Octopus changing its mind.

[NickHeynes]

The phone does automatic updates and last downloaded one in early September. There must be a way to take screenshots. The phone is only about 14 months old. But I can't figure out what it is. I'm probably being really dense.

Just a thought , it may not work and I found out by accident , double tap the rear of the phone . I know it sounds weird but it does work .

 

[johnb80]

It seemed like the lack of data and lateness in billing were causing anxiety.

But perhaps you remained cool throughout!

There was nothing to get concerned about. They provided energy which I will pay for at an agreed price when they send their bill. what does it matter? wheres the worry?

Just a thought , it may not work and I found out by accident , double tap the rear of the phone . I know it sounds weird but it does work .

Thats a configurable option (assuming iPhone)

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap

There are many options, double and triple tap all configurable. I assume other (lesser) phones will be similar

 

[mg4mc]

I have my Android configured to switch the torch on with a double tap on the back.

 

[philip]

It's always at the cheap price from 11.30 till 5.30. The carrot is that if you let Octopus choose your charging slots you might get some time outside that period also at the cheap price. That's fine, so long as you can rely on actually getting the slots they tell you you've been allocated. But if they're going to tell me I have a cheap slot from 11.00 till 11.30, then change their minds later, after I've set up my system in anticipation of this, that's hopeless.

I’ve had IOG with a Zappi and MG4, since Zappis were included. I struggled to get the car charged. A schedule would be created, but not charge. So I reverted to setting my own schedule between 11.30 and 5.30.
This has been fine for months, but Octopus have been in touch to say they will revert me to Go unless I comply with t&c’s. I understand. So I reinstall my Zappi as instructed, but still the same problem, schedule created, but no charge.

I have disabled schedules on car and Zappi. The Octopus app acts as if all is well, the Zappi app says ‘car preventing charge’. But as far as I can see scheduling is off.
Can anyone advise what I’m doing wrong please?

 

[johnb80]

I’ve had Igo with a Zappi and MG4, since Zappi’s were included. I struggled to get the car charged. A schedule would be created, but not change. So I reverted to setting my own schedule between 11.30 and 5.30.
This has bee fine for months, but Octopus have been in touch to say they will revert me to Go unless I comply with t&c’s. I understand. So I reinstall my Zappi as instructed, but still the same problem, schedule created, but no charge.

I have disabled schedules on car and Zappi . The octopus app acts as if all is well, the Zappi app says ‘car preventing charge’. But as far as I can see scheduling is off.
Can anyone advise what I’m doing wrong please?

Move you electric to Tomato. 5p for 6 hours off peak, no messing about with changing shedules and only 40p standing charge. Brilliant service, great company. There is someone from Tomato on here too, see the Tomato thread at the end

Tomato Thread. (leannasouth)

 

[Rolfe]

I’ve had IOG with a Zappi and MG4, since Zappis were included. I struggled to get the car charged. A schedule would be created, but not charge. So I reverted to setting my own schedule between 11.30 and 5.30.
This has been fine for months, but Octopus have been in touch to say they will revert me to Go unless I comply with t&c’s. I understand. So I reinstall my Zappi as instructed, but still the same problem, schedule created, but no charge.

I have disabled schedules on car and Zappi. The Octopus app acts as if all is well, the Zappi app says ‘car preventing charge’. But as far as I can see scheduling is off.
Can anyone advise what I’m doing wrong please?

I honestly don't know. I'm not having that problem. If I get an IOG schedule, the car charges. My only gripe is that Octopus change the schedule after advising me of it.

Can you tell me what the T&Cs are to stay on IOG? How often you have to do a smart charge? I can't find the details. I can certainly do the occasional smart charge just to keep them happy.

If you can't get it to work at all, something is badly wrong. Have you contacted whoever supplied and fitted your Zappi?

 

[johnb80]

Can you tell me what the T&Cs are to stay on IOG? How often you have to do a smart charge? I can't find the details. I can certainly do the occasional smart charge just to keep them happy.

Once per month.

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks, I can easily do that, simply by asking for a fairly small percentage to be added by 5.30 am. I don't have the slightest objection to them charging the car any time they like, IF the times they give me when they announce "we've mapped tonight's smart charge!" are the actual times when it will happen. But if they aren't reliable, then no dice. They might as well say "we'll charge your car some time, but it could be any time."

The weird thing is, different people at Octopus keep replying to me and there isn't a consistent line. Some say that the times advised should be adhered to, others aren't quite so sure, but I can't get a straight answer.

It's not just the issue of draining the home battery, it's the timing of other domestic usage. The first time I noticed this it was because I had been given a slot to start at 11 pm. I usually aim to export my home battery to end about 11.30, but on that evening I changed the setting to finish the export at 11 pm, expecting the car to start charging then, and that I could turn on the washing machine. Fortunately (a) I hadn't set the home battery to start charging at 11 pm, and (b) I actually looked at the GivEnergy app at about 11.02. Car wasn't charging.

Looked again at the Octopus app, and now the car wasn't scheduled to start charging till midnight. So there I was, with an empty home battery and half an hour still to go till the normal off-peak time kicked in. All I could do was abandon the idea of turning on the washing machine, and switch all but essential usage off for that last half-hour.

I looked back at the app several times during the late evening, and every time I looked the schedule was different. I think in fact it wasn't due to start till 2 am at one point. That's when I said, sod it, and told the Zappi to charge the car 11.30 till 5.30.

I noticed a slot timed 8.00-8.30 when I looked the last time. (The original times I'd given had been 11.00-11.30 and 11.30-5.00.) I thought, if I could rely on that, I'd put the Eddi on to heat the water then, and of course set the home battery to charge too. But I couldn't. The last thing I wanted to happen was to have the Eddi on and taking peak-price electricity because they'd changed their minds again. So I ignored it.

I thought nothing would happen in that slot anyway, because I thought the car would probably be full before then. However, it can't have been quite full, because it charged for about ten minutes starting at 8 am. Fortunately that wasn't enough to make serious inroads into my home battery - it was a very dull day with almost no solar, so I needed the battery - but if it had charged the full half hour it would have been a different story.

I just wish I could get some coherent, consistent sense out of Octopus. I explained all that in my first email to them, and got the reply that I was labouring under a misapprehension and the rest of the home electricity was not at the off-peak price during these extra charging slots, and anyway, all I had to do was to set my battery to charge 11.30-5.390.

Honestly, who are these people?

 

[tsedge]

I have recently been getting very fragmented time slots from IOG, not sure I am keen on having charging starting and stopping so often (wear and tear aspects?).

So Tomato is looking good, I only ever wanted a 6hr cheap period anyway, no interest in slots outside that.

 

[Rolfe]

I noticed that the "revised" time slots I was getting were very fragmented, which is also an issue.

On the evening that kicked all this off I was originally given 11.00-11.30 then 11.30 to 5.00. So six hours, and only offset from the normal off-peak period by half an hour. OK. But then once it started to change I was getting silly slots sometimes only of a few minutes. I don't know if that's an issue for the battery or not, but it's an irritation.

I notice that my GivEnergy app has recently updated itself to allow me to schedule up to ten separate slots for my battery to charge. (I think the possibility was always there on the web site.) This should allow me to cope perfectly well with Octopus's fragmented slots (assuming the car doesn't mind). Just note the slots allocated when the app says "we've mapped tonight's smart charge!" and set the battery to charge at these times. But if Octopus are going to change it all half an hour later, and then again half an hout after that, and so on ad infinitum, it's absolutely hopeless.

 

[tsedge]

Yes, it is still in beta and they are, I suppose, experimenting with different forms of time slots, but then it does become very confusing.

I can't help thinking that the incentives are misaligned somewhat:

• People want a predictable low cost service, set and forget.
• Octopus want to precisely control their costs to maximise the benefit to themselves, which implies a very dynamic system.

 

[Rolfe]

The way they are going, people are simply going to charge their cars using the charger's own schedule, during the normal off-peak period, and set a short smart charge once a month to keep the tariff. This is surely less useful to them than giving people a schedule when they plug in and sticking to it.

Most of the time I don't much care when they want to charge the car. I do care if they're going to play silly buggers after I've gone to sleep, which then result in me either charging the home battery at peak-rate prices, or finding myself with an empty home battery at 9 am on a dull morning.

Oh, and the latest person to show up on the Twitter DM thread has "they/them" in her signature. That's pretty much enough to make me change suppliers on the spot. Please tell me Tomato doesn't let blue-haired they/thems broadcast their compelled speech to unsuspecting customers.

 

[johnb80]

The way they are going, people are simply going to charge their cars using the charger's own schedule, during the normal off-peak period, and set a short smart charge once a month to keep the tariff.

OR change to Tom,ato, less hassle, less money, does what it says on the tin - simple.

This is surely less useful to them than giving people a schedule when they plug in and sticking to it.

Octopus IMHO have become complacent with their position in the marketplace.

Most of the time I don't much care when they want to charge the car. I do care if they're going to play silly buggers after I've gone to sleep, which then result in me either charging the home battery at peak-rate prices, or finding myself with an empty home battery at 9 am on a dull morning.

No comment

Oh, and the latest person to show up on the Twitter DM thread has "they/them" in her signature. That's pretty much enough to make me change suppliers on the spot. Please tell me Tomato doesn't let blue-haired they/thems broadcast their compelled speech to unsuspecting customers.

Tomato doesn't let blue-haired they/thems broadcast their compelled speech to unsuspecting customers. !

 

[tsedge]

I don't think I can set a fixed schedule though, because Octopus control my Zappi all the time it is Eco+ mode. I could switch the Zappi to manually fast charge (or bump charge) but I think operating a Zappi schedule requires me to disconnect the Zappi from Octopus completely.

Or is there a way to do this?

Octopus IMHO have become complacent with their position in the marketplace.

They certainly don't seem to improving their offerings recently. I have a home mini that just refuses to work reliably. IOG has stayed in perpetual beta.

When you become a big dominant player, often innovation falls away and corporate bureaucracy wins out.

 

[Rolfe]

I don't think I can set a fixed schedule though, because Octopus control my Zappi all the time it is Eco+ mode. I could switch the Zappi to manually fast charge (or bump charge) but I think operating a Zappi schedule requires me to disconnect the Zappi from Octopus completely.

Or is there a way to do this?

Turn off smart charging in the Octopus app. I didn't know how to do this till John showed me. It's in the profile section, under devices. With that off, the Zappi will do its thing. I have a schedule set to charge 11.45-5.30 every night, and just plug in whenever I want the car to charge. If I want to keep Octopus happy once in a while I can just turn smart charging on again.

 

[tsedge]

Great, thank you.

 

[securespark]

Octopus IMHO have become complacent with their position in the marketplace.

They are a Which? Recommended Provider.

I admit I didn't keep my eye on the ball, but I let our balance build up to £2K.

BUT, it was a real battle getting them to refund £1500 of it. The guy on the phone tried every excuse not to refund it (Winter is coming up and you don't want to be in debt being the one he kept going back to) but we insisted. Eventually, we got a refund, but it took more than a week to land in our account.

We were paying £350 a month, but I have just now rung them and got it reduced to £200. We have an account balance of £500, so if there are some monthly shortfalls, they could be taken from that.

Wishful thinking perhaps that your gas and electricity provider would refund your money without needing to be poked, but as a WRP, you'd expect a better service from Octopus than what most companies provide, which in the case of account balances is to quietly hang on to your money, making a nice little amount of interest on it.

At least a courtesy phone call could be made, asking if you'd like a refund when your account balance reaches a certain positive level. Maybe I'm being naive?

 

[tsedge]

Mine also built up to £1,000. I have been steadily reducing the payment but it is still over £500, just reduced it again down to £100/month to try to catch up.

The app is telling me I should be paying £340/month, which is absurd given my actual usage.

Why the hell can't I just pay for whatever I use each month rather than have to have an averaged bill?

 

[Rolfe]

I found I could change the monthly DD in the app very easily. My first DD was £104.53 because that's what I was paying Scottish Power every month at the time. A couple of weeks later I managed to reduce it to £40, but if I tried going less than that I got a message saying this wasn't advised as it could put me in debt. A month later I managed to reduce it to £25, which is basically my standing charge plus a little bit extra for luck. This all happened in the summer when I didn't have my G99, so I was using all the solar I could pack into the car, the washing machine, anything. Any mains electricity I used was a pure accident.

Then I got my export tariff, in mid-August, and Octopus started paying me. I'm now £286.51 in credit, and I'll just leave that alone and see what happens over the next four months or so. I'm (optimistically) hoping that over the year as a whole Octopus will be paying me rather than the other way around, but it all depends on how much cloud cover there is.

Bear in mind that my heating is kerosene and absolutely nothing to do with Octopus. I can't see Octopus paying me enough to cover the oil bills as well!

 

[Alb]

My balance sits almost permanently at zero.