Profit over infrastructure. Such is the way of private companies where profit and dividends are more important than anything else. If its a Utility then it shouldn't be in private hands.
Soldato
Its not really this its lack of coherent government policy.
Soldato
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Hmm despite giving several reading on octopus go, I've not paid anything for electric since December. I'm hoping they just spilt it as I'd been doing previously which is about a third usage during the day and 2/3rds on a night.
Soldato
Odd how did you get onto go since its a smart meter only tariff and always has been from what I can tell.
British Gas rang me and asked me why I was leaving and I explained the billing situation. They said they only produce bills for fixed amount direct debits every 6 months and then use account credit to pay it. They then offered £75 credit to my account to stay. I declined, citing that it's difficult to get in touch with them, the live chat sends you on a loop and ringing them takes ages to get through to anyone.
Clearly they’re making more than £75 profit from you, although over what period I can’t say. Probably three months.
Soldato
BG have been doing this a bit I have heard.
I suspect they have been losing a lot of customers.
Everyone only seems to move to octopus.
I think the attack on Octopus the big companies tried to make over the Bulb takeover was a sign they are worried.
Octopus are not perfect, but they are less imperfect than the rest of them.
Won't be anything like that high.
The retail side makes very low per customer profit. Its IIRC something like £30 per year, not £300 as you suggest.
The main issue is the £75 will be a different budget, it will come from a customer retention and new business marketing type fund.
Just like when you get a cashback payment for switching to a new supplier.
Instead of it going to youswitch or someone who take a cut they are paying it directly to the end customer.
I suspect they have been losing a lot of customers.
Everyone only seems to move to octopus.
I think the attack on Octopus the big companies tried to make over the Bulb takeover was a sign they are worried.
Octopus are not perfect, but they are less imperfect than the rest of them.
Won't be anything like that high.
The retail side makes very low per customer profit. Its IIRC something like £30 per year, not £300 as you suggest.
The main issue is the £75 will be a different budget, it will come from a customer retention and new business marketing type fund.
Just like when you get a cashback payment for switching to a new supplier.
Instead of it going to youswitch or someone who take a cut they are paying it directly to the end customer.
Soldato
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Oh my smart worked to start with with them (and the gas one still sends readings). Not sure why the electric one stopped sending them. Reading by hand is overrated
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Soldato
Oh my smart worked to start with with them (and the gas one still sends readings). Not sure why the electric one stopped sending them. Reading by hand is overrated
Ah that makes sense.
Havent they tried to fix it?
I can see why your not in a rush, a third of usage in that short 4 hour window unless you have house batteries is highly unlikely so your benefitting a lot
Soldato
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Tbh it's 6 hours as it's not the normal go, bug I did manage to shift a lot. It helps that the car uses as much as the house for the year (which takes it to 50/50) then a few other things overnight just pushes it over.
Lol. Must be due to everyone leaving. Never heard of this before with energy suppliers.
And must be octopus. Internet and in real life I've only heard people switching to octopus. No exceptions
Man of Honour
What is the point of smart meters if the company doesn't take any notice of the readings? On 25th April our switch to Octopus from Sainsbury's Energy completed and I did what I was asked and supplied matching meter reads to both companies. The gas reading went through and I rapidly got a final bill but Sainsbury's contested the electric read and said it should have been higher. In actual fact it should have been lower as the switch completed a 00.01 am 25/4/23 but not according to them. They can both access the smart meters so why the hell couldn't they get the readings themselves? Not having to do meter readings is the only advantage for me to have a smart meter so why can't they just agree on a figure from the live data?
The switch seems to have completed, I can see actual data in my Octopus account including usage as reported by my meters. I can even download it all in csv. Very cool, and leagues ahead of the British Gas approach of only showing you your latest reading and whether you're paying enough or not.
I switched to Octopus recently, too. We've had a smart meter for years, and they are literally the first and only company who've shown us an actual usage breakdown. Nice.
Yep. I had it installed last year knowing I was going octopus and they are easily the best
Associate
A bit of column A and a bit of Colum B I find.
In my local area they are planning on building new Electric Pylons through all the fields as a "temporary" measure as they will remove them and run them under the sea in the future.... well... why not just start running them in the sea in the first place.
Government Policy sucks as they should stop it, company policies suck because they are just doing it as a cost cutting.
I had a fixed Octopus Agile contract that will be ending in 30th June. Happy with Agile, Standing Charge was 21p per day, which is going up to 44p if I renew. I assume there is nothing better from Octopus. PS no electric car, battery, solar. house of 2 adults, below average 3000 KWH per a year consumption.
Will most likely take the deal as there is no exit fee, can then reassess if standing charges come down later this year.
Will most likely take the deal as there is no exit fee, can then reassess if standing charges come down later this year.
Just posted same thing in other, thread, we both one day apart as well.
If it helps, I took the deal, as it will still be much cheaper than SVR, providing dailies dont move upwards too much. Its still penalty free immediate exit if it all goes **** up.
I might try to haggle a renewal of the old terms (as worse they can say is no and I am back on the path i am already on).
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Soldato
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I got an email recently saying the rate had dropped (from a random company). Not sure if/when this will get passed on. I'm sure it said the rate was something like 6p for gas.