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Have Octopus been applying my readings incorrectly as E7 instead of E10?

  • 24 February 2024
  • 4 replies
  • 268 views
J
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Was with SSE years ago and basically I transfered over to Octopus energy as my bills where coming in at around £280 pcm pre pandemic. I am single occupancy in a 2 bed flat, I am out all day all sockets turned off. I also have no heating at all in flat there was storage heaters In flat but they where removed by HA.

 

I still have 1 on kitchen wall but that is turned off at main swithboard and has never been used. I also tend to go straight into my bedroom when I get home to chill out. Anyways when I switched I recived an email of customer service from Sse regarding my meter being faulty in that email it clearly stated I was on economy 10. When octopus took over by the emails I recived from them on joining up they did not get a final read from sse so they used an estimated read taking it from the last actual meter reading provided by SSE. The meter I had at time was not a smart meter. When octopus took over the account they put me on economy 7.

 

My question is when moving from economy 10 to 7 does the meter need to be physically collaborated by an engineer? To represent economy 7 peak and off peak times or is this done automatically. If this is not done could the supplier Octopus be getting the readings for E10 instead of E7? The reason why I am asking I do not have access to my meter it's locked away securely by our HA. I haven't had a accurate meter read for over 23 months all estimated bills which are sky high as I said I am out all day too.

 

I spoke to them about it and like banging head against brick wall. I haven't spoke to them about this yet though as I only found email from sse 2 days ago. I am in process of Taking them to energy Onmbusman. There was 1 month I was out of the country for 3 weeks no one in property and they sent me a bill for £162 . I managed to get a reading to them when I gave them a reading they whacked £3129.00 on my bill and said they where undercharging me for usage charging Me at 86.7pkw day and 32.5 pkw off peak obviously I went mental. I got them to check meter they did a patch test sending own engineer I thought they had to be independent engineers or has to be 2.

 

They said meter was fine running 0.5 slower. I have been requesting a smart meter for god knows how long but kept falling on deaf ears. My mum got on phone. Good ole mum and demanded a smart meter to be installed so I can see what I consume. When they come to fit the meter. The engineer economy 10 wouldn't work with new smart meter.

 

So he was aware of economy 10. Since having new meter put in my bills have dropped dramatically. So was Octopus actually getting readings for 10 and would this cost me more if they have only applied E7 to my tariff.? If so who is responsible for this 

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Best answer by Blastoise186 24 February 2024, 10:32

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Blastoise186
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Hi @Jojodddd ,

Just so you’re aware, as far as we know here, Octopus does NOT support Economy 10 and do not have an Economy 10 tariff.

As for your question, if you switch between Economy 7 ↔ Economy 10, your meter must be swapped out unless it’s a Smart Meter that’s able to be reprogrammed. Traditional E7 and E10 Meters were only capable of doing whichever of the two they were built for and were incapable of doing the other - E7 Meters were for E7 only and E10 Meters were for E10 only, they were not cross-compatible.

Ultimately, to resolve this I think you may need to either switch to a supplier that actually supports Economy 10, or if you really want to stay with Octopus, you’ll need to switch to a different tariff that they have support for.

New meters are factory calibrated before they ship out. There’s no known way to field calibrate them because this would break the certifications that are applied. With that being said, Smart Meters are often capable of self-calibration checks while in the field. If the meter detects itself as out of line, it will usually either try to correct itself or send an alert back to the supplier. Traditional Meters lack this functionality however, and won’t pick up calibration issues.

As for engineer visits, they don’t have to be from an independent entity. If memory serves, industry rules allows the supplier to send whoever they want. With that being said, while electric meters can be accuracy tested on-site using a specially calibrated check meter, gas meters must be sent off to a test lab instead which is more likely to be one that the supplier doesn’t own.

As for who is responsible? Sorry, but I have a strict policy for not trampling on the Ombudsman and can’t answer that for you at this time. I’d recommend you direct that one to your case handler.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
J
Rank

Thank you  when octopus took over from sse I had old meter, I was on E 10 with SSE but octopus put me on E7  still on old meter no one came to  change meter to represent the E7 peak times. And you are also right about them sending their own engineer to test meter it wasn't an independent body also I just this minute read if they send their own they have to have an independent body with them and they didn't. I am just wondering if octopus was actually getting readings for E10 and not E7 causing my bills to be higher and when they finally realized that I have those extra 3 hrs they have worked it out and whacked it on my bill at 86.9 pkw which I think is extortionate. I thought when you move to a new supplier by what I have read please correct me if I am wrong if you are on economy 10 and new supplier is putting you on E7 they need to come and reset meter which they didn't I apologise if I am coming across as an idiot, but I am so confused it's doing my head in. If that's the case and they didn't surely they have failed to keep the meter running correctly and failed to adjust meter to correct settings E7 

J
Rank

Thank you for your response. When I about to leave Sse I had an email. Off customer support saying they where going to send someone around to test my metre due to high usage, due to the fact my electricity bills being £278.00pcm I only had elec I no heating in flat,And I was out from 7.30am until 6 pm daily , then sat in bedroom I was a single person this was around when pandemic hit. In the email it clearly stated I was on E10. The CS also sent me a forecast of what I should be using to what I was using and wanted to get it checked out. Then we went into lock down. The appointment was cancelled. Then I switched to Octopus  no one came to re calibrate metre looking at my original contract with octopus they put me on super green tariff  day rate and night rate. My bills where still super high.. This is the question When octopus sent their engineer around to do patch test he also said I was on E10 and said it's strange as its an old tariff. I told him no I am on E7 with octopus he said no you are definitely on E10. The check metre was left in for a month. When they come to remove it do you think my metre was then collaborated to E7 the reason why I think this has happened is because. My bills dropped significantly. Also I kept getting refused a smart metre until my mum kicked off eventually they agreed the check metre went in on July and removed 1st Sep then smart meter in Oct. When the guy put smart meter in he told me I was on E7 because smart metre will not take E10 I said I was told I am on E10 by guy who was doing patch test he said nope you are definitely on E7. So I feel when the patch test box metre was removed the metre was collaborated and octopus are not being honest. Now they have backdated all those 3 extra hrs that where used in E10 that accumulated and charged me in a 18 day bill. I hadn't had a actual bill for over 30 months as I don't have access to my meter only housing accociation does as I live in a communal block of flats. It was impossible to get them to provide metre readings during pandemic it wasn't classed as emergency service. Even when you do request them nada!! 

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Blastoise has offered some helpful advice here, it sounds like a very complex and stressful situation @Jojodddd. I think your best bet would be to escalate this as a complaint if you’re unhappy with the way this has been dealt with. 

 

It’s hard for us to offer advice as we don’t have access to your account, and have different processes to Octopus. 

 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.

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