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[Closed] Octopus wildly over-estimating energy usage to bump up direct debits?

keithb · 2022-03-30T15:43:17Z

Hi there, I know a few people on here are with Octopus, either by choice or, like me, due to the Avro collapse. So anyway, having had to go through their entire complaints process to get them to acknowledge that I had a smart meter (and not an economy 7 meter) I settled down for a period of calm but wincingly expensive energy bills... But recently got the email about revising the direct debit, due to incresed priced from April. All so good so far. However, they stated that this was based on readings form their and supplied by my previous supplier. So I asked them to show me how they've calsulated the values, that look suspiciously like the "industry default" values for a medium usage household, that are used when there is no relevant meter usage history.... After several rounds of back and forth, they've stated that the usage used only dates from September (when they took over teh supply) and it is likley to be an over-estimate as its based on winter usage only. They still haven;t actually demonstrated how they've got to the estimated usage values yet with actual numbers. ANyhow, to prevent them wildly over-increasing my direct debit, I ammeneded it myself, to find there was a "lower limit" on what the direct debit could be. But it turns out if you set it above this limit, you can then go back in and change it a second time to whetever you want.... I'm also a bit frustrated that I have to input my meter readings every month, but can view my consumption down to 30min intervals on the Octopus customer dashboard! Not that it's massivley user friendly presentign elecrricity usage in kWh, and Gas in cubic metres.. Anyone else noticed their energy supplier artificially overstating usage to bump direct debits? Or issues with OCtopus in general? I thought they were meant to be one of the better suppliers, and I appreciate they've had 200,000 customers dumped on them with little notice, but not being able to justify (with actual numbers) why you are nearly doubling the direct debit payments seems pretty poor. Cheers, Keith

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Last Post by purple_moose 4 years ago

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purple_moose

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I've been with Octopus for at least 3 years now

A couple of months ago I was paying £38 a month total (which probably was a bit low), they upped it to £63 then soon after to £92

My guess is £92 will probably be a bit high, I'll just keep supplying regular meter readings

Posted : 03/04/2022 8:11 pm

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[Closed] Octopus wildly over-estimating energy usage to bump up direct debits?

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