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There once was a user quite bold, Who wanted some cash, truth be told,
"No referral codes here!" Said the rules, crystal clear,
But sod'em I'm after the cash.
Up untill now, they have been fine, overcharging and pocketing the extra but as you say I can ask for it back. Taking a photo isnt really much hassle, its just odd that they want a meter reading then follow it up asking for proof. Wasnt sure if this is a new company wide thing or if I'm being singled out.
We have a gen 1 electric smart meter which is basically useless, we were told that we couldnt have a gas one because they'd be too close together and I refuse to give up a days holiday so they can fit a gen 2. Again, they have a shed load of my money, if I was trying to scam them by under reporting usage, I'm doing a bad job.
Why are you letting them have £600 of your money?!
It started out that we under paid through winter and over paid through summer, averaging out about right, its slowly crept up to them basing the whole year on our winter usage, I really should get a refund off them.
Also, I could just take pictures once a day for a week and submit one every month making it look like I've used almost nothing... Hardly the most robust fraud detection process is it?
its just odd that they want a meter reading then follow it up asking for proof.
I'd say it's pretty standard* - plus, maybe, the fact that they have a big chunk of your money and they want to know why.
* I've had to send a photo of my PV generation meter recently - it's a bi-annual requirement to check you're not making numbers up and that the meter hasn't been changed.
As it happens they [EDF] had not validated my previous generation meter photo from March '24 and I'd had no FIT payments since then - they're now sending me £4500 😁
The only utility company I've ever dealt with to have decent customer service.
Not at all good in my experience. Getting a smart meter replaced took months and required some high-level chuntering to get someone out. Back-billing problems ongoing from that from early 2024.
This year I had the warm home grant taken from the bill. Neither of the bill payers are on means tested benefits and we aren't entitled to it. My son who has the same initial is on means-tested support due to Long Covid. Wrote and asked for it to be dis-applied, re-assured that it would be and lo it's still there this month! Their billing team is truly shocking.
I am not a fan, but they are all as bad as each other and when checking the tariff savings there don't appear to be any due to chicanery with standing charges and unit prices.
Been fine for me but likely to switch out as they are a few hundred £ more this year than some others based on my usage.
Been using them for years, so does mum and best mate. I’ve never had an issue, pay £60 month for electricity and have approx £200 in account thanks to recent £150 warm home bonus/discount thing.
It started out that we under paid through winter and over paid through summer, averaging out about right, its slowly crept up to them basing the whole year on our winter usage
This is what I get with them, keep trying to up my payments so I am in credit with them all year - nope I'll go into deficit over winter & then back into credit over summer thank you very much.
I pay by variable DD last Yr I think only 2 x DD were taken in winter Having solar and 15kwh batteries and on ev rate. I export excess and any credit is applied to import account. So credit is built up by the SEG rather than me paying them a set amount ea month.
It started out that we under paid through winter and over paid through summer, averaging out about right, its slowly crept up to them basing the whole year on our winter usage
Yup they all do this. It's a sport to them.
Don't **** about with these corporate shithouse rats and their hateful admin children. Take them to the ombudsman. Just received 180 quid in compensation, a grovelling apology letter, reduced DD and refunded credit. That's 580 quid in compo so far this year from these shyster businesses, we are forced to deal with going about our day-to-day lives. Absolutely hate the ****s, all of them!
This is what I get with them, keep trying to up my payments so I am in credit with them all year - nope I'll go into deficit over winter & then back into credit over summer thank you very much.
which is where i am too (although im never in debit over winter still). notified that my DD was going up despite having over £200 in there but it was easy enough to just log in and reduce it back down to slightly less than it was before.
Take them to the ombudsman. Just received 180 quid in compensation, a grovelling apology letter, reduced DD and refunded credit.
It takes me about 3 clicks in the Octopus app to request a credit refund and another 3 clicks to adjust my DD. Any reason why that wasn't an option for you?
Just checked mine, the amount in credit has crept up to over £1100, with monthly usage around £300 which will no doubt go up a bit over next 3 months. I have used the app to request a £400 refund.
They will now ask for my monthly DD to go up from current £400 I imagine…
Just checked mine, the amount in credit has crept up to over £1100
I have used the app to request a £400 refund.
id be requesting £1100. better in your bank than theirs 😉
Just set up variable DD and pay for what you use
Just checked mine, the amount in credit has crept up to over £1100
Do you not look at the account statements they email to you every month?
They put mine up from £110 to £160 but this is the first winter after the heat pump was installed so the prices are reasonable. However at that rate I think we will be in credit after next summer. This post is not useful to anyone.
My app says I can't automatically get a refund "due to an issue with your meter" ! ie. It's not a smart meter and never will be 😛
They’re not great on the smart meter front. We have two accounts with them one house has a smart meter which doesn’t work. They can’t be bothered fixing it, we’ve made multiple requests. It’s one of the northern half of the UKs meters working on a dodgy comms network which doesn’t work well in the north half of the uk. Seemingly the meters that use mobile data work much better. I’ve not bothered getting a smart meter installed in the other house as it seems pointless if they use the same type. So a monthly manual readings gets submitted for both. I think Fuse energy put in decent meters with mobile data. I’m thinking of moving both accounts to them as without a working smart meter I can’t get a smart tariff.
its just odd that they want a meter reading then follow it up asking for proof
The reason is likely quite simple and not singling you out as an individual.
Whenever you enter a reading it needs to be validated. The validation varies from supplier to supplier but it will take into account your previous consumption, your supplier estimated consumption and also the estimated annual consumption held within industry data for your meterpoint.
If the reading you submitted fails validation some suppliers will ask for another reading. Octopus it seems have cottoned on to how easy it is to get a photo of the meter which provides a fair amount of extra useful information alongside the reading. This will then be used to validate the reading and hopefully update the industry. The reality is they need at least two validated readings a decent distance apart to guarantee the industry update.
Ideally all of the industry stuff should be transparent to the customer but the reality is that is not always the case.
The cynic in me also wont rule out a degree of behaviour modelling. Asking for a photo makes submitting a read a bit more inconvenient and may encourage a few more folks to think about a smart meter.
I think Fuse energy put in decent meters with mobile data.
Tread carefully. The UK smart metering network for DCC enrolled meters in the north is long range radio / mesh only.
If a company is promising to fit a meter that uses mobile data it likely will not be connected to the UK smart meter network and will not be able to move to another supplier in smart mode.
Get details of exactly what they propose to fit and how it impacts your ability to change supplier before you commit
Thanks for your input seriousrikk. I’m in no hurry to change. It does seem crazy that the meters selected for oop north don’t work in quite a lot of rural areas. Long range radio in the mountains of the highlands does seem a silly idea to me.
As of April 2025, it is possible to have a cellular smart meters installed in the LW radio meter zone. I have one, installed by Octopus, after our smart meter repeatedly failed to upload 1/2 hourly usage data.
Despite never sending them a photo, yesterday I got a generic email saying they are closing my ticket and hope they answered all my questions, so as I thought, they didn't need it at all.
Thanks for your input seriousrikk. I’m in no hurry to change. It does seem crazy that the meters selected for oop north don’t work in quite a lot of rural areas. Long range radio in the mountains of the highlands does seem a silly idea to me.
The actual thinking behind it was pretty sound. At the time it was all planned out mobile coverage was pretty poor in rural areas so the proposal to use a mesh of long wave radio was billed as a solution to this.
The downside of course it that to work properly as a mesh there needed to be a decent takeup of smart meters and that just hasn't happened at the scale it was supposed to.
As of April 2025, it is possible to have a cellular smart meters installed in the LW radio meter zone. I have one, installed by Octopus, after our smart meter repeatedly failed to upload 1/2 hourly usage data.
Oh cool, thanks for the correction. I'll go read up about those - I will confess it's a few years now since I was involved in the device side of things.