Octopus Energy: 5 Stars for Tariff Variety, 4 Stars for Price, 5+ Stars Customer Service & Support, 5 Stars for Billing, 5 Stars for Online Portal & App, and ‘Yes’ I would definitely recommend them to anyone.

I doubt that I could add any previously undocumented praise for Octopus Energy, they have been so much better for our needs than our previous providers Eon and before that N-Power. I like the company ethos and their genuine approach to fairness to customers - despite many pressures from government policies and the current situation with Russia and Ukraine. I have found them to be very obliging and helpful over my numerous questions and queries when I wished to transfer my energy needs to them from Eon. Eon were not very helpful over updating my SMETS1 meter installed by N-Power, even though it failed to report consumption to them and as a result of this, I received many estimated readings. Octopus stressed the need to consider my decision and then consider again before I applied to transfer to them ‘Due to the volatile situation we are experiencing’; This was in May and June 2022 when I was approaching the end of a fixed tariff with Eon. When I made the decision to transfer to Octopus, I knew I would see a substantial hike in the energy tariffs but still wanted to transfer - and am very glad I did. Of course I was on a fixed tariff initially but once they had established they could get half hourly readings from our electricity meter, I applied and transferred to the Agile tariff and … as we have 8.1 kWp. Of solar PV production, applied for Agile Outgoing as well. We have found that these schemes have worked very well for us and, as we had our Tesla Powerwall installed (took 9 months to be delivered) in November are now able to make the most of off peak energy - helps us - helps the grid! There is one thing I would like to hear about and that is an interface for the Powerwall app to enable me to program the varying Agile ‘download’ times to charge the Powerwall. Regards, Toodles.

Really happy with octopus. I do not remember being with anyone else tbh. 

I second toodles on the ethos and customer service is excellent. 

They have also been very accommodating with agile export. We had them change our meter to a smart one a while back. 

We have been with intelligent octopus go for a while and they introduced new functionality (of variable times to charge the car) very gradually and making sure it added benefit to the customer at each stage. They passed the lower costs to charges when phasing out ECO in full. So 3.5p/kwh will be missed when it goes..

Happy to add Scottish Power and the review 'dont touch with a barge pole, shocking customer service and impenetrable processes.'

We were with Octopus  in our old house and it was faultless. This was in the days before smart metering and we had a fixed price tariff.

We moved to our current house four years ago (again with Octopus) and I resisted a smart meter for the first couple of years. We finally moved across (a couple of years ago) and Octopus installed the meter (a painless process). We then moved to Agile (again, easy) and have been with it pretty much ever since. With the imminent arrival of a heat pump our tariff of choice is Cosy (no EV here) and have no concerns about the ease of transition from Agile to Cosy .

Our generation based FIT is with Scottish Power. If I could rate them as hopeless, I would : unresponsive, slow to pay, daft rules of when to submit readings and no feedback if a reading is unsuccessful. I'd move if I could be bothered, but now I have a better grasp of their shortcomings, I'm just sticking with them.

We've been with ovo since they took over Scottish Hydro electric. Previously having a radio telemeter for the heating, meant there wasn't any other providers capable of billing two meters. They fitted a smart meter 18 months ago.

With a huge over winter usage, my direct debit has always left a hefty credit balance in my account at the end of summer, ready for it to be munched away over winter.

I phoned them yesterday to get a refund, because I don't think £1112 credit and a £144 per month direct debit will be required to cover this winter season when the new heatpump has a heating COP* of 5.01 and combined COP* of 4.7 over the past 11 days. * COP calculated from the HP controller output/usage data and may not be completely accurate.

So they are sending me a cheque for £963 🙂. BUT... because their system uses historic usage to calculate the DD amounts and there's no way to fundamentally change the predicted usage and my DD is set to go up in December to £309 😩 so I'll need to phone them again in the near future.

The chap on the phone was nice and helpful, but the company is a dinosaur. So I'm looking for an alternative provider. 

@singlespeed 

I am with octopus and if a large credit starts building up, i just go online and lower the direct debut amount. I think that option is not available on the octopus app. I do not remember them pushing back when I adjust it.

@singlespeed As you now have a smart meter, is paying by variable direct debit an option you have considered? With this method you only pay for the energy you've used the previous month.

Posted by: @singlespeed

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We've been with ovo since they took over Scottish Hydro electric. Previously having a radio telemeter for the heating, meant there wasn't any other providers capable of billing two meters. They fitted a smart meter 18 months ago.

With a huge over winter usage, my direct debit has always left a hefty credit balance in my account at the end of summer, ready for it to be munched away over winter.

I phoned them yesterday to get a refund, because I don't think £1112 credit and a £144 per month direct debit will be required to cover this winter season when the new heatpump has a heating COP* of 5.01 and combined COP* of 4.7 over the past 11 days. * COP calculated from the HP controller output/usage data and may not be completely accurate.

So they are sending me a cheque for £963 🙂. BUT... because their system uses historic usage to calculate the DD amounts and there's no way to fundamentally change the predicted usage and my DD is set to go up in December to £309 😩 so I'll need to phone them again in the near future.

The chap on the phone was nice and helpful, but the company is a dinosaur. So I'm looking for an alternative provider. 

Personally, I agree with @batpred. We also use Octopus and can vary the amount as we see fit.

However, in the short term I'd be inclined to make it as costly as possible for Scottish Hydro Electric to do business with you under their self-imposed rules. The FCA mandates that the customer must be given advance notice before any payment is taken from their account, and that they should also be notified in advance of any changes to the direct debit agreement including a change in the payment amount. Typically, that notice period is 10 working days. If Scottish Hydro don't typically notify you, they are in breach of FCA rules. If they do notify you, you have that notice period to disagree with the amount and require them to amend it. Doing so will involve them in manual work which is costly but they must comply if you're demonstrating the payment amount is unreasonable.

The FCA also have plenty of regulations covering the general topic of "Treating Customers Fairly". Overcharging you because their algorithm doesn't fit your use case is not treating you fairly and you could ask the FCA to investigate Scottish Hydro's compliance.

In your position, though, I'd personally drop Scottish Hydro like a hot potato and move to a supplier that has a range of time of use tariffs so you can make the most of the smart meter. Unsurprisingly, I'd put Octopus at the top of the list since they have the best range of those kinds of tariffs and we've had a decade of good customer service from them.

@singlespeed I would also recommend Octopus Energy as their whole ethos regarding customer care is is truly refreshing and streets ahead of many other suppliers. When we swapped to a heat pump and the corresponding reduction in energy consumption, we spoke to OE as we had built up a fair amount of credit; we soon received the requested repayment to a level that they wanted us to be happy with. We were also asked if we wished to reduce our monthly DD and if so, they could lower the figure to that we were happy to pay  - and then review later in the year if they found it to be greater or lesser than the appropriate to keep us in balance over a year.

I have found them (Octopus) very fair and quick to respond to customer queries - err… do you want my referral code! 😉 Regards, Toodles.

@singlespeed I would also recommend Octopus.  I phoned them Monday morning, 9.00, to switch from a Go tariff to Cosy.  Phone was answered within a minute and the tariff change was in place 3 minutes later.

On a previous occasion I requested my DD was reduced to £20pm, which they had no issues with.

Thanks everyone. Octopus were my favourite to swap to before everyone chipped in and confirmed they are still amongst the best.

One plus point for OVO was when your waiting speak to someone, "press 1 to turn off the music". Now I don't need the Economy 10 tarrif, I don't think sitting in silence is a good enough reason to stay with them when I was on the phone for 46 minutes yesterday.