Octopus epic fail

[Joeboy]

I phoned Octopus this morning and the lad i spoke to checked with the meter fitters and apparently an appointment for yesterday afternoon had not been made. SWMBO not happy at all. Alex the Octopus customer service agent I'd been dealing with is now not answering my mails. Smashing!

[Mr Gus]

Honestly, My jaw just dropped & sucked air!
We feel for you (& your wife, especially your long suffering wife who no doubt will hear more about this than us courtesy of proximity)

Joe, he's likely hiding for shame of knowing it's gone t1ts up (but will claim "meeting" no email availability)
IF SO, this is where he should have handed it off to another agent to ensure it happens, or at least put the fitter in touch directly with yourself to explain, placate & offer apologies.

This is why when we expanded our sales guys all in essence paid for a group of 4 floating "wranglers" with good phone skills to be employed sitting across from us to take the problematic logistics flak, sort & hang on phones where chase ups were required, ..they earned their money, & allowed us to make more ourselves give better service to our customers because they often had us on the phone as shocked & dismayed as the customer themselves,

Wins all round allowing us to redeploy less able sales people (but good people regardless) & get problems rapidly overcome & faith restored.
Don't cane his inbox, get on the phone, advise the phone CS that you are feeling ignored at this latest turn of events after "promises broken" & require an update & an escalation whilst you remain on hold.

One of my contextual lines to placate customers was "allegedly in stock on a fast moving sales day, displaying on my computer, not guaranteed until its in your hand, but let's give it a go eh" !? ..we could typically advise on physical stock despatch within 24 hours, so bear with us ..early internet sales age ..used to placate a lot of serious doubters & smooth problems before they got out of hand.

Having just got off the phone to Octopus myself, the guy (Josh) was very clear, capable & informed ..I cannot help feeling your sh1t sandwich is largely location based, but a promise is a promise after such a rough ride.

Escalate it beyond him in the initial, he'll either pull it back or hand it higher (gratefully) ..but with this latest ball drop, they need to work harder now, so get ready to up your claim (no, not by a £1) to restore belief in the process & ask for a regional explanation from the regional office / installer via the phone.

Tell them it is not finished till everything is clear (not just fitted) as they need to look at their own systems in light of the repeated failure that would make a presbyterian minister curse aloud & question his faith.

Someone should have physically RUNG the installer not simply put a job on a sheet from an office hundreds of miles away, ...that's customer service & that's what should have been required so the installer if taken off the job could also kick up a stink & get it reinstated in time.

[Joeboy]

Honestly, My jaw just dropped & sucked air!
We feel for you (& your wife, especially your long suffering wife who no doubt will hear more about this than us courtesy of proximity)

Joe, he's likely hiding for shame of knowing it's gone t1ts up (but will claim "meeting" no email availability)
IF SO, this is where he should have handed it off to another agent to ensure it happens, or at least put the fitter in touch directly with yourself to explain, placate & offer apologies.

This is why when we expanded our sales guys all in essence paid for a group of 4 floating "wranglers" with good phone skills to be employed sitting across from us to take the problematic logistics flak, sort & hang on phones where chase ups were required, ..they earned their money, & allowed us to make more ourselves give better service to our customers because they often had us on the phone as shocked & dismayed as the customer themselves,

Wins all round allowing us to redeploy less able sales people (but good people regardless) & get problems rapidly overcome & faith restored.
Don't cane his inbox, get on the phone, advise the phone CS that you are feeling ignored at this latest turn of events after "promises broken" & require an update & an escalation whilst you remain on hold.

One of my contextual lines to placate customers was "allegedly in stock on a fast moving sales day, displaying on my computer, not guaranteed until its in your hand, but let's give it a go eh" !? ..we could typically advise on physical stock despatch within 24 hours, so bear with us ..early internet sales age ..used to placate a lot of serious doubters & smooth problems before they got out of hand.

Having just got off the phone to Octopus myself, the guy (Josh) was very clear, capable & informed ..I cannot help feeling your sh1t sandwich is largely location based, but a promise is a promise after such a rough ride.

Escalate it beyond him in the initial, he'll either pull it back or hand it higher (gratefully) ..but with this latest ball drop, they need to work harder now, so get ready to up your claim (no, not by a £1) to restore belief in the process & ask for a regional explanation from the regional office / installer via the phone.

Tell them it is not finished till everything is clear (not just fitted) as they need to look at their own systems in light of the repeated failure that would make a presbyterian minister curse aloud & question his faith.

Someone should have physically RUNG the installer not simply put a job on a sheet, ...that's customer service

The reply just in booked in for weds 15th. Had a rant at Greg too.

'
Greg, I am an avid fan of RE solutions. I have been trying to streamline my life to a lower carbon count. Its the main reason I made the choice of Octopus as my energy supplier. My Smart meter has been broken since the 6th Feb 21 and I have been trying to have it replaced since then, culminating in yesterday no show by an engineer after being promised an afternoon site vist for 8th Dec by one of your people Alex Wright. I am absolutely sick to my back teeth of the lack of action by the company. How can you be so forward looking in energy and innovative solutions to lowering carbon count yet are happy to hamstring me as a customer by leaving me with a broken SMET2 meter for 300+ days? I am acc No  A-9 and I am incredibly disheartened at the lack of commitment to replace this meter and allow me to move onto an Alt power contract. Please find the time to have this problem rectified. 
Joe Inglis'

Re: New Meter Appointment

You replied on Thu 09/12/2021 15:19

AE

Alex from Octopus Energy


This message was sent to the following 2 people: Joe Inglis, Greg Jackson. Replying to this email will notify them.

Hi Joe,

I am very sorry that this has happened, especially after everything you have had to struggle through regarding this meter exchange. I saw your original email this morning and have been in touch with SMS back and forth to try and establish what happened.

Essentially, after them offering the appointment, it just wasn't booked in on their end. I appreciate that this is absolutely not good enough and I apologise for this. I can confirm that I have gotten this booked in for next Wednesday (December 15th) in the afternoon for you. I have also requested a booking reference number as solid confirmation that this has been booked in with them.

I am currently out of the office until Monday however I know you have called in today so if you would still like to discuss this over the phone I would be able to call you on Monday.

Once again, I am sorry for the lack of quality service you have received and I hope that once this meter is installed we can begin to mend our relationship with yourselves. Please also pass my apologies over to your wife for the disruption this has caused her day.

Kind regards,

Alex

[Mr Gus]

get it kicked up the line.

Ask just how seriously does customer service push / mark up urgent "do not drop the effing ball" scenarios.
Likely there is no line coded in for that, ..thus the need for more than head office assigning the impossible in the remotest region (technically)

When you ask favours of people you do it in person, it gets the severity of the situation across.
Now the poor fitter is going to be bricking it in case you are hostile, also a need for a physical phone call to get across the scenario & customer detail.

Not rocket science.
(sadly customer service is a dumping ground for inepts & nodding donkey's with zero resolution empowerment these days, However I think you simply are having the worst luck regardless of quality & intent by octopus in this instance)

would the fitter have been dragged off jobs to reinstate & check storm outage / residential supply?

[Mr Gus]

you are at the point of time where you should expect a resolution "fix" call within 45 minutes.

Call them, instruct it without regaling the sorry tale over.
fence mending today via phone from them before end of play today (Greg)

[Joeboy]

Now the poor fitter is going to be bricking it in case you are hostile, also a need for a physical phone call to get across the scenario & customer detail.

He'll get a cup of tea and a biscuit!

[Stinsy]

I have to say I found Octopus customer service to be a shitshow. The length of time it took me to get a smart meter was entirely down to Octopus failure to book in the engineer. Octopus doubled down on their failure several times and only an email to Greg got it sorted.

Funnily enough as soon as an engineer was actually instructed the meter was installed.

[Joeboy]

I have to say I found Octopus customer service to be a shitshow. The length of time it took me to get a smart meter was entirely down to Octopus failure to book in the engineer. Octopus doubled down on their failure several times and only an email to Greg got it sorted.

Funnily enough as soon as an engineer was actually instructed the meter was installed.

Thank you Stinsy, assuaged some of my paranoia! All I want for Xmas is a operational smet2 meter and a working go faster contract!

Merry Christmas lads.

[Mr Gus]

& that is what you send back as a quote, to GREG cc the bloke who is making excuses that "may" be the norm.

How does this affect acceptance of resolution via the govt body??
(breach of contract that needs highlighting example plastering) ..new negotiations

[Joeboy]

A quick note for anyone else having problems with the comms between Octopus and SMS their 3rd party meter fitters.

If Octopus tell you that you have an appointment and you do NOT receive a text from SMS the next day with booking details then you do not have an appointment and should chase your Octopus contact to rectify the problem. You might catch the problem in time.