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Current provider is So Energy, contract coming to an end at the end of the month.
Before I toddle off to Martin Lewis.. Are any companies doing 'deals' now or are they all much of muchness?
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Many here on Octopus, I have no complaints with them.
They are all selling you the same product at the same price (if you're paying the capped amount)
Unless someone has a great deal going, then its all about customer service.
The newer companies (Octopus/OVO/etc.. seem to be a lot better than the incumbents, Shell/British Gas/Npower/etc)
Martin Lewis just covered. Some fixed deals out there worth considering now.
We keep being shifted as companies disappear. Latest involuntary move is to Octopus. Choice seems to be narrowing more and more.
I got shifted to Shell Energy when my previous provider went bust. I have recently been informed that Shell Energy has been bought by Octopus, so I will wait and see how that pans out before looking for a new fixed deal.
Too many believed the 'emperor's new clothes' marketing of new/emerging/challenger companies when the application of a little common sense added to some diligent market research would have identified that most, if not all, were almost guaranteed to fail.
Standard test in a commercial environment is to question financial and operational resilience; any concerns - it's a dud.
We've been here before and will be again.
'There's one born every minute' aptly sums up how gullible many people were in believing there was a better energy supply future.
Octopus look set to stay the course but the rest have cost every bill payer a significant sum which will continue in perpetuity through their failures - regulatory and structural failures.
When, if ever, will politicians and administrators learn?
MSE's guide + calculator.
> https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/ <
The short answer seems to be that it looks like it'll be worth moving from So (and Shell who I'm with). None of them look particularly great though.
I have recently been informed that Shell Energy has been bought by Octopus, so I will wait and see how that pans out before looking for a new fixed deal.
As you are being moved to octopus anyway find a friend already with octopus and get a referral code. Then do the switch yourself. You'll both get £50 off your bill. Really easy to do and nothing to lose
Happy Octopus user here - switched after getting an EV, off-peak charging overnight is excellent, and the customer service has been great.
I have recently been informed that Shell Energy has been bought by Octopus, so I will wait and see how that pans out before looking for a new fixed deal.
Me too - Shell/Octopus emailed recently to say [b]don't change/switch anything[/b] until the transition has been completed. To put simply it could massively cock things up!
Hmmmm.... might mean you missing out on a £50 referral bonus more like....
That was my thought. Active switching gives benefits that being transferred does not. For a while this has meant that people who just want to be able to heat their homes lose out unless they take a day trader approach to buying one of the basics of life… but with market consolidation like this, who wins…? We don’t that’s for sure.
Hmmmm…. might mean you missing out on a £50 referral bonus more like….
Or you enjoy dicking around on the phone for hours on end to customer support trying to untangle things. 🤷♂️
From the email...
[i]You won’t be able to switch to Octopus sooner. We can’t wait to look after you, but switching early could cause issues, and we won’t get all your old Shell Energy records (i.e bills and meter readings).[/i]
'could' cause issues - what does that mean?
'we won't get all your records' - for £50 I'd spend 10 mins downloading my last year or two statements. Who cares, as long as you have a meter reading on handover day. You'd only need quarterly, that'll show you typical winter and summer usage. You can then set your DD as evidenced by the past year or two of your own records.
And Octopus CS is the best I've encountered. I'd bet it wouldn't be hours on end, it'd be a few minutes
At the very least I'd be asking for a credit on transfer for not doing it sooner.
what does that mean?
We, the consumer, don't know... so what do we do... risk a **** up? We're not going to, are we.
And Octopus CS is the best I’ve encountered
That's the experience of others in my family. Happy to use them. But "sorry, I've done the thing you explicitly told us not to do... can you sort it" might not be the most fun for them... or us.
To me, the £50 carrot still isn't worth the effort.
My last switch on house move last year took me 3 weeks and countless phone calls to sort out. I ain't got time for that rubbish.
Hmmm... While agree Octopus customer service is not as bad as some of the other energy providers, I've been going back and forth with them for over 18months to get my Estimated Annual Consumption updated (the annual estimate they put on the right hand side of every bill for comparison purposes). It's been at 2700kWh for electric throughout, but I knw I use about 4000kWh every year, for over 5 years! They initially said it would update as I provide more readings.... After a year the EAC got reduced! I tried to get them to justify it with calculations, but they couldnt provide them as they are produced centrally by some other body, so gave me the basis on which the calculation was based (after several months) but it still didnt't contain the calculation for my EAC, based on my Usage as they were insisting it was based on! Gave up at that point, as I knew it was wrong.
But while helpful with simple issues, as an organisation who's sole tasks are to bill for actuall usage, and provide forward estiamtes for usage based on historical patterns they are just as useless as all the others. And don;t seem to understand when their own numbers are totally wrong/unjustified.
Strangely, teh Gas usage/EAC is about right, and does seem to be based on metered usage. The gas meter readings go through the SMART electric meter to get to Octopus for that calculation.... Go figure.
TL:DR - Octopus are beter than most, but still can't tell you how they work out their estimates/DD amounts.....