“I used to consider them the best company out there as they were always so helpful and prices very good! Since the scam of the Ukranian war putting the prices up I am being charged three times more and do not even have any gas on all day unless it is vital as my house is very warm. They are just making it up as they go alone it feels like. My last bill was £350 for one person living in a house with one light on in each room and no heating most of the time, cooking one meal a day. The energy suppliers are billionairs and this has to stop, so unless we all get out there and make it stop it will only get worse.”
“What a sham this ‘bully boy’ company is!
I pay off what I owe each month for my gas supplied by Octopus (I am with another supplier for my electricity). This was due to the extortionate increases in my monthly direct debit, which went up fourfold within a month. After checking back over the past 48 months the amount they instructed I need to pay would have put me in credit by thousands within 12 months.
Despite clearing my bill each month, they wrote to me threatening that they would enforce a prepayment meter - what, for owing nothing to them!
I wrote to my MP as it was at the time British Gas was in the news for forcing entry to properties to install prepayment meters and the government made a loose promise to look into this issue. The MP wrote to the chief executive department at Octopus and I received a scathing letter with very little explanation and no apology. At the end of this response there were words used that can easily be construed as my card is marked.
Ofgem are a waste of space as it feels like they are controlled by the energy companies.
In my opinion, this type of attitude is not welcome anytime and especially when a large percentage of people are feeling vulnerable due to the cost of living crisis!
We need a proper controlling body who has the courage to stand up to these energy supply companies and enforce more control on them.”
“Similar to other customers. Confusing billing. Numbers all over the place. Massively over charged. Refund with no explanationor breakdown. Now receiving large bills again. I don't believe the smart meter is working correctly. Yes energy prices have gone up, but this is ridiculous.”
“Octopus energy sent us a bill for 1800 when the house had been empty for a year.Tryung to sort this out was a l8fistcal nightmare as they all seem incompetent. Constant inaccurate billing .Each person you talk to has no knowledge of the previous communication so its like ground hog day .I have never come across such a useless company”
“Octopus told me when I originally signed up 3 years ago that my monthly bill would be about £35. I soon realised it was well over £100 (in a 2-bed flat) and today it is more like £400-500 a month! I have been checking all points of usage and am now living without heating but the bills are still ridiculously high. Energy companies want to blame it all on the Ukrainian war. But since I had a new meter and smart meter installed costs have rocketed, so something must be amiss. But Octopus despite all its gimmicky PR nonsense takes forever to answer emails and the phone. It is shockingly bad and the government needs to take action.”
“Absolutely Incompetent Company
I have dealt with this company by default, and oh my lordy lord I do not know how their actual customers get by with they shocking customer service.
Lack of Understanding, Poor Training, No Listening, Tunnel Vision.. the list can go on.
Everything that you can find on how not to treat your customers, you will find that this company has got it to an art. In a nutshell for all the wrong reasons.
Sign up to this company at your own risk. My opinion, this company want to compete with the big boys of the business but you can't do this when your act is a Circus, which is run by clowns.”
“These crooks have advised that they are increasing their electricity price to 35.06p per kWh - ABOVE the Government's price cap of 34p! Yet they do not use any gas, claiming their energy is 100% renewable.
I have reported them to Ofgen.”
“Octopus pride themselves for their customer service. Don't believe a word you hear! I spotted serious issues with my account history and although their customer reply 'turnaround' is claimed to be the best, they have ignored my complaint and have not contacted me. They also raise your direct debit without any prior warning and give you no option to discuss the matter - in my case they raised the direct debit over 120%. Can't reply to 'how quick...' [see below] as they never contacted me.”
“Just another robbing company with no respect towards their customers!!!
I wouldn't recommend to anybody, but if you do, make sure you find out their prices as what is stated on the app is not what they will charge you. On top of that, I recommend to everyone to use third parties where you have written quotes as they directly will offer you the worse possible tariffs and will deceive you like is going to be a great offer.
Having a complaint with them regarding the above mentioned, their "professional" answer is to admit nothing and blame me for everything!!!
Definitely will never use again their services and make sure to tell every business partner and any other person about my experience with them. I just agreed to another 12 month contract after my bills went again up 50% to turn out that actually, there are companies out there that offer 30% less tariffs and this is frustrating to see how your own company rip us off!!!
Really sad how you can change the entire customer experience through bad support and ignorant staff !!!
Complaint number 215204
Thank you for a "great" experience!!!”
“I was transferred from Avro to Octopus on 26/09/21.I was paying buy direct debit.I had a debt of £29 from Avro.I received a bill of £801 for 2 months.This company is a total joke.I don't know why Ofgem appointed this company to take services from avro.”
“I joined octopus upon reading all the good reviews but unfortunately they have turned out to be worse than my original provider
First couple of months were OK and then they doubled my bills and now it is nearly four times what I started of paying even though I don't use more gas or electricity
My bill was £78 a month and now it is £ 274 after only 2 years”
“Do not believe WHICH adverts about OCTOPUS ENERGY. I switched from OVO in Sept 2019 and already regret it and will be switching as soon as the 12 months I agreed ends.I paid £170 a month with Ovo for both gas and electricity.I switched because Octopus assessed that my usage cost only £85 a month for gas and electricity.In the first month I was charged £145 and £180 for the second month.!!!!!!!”
“I’m totally disappointed and saddened by how I’ve been treated by Octopus. My old provider (Iresa) went into administration 18 months ago and they took over my acct. I had about £400 in debit with them and, rather than billing that from me in a measured amount, Octopus put me on a ‘flexible’ rate tariff and charged me almost nothing each month until my debt increased to £1000 in debit. Then, for the past 8 months they hit my account with debits of £180 per month. I only became aware of this last week and was mortified. I immediately cancelled my contract with them and switched to British Gas who will be charging me a fixed rate of £80. Octopus then informed me I still owe £400.
I don’t know how they feel that charging customers in such an erratic way is acceptable. I’m a single mother and genuinely don’t know how I’ll pay my mortgage this month because of this. They have taken over £2000 off me in 18 months and now want a further £400. It’s despicable and I intend to spread the word that this company is both irresponsible and ruthless.”
“Do not believe the fake and paid for positive reviews on here. They are produced to hide the bad reviews that genuine customers are leaving, so here's another genuine review from me which will be submitted repeatedly until someone sorts my problem out.
On 31st July, I submitted electricity meter readings, not noticing how high the difference was in comparison to the previous month. It transpires (after receiving my bill) that I had used 3 times as much electricity as my previous month's. My electricity bills went from £25-£30 per month to over £100.00!!! How is this even possible when nothing has changed, if anything I have reduced due to working more hours out of my home.
I immediately called Octopus Energy about my issue, they told me to carry out a test to isolate all power and see if my meter increases on its own. Well, it did, 3kwh over the space of 2 hours. This would equate to around £7.00 per day with no power being drawn through the meter. Evidence was sent through and they booked an engineer in to have a look. Well, a month later when the engineer was supposed to turn up, a day before they were scheduled, Octopus Energy said "the engineer was unable to stick with your appointment so can we book it in for another few weeks?" How is it possible that the engineer you booked in, manage to unbook themselves from an appointment. It is Octopus Energy's responsibility to manage this appointment successfully. So, engineer arrives, doesn't know what he's doing properly, has to resort to calling someone else and asking then what to do, goes away, I hear nothing from Octopus Energy. I had to chase them to find out what the outcome was. They said my meter was working fine based on the report from the engineer!! I'm sorry but judging by the incompetencies of the engineer, I very much doubt that 'his' findings were accurate, especially when it is clear that my meter reading is increasing at a significant rate with no power being on.
So...another engineer is booked in by Octopus Energy. Their 3rd party engineer company call me and I ask them will this test be the same as last time, they said 'yes it will'. I ask them, 'why on earth would you carry out the same test as last time?' Their response was that Octopus Energy instructed them to do this test. Engineer comes out 2 weeks later, does the same test and guess what? Nearly 2 weeks later I STILL have not received any response from Octopus Energy on this 'test' but I have received an email from them about them wanting to increase my direct debit to ensure that I'm up to date regarding payments for my increase of energy!!!!!
Are you having a giraffe??? My bills are high becasue there is a problem with my meter that YOU are supposed to be fixing Octopus Energy!!!!
This has been taken to the Energy Ombudsman as an official complaint.
So be warned, never believe everything you see on here. Do yourself a favour consumers, filter at the top 'bad' reviews to see the real Octopus Energy”
“We have been having problems with octopus energy for a year now.We purchased a derelict house to renovate.
We had constant high bills when the electric was not being used .The gas was used once to check the boiler was working and they did We had used £478 !!!
We recently sold the house in November. Three days later a direct debit was set up by one of the octopus energy team to take £478 not for gas but for electric which had been settled. Surely this is fraud as we did not authorise this direct debit and did not owe the money .I dread to think how many other people are being scammed by this bent company .They even have fake reviews on trust pilot to lure people in .
The customer service team do not communicate ,all come up with different figures ,they are totally incompetent ...criminals !!!”
“The most incompetent set of individuals I've had the misfortune to deal with
DO NOT....I repeat,DO NOT choose this motorway pile up of a company to supply your energy!”
“I’ve been on octopus GO for 11 months and had nothing but problems with them. Electricity meter not sending readings, then octopus charge me on variable tariff which is 4 times the GO rate. And complaints not dealt with, 4 different engineers been out to “sort meter” but still no joy. I’m at my whits end and it’s making me ill”
“Octopus used to be brilliant but they have gone downhill taking direct debits on random days, miscommunicating direct debit dates and failing to respond to emails (I have sent 8 now without receiving a response). The phone line also involves a massive queue and directs you to go online as most do these days. This makes you feel powerless with the poor customer service on the e mail front. I used to tell everyone how brilliant they were but I can’t recommend them any more, sadly.”
“Utterly shocking, avoid at all costs. My smart meter hasn't sent reads for three months, I have no doubt this is a ploy to charge me full rate to charge my EV overnight. After initially being told I'd receive a credit for difference in rate I'm now told to 'read the terms and conditions' and no credit will be provided. A terrible choice for anyone with an EV, much better alternative options out there.”
