The Cheapest Energy So Far

[Oldman]

Just had my first monthly bill from Tomato. I had steered clear of the first and last hour of 5p rate just in case of billing errors for the whole 32 days of my bill. I used 197kWh and they charged me £24.06 in total.
I made it £24.08 so spot on TE!
My 20kWh of batteries store enough at 5p to keep me going the rest of the 24hrs with some very minimal toe dipping at £1.40 over 32 days in the other rates.
All they need to do now is set a competitive export rate and I will be a very happy bunny.

 

[johnb80]

There have been many discussions about the timing of the tariff periods. I came across this elsewhere:-


"Hello everyone. My name is Farouk Alhassan, CEO at Tomato Energy. I am really grateful that the admin team have allowed me to join the group. I have heard a lot about this group and I am grateful to be part of it.

We are fully aware of the issue affecting Smart Meter customers where consumption is recorded at the end of the settlement period instead of the start. This makes the comsumption get charged on the wrong side of the day for the first half hour of the day.

This error happened due to a subtle detail in the SMETS2 Specifications that we failed to notice. Traditionally, the Half Hourly Meters from which SMETS2 meters were derived had the settlement period recorded at the start.

But we have already implemented the solution which is being released over this weekend and early next week in a very carefully coordinated way. This will mitigate the issue for the November bills so the issue will be resolved. For previous bills, we have a program of work which will allow us to reverse the bills and re-bill customers to ensure no customer suffers any financial detriment.

The other issues are also being actively investigated. As you know, whilst we are not new to energy, we are new to the domestic market and with all the good intentions we have, we are learning lots of little details we would only discover by actually being in the market. But they will all be resolved soon. I am a software programmer myself and I actively participate in the fixes so I can assure you they are being addressed.

One of the issues is with SMETS1 meters who were botched into the smart metering program through a hack because of lobbying by some of the large suppliers. As a result, these meters don't work and yet we have to treat them as smart meters which is causing lots of issues. We are working very hard to replace them but that task is currently blocked because of the huge paperwork required to be able to start fixing meters yourself. But we will get over it.

Our smart tariffs are only a tip of the iceberg in terms of what we plan to do in the energy market but we are first learning how we walk, then we will do the run.
Sorry for all the inconveniences. If there are any issues affecting anyone directly, I am here. Raise it with me and I will look into it. We need a teeny tiny bit of patience whilst we go through this phase but I can assure you, joining Tomato Energy will be the best energy switch decision once things settle.

Also, we have been a bit of a victim of our own success as we didn't expect this to fly off so quickly. This has caused a lot of customers reaching out for various clarifications but we don't have that many people which has resulted in some bad experiences when customers try to contact us. We are hiring very aggressively to create the bandwidth needed. New starters are joining soon which dramatically help in answering customers' queries. Hang on tight! We will fix this!

Thank you soo much for being our customers and your support. Just being a member of this group shows you care. Together we can make sustainable energy and Energy-as-a-Service the norm not the exception of the energy market!"

Watching with interest.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I changed over 17/10. If I attempt to enter a meter reading on myWatts it won't take two readings (I had a day and a night rate) and it gives an error message if I enter the total. I've not heard frm them since before the change over (they don't answer emails) - I assume they're going to want money at some stage. I read of someone taking two and a half hours on the phone trying to sort something out - I'm not prepared to waste that amount of money on a PAYG. One reason I change from Octopus was their customer service was abysmal, but this this lot take the biscuit.

 

[johnb80]

I changed over 17/10. If I attempt to enter a meter reading on myWatts it won't take two readings (I had a day and a night rate) and it gives an error message if I enter the total. I've not heard frm them since before the change over (they don't answer emails) - I assume they're going to want money at some stage. I read of someone taking two and a half hours on the phone trying to sort something out - I'm not prepared to waste that amount of money on a PAYG. One reason I change from Octopus was their customer service was abysmal, but this this lot take the biscuit.

I changed personally on 1st September and my business premises on 28th October. My readings didnt go live on my home supply for about 16 days and it was about 7 weeks before I got a bill. My business wont connect to MyWatts so I'm uploading the reading once per week.
They are slow to answer emails as per Farouk's message above, they do however answer the phone quickly and in my limited experience, resolve issues quickly. Whilst their customer service may not be up to scratch yet, their pricing is brilliant and they are admitting to their problems and stated what theyre doing to improve / resolve issues.