I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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?

Harry Bloomfield Esq <a@harrym1byt.plus.com> wrote:
> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 10/11/2022 19:22, Tim+ wrote:
> I’m not sure that they*want* more customers at the moment. 😉

Thanks, I am just trying to get away from the nightmare which is BG.

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:50:06 +0000, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:

> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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?

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).

Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:

> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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?

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.

On 10/11/2022 18:50, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:
> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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?

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.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Thursday, 10 November 2022 at 18:50:14 UTC, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:
> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to he...@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?
Why not just phone them?

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:50:06 +0000
Harry Bloomfield Esq <a@harrym1byt.plus.com> wrote:

> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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?

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.

--
Mint 20.3, kernel 5.4.0-124-generic, Cinnamon 5.2.7
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

On 12/11/2022 22:10, pinnerite wrote:
>
> I am a Bulb customer. Their customer communications are first rate.

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.

R D S wrote:

> innerite wrote:
>
>> I am a Bulb customer.
>
> I don't like the way they insist on sitting on a wad of my money, i've become
> £100s in credit

Hardly unique to Bulb ...

On 13/11/2022 15:07, Andy Burns wrote:
>
> 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.

On 13/11/2022 15:46, R D S wrote:
> On 13/11/2022 15:07, Andy Burns wrote:
>>
>> 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.)

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 13/11/2022 15:46, R D S wrote:
> On 13/11/2022 15:07, Andy Burns wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>
>
>

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).

Robin wrote:

> I expect our balance of around £400 to be used up and our DD to be increased
> before the winter is over.

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.

On 13/11/2022 16:44, Robin wrote:
> On 13/11/2022 15:46, R D S wrote:
>> On 13/11/2022 15:07, Andy Burns wrote:
>>>
>>> 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.)
>

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.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 13/11/2022 18:38, Andy Burns wrote:
> Robin wrote:
>
>> I expect our balance of around £400 to be used up and our DD to be
>> increased before the winter is over.
>
> 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 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

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 13/11/2022 15:07, Andy Burns wrote:
> R D S wrote:
>
>> innerite wrote:
>>
>>> I am a Bulb customer.
>>
>> I don't like the way they insist on sitting on a wad of my money, i've
>> become £100s in credit
>
> Hardly unique to Bulb ...
>
>
Indeed EDF prefer to hit me with a monthly charge and refund once a year
or so

--
"Anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social
conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions from the
windows of my apartment. (I live on the twenty-first floor.) "

Alan Sokal

On 10 Nov 2022 19:22:00 GMT, Tim+ <tim.downie@gmail.com> wrote:

>Harry Bloomfield Esq <a@harrym1byt.plus.com> wrote:
>> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to hello@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. ;-)
>
My friend saw the Chief Exec interviewed on TV. Apparently he said
they are accepting new customers but only by phone.

On Fri, 11 Nov 2022 13:42:17 -0800 (PST), John J
<johnjessop46@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Thursday, 10 November 2022 at 18:50:14 UTC, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:
>> I sent an email on the 4th Nov, to he...@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?
>Why not just phone them?

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'.

alan_m wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> 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

OK, so EDF requested meter readings by 8th mar for the sep->mar bill and
I've send them today.

> 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)

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?