“Fine when things are ticking along as normal, but as soon as there is an issue, they are an absolute nightmare.
Constant excuses, failed promises, missed deadlines, impossible to speak to a specific person by phone as apparently they can't transfer calls and don't have direct contact numbers, so you are stuck with email as the main form of communication, which means constant delays.
An awful company to deal with. My complaint was logged in Nov 2025 and it's still not resolved, because of how useless and unhelpful they are.”
“I am not entirely happy with Octopus currently. I have been having issues with my smart meter and have been asked on a number of occasions to complete actions which I have done. The last action was I called Octopus this week to run through the next action for me. I was advised I would receive an email outlining what I was required to do, and I am still waiting.”
“No speaking to bots
No endless waiting on hold
Quickly got through to Ben, a real person, who couldn't have been more helpful
Question sorted in 2 minutes
Outstanding customer service”
“Octopus varied my direct debit, according to them, resulting in a negative balance on my account. They adjusted my direct debit to clear the outstanding balance within few months. I cancelled the direct debit and set up a standing order to pay my energy usage and part of the outstanding balance. Without sending my account to debt collection team or external debt collectors, or giving me any warning of any sort even though I spoke to their customer service advisors few times who were okay with my payment method but only advised me to set up a direct debit as their preferred payment method. I only found out that Octopus has nicodemusly put on my credit file that I have an arrears on my account. I phoned to dispute this and they stated that, they put this information on my credit file because I was not paying my bills by direct debit, even though I did not default in any of my payments. I have realised that the so called outstanding balance is not energy I consumed but based on an estimated energy consumed which could be wrong. This is the kind of service Octopus are taking pride in. Switching from Octopus to a more transparent energy supplier with customer service advisors who knows what they are doing is what I will recommend.”
“Needed to speak to Customer Services as my bill had been increased . Spoke to Ben who listened to my concerns , offered his advice & then readjusted my bill accordingly . Just a professional guy who importantly listens .”
“Ben was so helpful in solving my issue and in a very timely manner. He re-opened my account after accidental closure in under two minutes. Thank you Ben and the whole of Octopus energy, love you guys!”
“Octopus Engergy insisted I install a new gas and electric smart meter. The engineer installed the electric meter as agreed some weeks ago but did not install gas meter which is outside because it WAS RAINING. I have contacted octopus for a new date on a few occasions and have been informed they could not give me a date and said it could be months. If and when the gas meter is installed I will be moving supplier. DO NOT USE THIS SHOWER OF USELESS PEOPLE.”
“I have been told in the past that although i do have a smart meter (which British Gas installed years ago) I have not had a monitor and have been told several times that my meter could not be read as it was too old, which meant I had to read my meters and send the readings to you. This has been difficult as I am a disabled pensioner and meters are in awkward places. However when I phoned I explained all of this to Ben who listened to me and went to ask to find a solution for me. It appears that Octopus can and has been reading my meters and have received an email from Ben to say that although there is a delay, I can get a monitor which I am happy about. I just want to thank Ben for listening and understanding and finding a solution.”
“Spoken to Ben today to resolve a problem with my gas meter in my new property
Extremely helpful man, very patient with a pensioner with next to no technology skills
Arranged for someone to come and do a meter reading and also install more modern smart meter
Highly recommended, Thankyou Ben”
“Arguably, the most appalling company you will ever deal with.
We moved into our Bungalow in March 2025 and as part of the Surveyor’s recommendation that we get rid of the old fuse box and get a new RCD type, I had to contact Octopus energy to get what the electrician called isolator switches for the outside feed box. It is apparently illegal to do this work without these switches being fitted by the energy company and he assured me it would take about a week.
I contacted Octopus stating that I needed isolator switches fitted only to be told (after a 4 day wait) there was a ten to twelve week wait, due to a backlog of work. Both the electrician and I were pretty stunned at this news, but what could I do? I waited four months and still nothing, no contact no feedback, nothing.
I contacted them again, to be told, we don’t quite understand what you’re asking for!! This is after telling me months earlier that the job was pending and would be carried out. So again I had to tell them and again have been told its pending. It has now taken so long, that the electrician has upped the quoted price and I am again forced into a ridiculous waiting time. Just what is wrong with this company?
Every month they ask me to submit a meter reading online and when I do, I get the usual button appear “Would you like a smart meter?” I select yes, only to get the usual message, there are no appointments available in your area and would you like to be placed on the waiting list? I select yes and that’s it…….. until the following month, when I go through the same ridiculous nonsense again. This has been going on for a full year. I am now at a loss to understand what’s happening. It is, I suspect, a company existing on a handful of mainly clueless staff in order to maintain maximum profit. It takes them days to answer an email and then it’s usually a curt meaningless reply. I’ve kept all the emails, but I don’t see what good it will do me. There seems to be no one in authority you can complain to, save for the usual half dozen girls on laptops, dealing out nonsense until, I guess, the poor customer is forced to search out youswitch for a bit of salvation.
Octopus may have been good in the old days, but if you check more recent polls, there is lots of energy companies’ way ahead of them now. Never again. When this is finally over, I’m off, even if it costs more.”
“Incompetent. As if they've no idea what they're doing. Is the worst energy company I've had but reviews were good which I'm suspect about now. Can't wait to leave.”
“This company should be avoided at all costs.
One week after moving in they said I owed them over £700 (in a one bed flat, where I am out most of the day).
They said the previous supplier raised a meter reading dispute - I contacted them, it was not true. They only reversed this when I made a complaint via citizens advice.
Once they took off the fake charge I was £300 in credit, as I pay a lot more on my tariff than I actually use. I requested £200 refund. They emailed me saying I'd receive it in seven days. One week later and no refund + they said the credit never existed in the first place.
You cannot speak to a single person in the company who doesn't try to lie their way through the call.
I'm sure this company is fine if you don't have a problem. But if you do, you'll wish you'd never heard of them.”
“After two years of contacting Customer Services to say our Smart meter wasn’t working properly, and then jumping through their hoops, which included one of their engineers coming out. We find that Octopus installed our smart meter incorrectly and therefore we have been not only overpaying for our electricity (E.g. the meter showed we were using 15kw per day when we were actually on holiday) but we also weren’t getting the export for our solar panels.
Octopus have offered to pay us back a made up amount (as they said they couldn’t calculate it properly) for the export energy of £800 but won’t address the fact we have paid out £100s for electricity we didn’t actually use!!
We are having to go to the Energy Ombudsman. Absolutely appalling”
“Generally ok as a company but on changing to another company for a better deal, they overcharged me although I had sent them accurate final readings. It took from November to January to sort it out and get back all the money owed.
Luckily I was assigned Ben in the end to resolve it. He found where the system had gone wrong and he then quickly sorted it.”
“£4,000 debt after 5 years in a 1-bed flat — shocking and unfair
After leaving my 1-bedroom flat, Octopus Energy suddenly demanded £4,000 covering 5 years, even though I paid gas and electricity every single month.
What makes this worse is that they initially told me I was £700 in credit, then later changed this to £4,000 in debt.
How can a company go from saying a customer is in credit to demanding thousands of pounds with no clear or transparent explanation?
I was never warned that my payments only covered a “minimum” or that I was building up debt. This feels misleading, stressful, and completely unfair, especially for a small 1-bed flat.
Customers should NOT be hit with massive surprise bills years later.
I would strongly warn others before choosing Octopus Energy.”
“Hi Ben - happy to report on routine phone enquiry today about options arising from previous history with different supplier. Helpful advice and explanations.”
“Shocking and extremely disappointing decision by the billing dept and subsequent communications from their customer service team ouzed arrogance.
They mocked me trying to make out my calculations were wrong when trying to prove they'd overcharged me due to a persistent billing fault and faulty meter. There was no urgency and after chasing repeatedly over three months, the agent wrote and asked me to explain what the issue was. Glad to have left this behaviour behind and join a competitor.”
“Octopus energy recently billed us for an astronomical increase. We were away for one month and ironically - that is when the rate spiked. How is this even possible? Don’t trust the reviews on TrustPilot - they are all uploaded within one or two days. They all say the same thing - it’s easy for a company to write their own reviews.”
