Octopus energy

Are any members customers?

Yes

Yes. But they didn't install our meter.

Well all of the suppliers will contract out the fitting of the meters. You'd have thought that if you found your meters install in that state then you report it to Octopus and if I were Octopus I'd be prosecuting the electrician.

hoppyscotty said:

Well all of the suppliers will contract out the fitting of the meters. You'd have thought that if you found your meters install in that state then you report it to Octopus and if I were Octopus I'd be prosecuting the electrician.

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I'm no expert, but that's what I thought as well - all the suppliers outsource their fitting to local subcontractors. Same with solar installs.

Yes. Very pleased with the service I've had from them.

hoppyscotty said:

. You'd have thought that if you found your meters install in that state then you report it to Octopus and if I were Octopus I'd be prosecuting the electrician.

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How many of us would go to the meter and pull on the wires after they left, i would now if i read this it sounds like its not the first time he has seen this kind of dangerous workmanship.

Chippy_Tea said:

How many of us would go to the meter and pull on the wires after they left, i would now if i read this it sounds like its not the first time he has seen this kind of dangerous workmanship.

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If he's seen more than one, then there is obviously a dodgy smart meter installer in his area & he should report that back to octopus and the distribution network supplier.

Brew_DD2 said:

Yes. Very pleased with the service I've had from them.

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Ditto

Yes. This needs to be reported to Octopus. Based on my experience of their customer service I'd expect them to take this very seriously.

I am a customer and they are very good.
Agree that smart meter fitting is out sourced to contractors, I would report to Octoplus.

Chippy_Tea said:

How many of us would go to the meter and pull on the wires after they left, i would now if i read this it sounds like its not the first time he has seen this kind of dangerous workmanship.

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Well you wouldn't as a consumer...exactly why the electrician who is responsible should be prosecuted because it's unlikely to be caught by the consumer and is a potential fire or electrocution risk. If for some other reason the home owner wanted to check something around the meter and a loose live wire popped out it could not end well. It's for these reasons electricians have to be qualified and trained regularly and comply with strict regulations.

In reality as consumers we should check that any trades person we employ either directly or indirectly does a proper job. Every single time I've done a DIY job around my house or got a trades person in I've found things that are not upto code...OK most are fairly benign and not an immediate safety or fire risk, but just goes to show the trades people who did those jobs originally didn't do them correctly.

I am, in general I'm happy with them, never had reason to complain. Didn't chose them, I was with Avro who went bust during the whole energy crash thing, so Octopus picked up their customers. I've stuck with them since on the standard tariff as according the the Money Saving bloke you wouldn't get a better deal elsewhere due to the price cap. I think that landscape has changed now so I may look to moving suppliers.

They've also been badgering me to get smart meters as apparently my existing meters may now no longer be accurate because of their age and they can only be replaced with smart meters now. If I go ahead with that I'll be carefully inspecting their work after.

Yes I am.

Graz said:

They've also been badgering me to get smart meters as apparently my existing meters may now no longer be accurate because of their age and they can only be replaced with smart meters now. If I go ahead with that I'll be carefully inspecting their work after

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Unless you want a smart meter, just ignore them. The electricity suppliers have targets to meet to install small meters, but you are under no obligation to get one installed. Everything they say about inaccuracies, you "must" etc is just scare tactics. I was with SSE for years and they kept on badgering me and I just ignored them for about 5 years

Octopus arranged installation of my smart meter back in July. Can’t fault the workmanship but the meter was….totally dumb. They replaced the comms unit in September, still no joy. I’m now told that because the smart meter network in my area is radio, not WAN, there is nothing they can do apart from move the meter closer to an outside wall Not impressed since the main reason for getting it was to take advantage of their 7p/KWh rate for charging my car. On the other hand, my wife is delighted. She was against it on the basis that ner’do wells could hack the network, see when you were away and come round to clean us out. Fortunately the lowlife in my area are not that sophisticated.

Yeah I've been fighting it but it's ultimately inevitable as energy prices are only going one way. We're already back to 1940's level of energy prices and we're about to find out why life in the 1940's was pretty dire compared to what we're used to. So coercing us to use energy when its convenient for the energy companies is one way to mitigate the ever increasing energy prices since we've lost energy security and independence and the only way to access those lower energy prices is to have a smart meter. Its ultimately already mandated because you wont be able to replace your dumb meter with a new dumb meter once it wears out or needs some form of maintenance.

The new houses being built near me are already having restricted power supplies via lower rated main fuses...my home has a 100a fuse but new homes have a 50a fuse fitted so government restricted power supply is already being implemented.

Also a mate of mine was an obudsman for offgen before COVID and the bulk of her workload was dealing with problems with smart meters...bascially lack of comms so effectively still a dumb meter, people struggling to change suppliers and connecting their smart meter to the new supplier and in some cases people having been significantly overcharged and struggling to get the money back off the energy supplier so seems to me the actual meters themselves are a bit hit and miss....and a work colleague who recently had one installed has never been able to connect to the supplier and despite many tech visits they've failed to fix and have given up and he basically has a dumb meter and has to report his readings just as he did before.

Its an absolute Cluster-F!!

hoppyscotty said:

The new houses being built near me are already having restricted power supplies via lower rated main fuses...my home has a 100a fuse but new homes have a 50a fuse fitted so government restricted power supply is already being implemented.

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Wow, first time I've heard about that. Might make charging your Tesla interesting, most EV chargers are 30A, doesn't leave much overhead. Add an air source heat pump to that...

hoppyscotty said:

Yeah I've been fighting it

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Me too. I am on a poor signal area and have four meters. I cannot see anything good happening.

Why do threads like this go the same direction???

To answer the question. Yes I am, they didn't install the meter (smart). Good company. Happy with the benefits - free coffees etc. Had an issue with one month's bill and all corrected.