absolutely useless company and I'd switch in a heartbeat if there was anyone else with a similar offering for charging EVs, no one else gets even close.

new23d 2y ago
Exactly the same happened with me. Picking up the phone and responding to email (in weeks, not hours or days) didn't lower my bills. This sort of marketing is perhaps deflection.
Already__Taken 2y ago
Are you in the north of the N/S smart meter divide? I wonder if that has a lot do with experiences.
- danw1979 2y ago
  Please do elaborate …
  - gazoakley 2y ago
    See here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq52382zd1no.amp https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq52382zd1no.amp Octopus have started doing things like connecting properties in the north to cellular type meters (not supposed to) or using Octopus Mini hubs (connects smart meters using WiFi) as a way of trying to solve the problems
    - danw1979 2y ago
      thanks !
- ninalanyon 2y ago
  Why does the UK have such trouble with smart meters? Everyone here, Norway, has one because they are required by the government. I haven't heard of any significant troubles and we've had them for years. See https://www.nve.no/norwegian-energy-regulatory-authority/retail-market/smart-metering-ams/?ref=mainmenu https://www.nve.no/norwegian-energy-regulatory-authority/ret...
  - rcxdude 2y ago
    Quasi-government incompetence, mostly, though caused by government cowardace: they more or less just shouted "smart meters, do it!" at the energy industry and let them try to sort it out amongst themselves, which means they had several false starts of crap impementations (the first generation didn't think to allow them to be transferrable between providers! The issues in the North are basically because they decided to go for a low-power mesh network, which is a plan that has basically never worked), as well as the fact that the government hasn't made it a requirement for homeowners, but has made it a requirement for energy companies, so they basically just beg the current holdouts (who have little reason to want one) to let them install one.
tomatocracy 2y ago
Yes, I am a landlord and have had multiple awful experiences with them on move in/out. The worst involved them referring my tenant to a debt collector for a totally incorrect bill (issued for a period after which they were not responsible for bills, and for electricity which hadn't been consumed) while we were still trying to get them to correct it. Customer service generally seems to stop responding after the first reply.
physicsguy 2y ago
I've not had good experiences either as a customer. Oddly enough I interviewed with them a few years ago (before I was a customer) and came away pretty unimpressed, I turned the offer down.

tgpc 2y ago

i like octopus' style too but i called them to sign up, and they told me my house was two apartments. it isn't. it never has been. and when i asked them to update their data, the operator said that isn't something she can do. i would be a customer otherwise. sigh.