“I am very disappointed with Octopus Energy and would not recommend them based on my experience.
We were customers for around two and a half years. For over a year, I repeatedly contacted them because our electricity bills seemed extremely high. Every time I raised concerns, I was told usage was high, but it wasn't. However, when I spoke to neighbours in similar properties, many of them were paying roughly half of what we were paying.
There were only two people living in the flat. One person was out from morning until evening, and the other was usually out from midday until late at night. Despite this, our electricity costs were often around £120 per month. If we were extremely careful and practically lived in the dark, the bill would drop to around £90. On one occasion, only one person lived in the property for an entire month, and the bill was still around £90.
What made things even more suspicious was that the electricity monitor would sometimes show significant usage at 6 a.m. when both of us were asleep. We have no idea where that electricity was supposedly being used. The only appliance running continuously was a standard fridge. All light bulbs were energy-efficient. The cooker was gas, and the hot water was also gas.
Despite our repeated concerns, nobody at Octopus ever seemed willing to send an engineer to properly investigate the issue. Given the building's age, we suspect we may have been paying for part of another flat's electricity usage, or that there was an issue with the wiring or meter setup.
Customer service was also frustrating. They seemed very happy to collect higher direct debit payments while leaving large amounts of credit in the account. If you wanted your own money returned, it became a lengthy process that could take around 10 days.
The financial impact was significant. We spent months worrying about electricity costs, constantly trying to reduce our usage and feeling uncomfortable in our own home just to keep the bills down. The lack of investigation and support from Octopus left us feeling completely ignored.
Very disappointing experience.
We moved out of that place, and now we are paying a normal price with another company.
Update:
It's been 3 weeks since we switched to another Electricity Company in a different place. Same people, same usage, same amount of laundry, and in 21 days we only spent £34 on electricity! I wish we could change it then. God knows how much extra we paid to Octopus in the last 3 years.”
“I am only leave a 2 star review as I am still awaiting an answer to my bill, I believe you are still investigating so it’s is not good timing to ask for review when I have not received feedback to the issue.”
“Trying to get a clear answer about transferring to an ev tariff has been impossible via email.
Other than directing me to the app no solution or answer to specific query re changing tariff. Will call customer service and hopefully get an answer and solution”
“Renu was amazing when I eventually had her on the phone!
Grace was disgraceful
Basically smart meter installation took a year to complete. I spent a tremendous amount of time on the phone, or with engineers and the system as a whole never functioned properly completely. The contracted company was completely disjointed and the issue is engineers left the site each time and promised it would work, so the issue is in the nature of the agreement (contractors can leave site before making sure it works)
After a few months of taking break as I was exhausted with them, I finally got around to leaving Octopus item on my TODO list but I decided to give it another try and Renu changed my mind and fixed all of the remaining issues.
The key difference between Renu and Grace is that Renu listened and was prepared to help rather than inviting "my hub must be too far away from the meters" and abruptly closing the case.”
“After 6 weeks and many emails it is clear that Customer Services are no help in getting my smart meters fixed. They keep asking for more information and then losing it between Jamie leigh and Hollie.
Yesterday an Octopus engineer was with my neighbour fixing his identical meters and confirmed that my meters need the same but of course he needed your authorisation.”
“I submitted an indemnity claim after Octopus Energy withdrew an extra £220 from my account, even though I had already moved out a month earlier and paid what they labelled a “final bill.”
That final bill was an inflated charge to clear a supposed debt for a one-bedroom flat, where we were being charged close to £300 per month. We found this completely unreasonable given our normal energy usage. We raised a dispute and requested a debt waiver, but Octopus took the money anyway without properly addressing our concerns.
Their response was essentially, “It’s already been taken, nothing we can do,” and all follow-up attempts to get real support went nowhere. No resolution. No accountability. Just an expensive lesson. I wouldn’t use Octopus Energy again.”
“Very polite and helpful agent (Mo) who done his best to resolve the fact that my account hadn't been opened and processed two weeks after submitting information requested. If he had not forgotten to submit a meter upgrade request as promised it would have been 5 stars. Instead, my business has been dead in the water without 3-phase power since the 6th of April and today is the 21st of May... I'm told to hang on for another 10 weeks or more for the upgrade. If you need to upgrade your supply, Octopus Energy isn't for you, stay clear. If you only need great flexible rates, they have the best I could find. Overall, I'm personally very disappointed but that doesn't mean this will be the same for you and some else (Georgi) has picked up on this today, hopefully I will have a positive update to post and not in September!”
“You (Jamie-Leigh) failed to respond to the specific questions in my email and simply wrote a standard generic response! Wasting my time so i have to write another email and hope this gets responded to!”
“One wonders about the positive reviews, possibly because they are not as bad as the others.
But their executives like to put consumers down, intimidation is the name of their games.
I am with Octopus, because they are cheaper, I used to pay them in advance, but that did not change their paperwork telling me I owe them money for ever.
And their ceo bobbling on not having any personnel department.
Unfortunately at the moment there are no very good energy suppliers but some better with communications than others.
So, no, octopus is not my favorite.
About time energy companies to be made public.”
“Not responsive with my request to change to a suitable and competitive tariff and left me on a basic rubbish one without answering my last two emails”
“You sent me a series of questions regarding my meters. As I didnt understand the difference between the FIT meter and a Export meter I was not able to give accurate answers plus I was alarmed when you said my FIT payment would be suspended.
It took several emails and calls to your Customer Support before I got the assurance from you that everything was ok.
Thankyou”
“Now changed my billing set up ,new Go Cardless system cancelled my direct debit, numerous calls and no one could tell me why. One part of the system said it wasn't cancelled and one said it was.
Had to call today to get confirmation of the new billing system which I've gone to which means I pay my bills when they are due . I refused to set up another Direct Debit and my bank advised me not to do so.
I've been a loyal customer and I am currently disgusted at the downturn in customer service. Like many others I wasn't aware a new system had been introduced.
You need to address problems when the fault lies with Octopus not keep sending emails telling me I have cancelled my Direct Debit . Although now I have, I no longer have faith in Octopus Energy and I certainly don't trust this new system . which according to your staff , seems to have a mind of its own.”
“We are still being billed via estimated readings after almost a year now.
Octopus staff have been and continue to be very good at responding to queries or complaints in a professional and friendly manner and I just hope they can resolve the issue now.”
“Have been a customer for octopus energy for 2 years. Recently fixed tariff ended was an intelligent go to. But now they don’t even have my tariff details so I can’t even signup to any of their tariffs. Customer service have been absolutely useless. Standard response is I don’t know why you can’t see a tariff or resign to octopus intelligent go. Been charging me standard rate for the last two months whilst sending me emails indicating I am intelligent go.
Asked to speak to a manager and they cut me off. Just can’t get the customer service these days… very very poor.”
“I have not had a bad experience Kai at has just transferred my bags account to octopus. This box came when I pressed to give my review of service, here goes, Kaina at was friendly helpful and very pleasant, everything she did for me was completed efficiently.”
