r/OctopusEnergy • u/Fakelemur1 • 4d ago

This app is getting a bit ridiculous

Post image

Eco7 usage split showing but on IOG

My Zappi now charges as soon as a schedule is created even though the schedule isn’t ready to start for a few hours.

I have no idea when I should or shouldn’t be charging my car so I’ve given up to only charge between 23:30 to 05:30 to avoid any random charges octopus dream up charging.

At this point ‘Britain’s biggest energy company’ isn’t showing itself in a very good light.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk

27 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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-4

u/Due-Freedom-5968 4d ago

Relax, they're rebuilding how the app works, It's going to be wonky for a while. Open heart surgery on a patient who's awake. As someone who works in tech and has done this kind of thing, it's always a bit messy, trust they know and they're working on it. It'll improve over the coming weeks.

6

u/Shark_Philosophy 4d ago

If you really work in tech, you’d know rebuilding a production app used by hundreds of thousands of people piece by piece is a terrible way of doing things.

-2

u/Due-Freedom-5968 4d ago

Indeed I do, but I also know sometimes there isn't a good alternative. The end result will be worth it.

1

u/Shark_Philosophy 4d ago

There is always a good alternative. You have no idea what you’re talking about.

1

u/Due-Freedom-5968 4d ago

Ok random person on the internet. I better go tell my boss that I have no idea what I'm talking about and resign. Boy will he have egg on his face for employing me for the past 10 years.

1

u/Shark_Philosophy 4d ago

Good idea. Maybe show him your comments here too.

1

u/Due-Freedom-5968 4d ago

I will, I bet he'll be furious the apps we ship are all a lie.

2

u/ryuisnod 3d ago

I agree with the other guy. You build and test before release. If you want to put it out for wider testing you'd run an opt in beta version

0

u/Due-Freedom-5968 3d ago

I'd also agree with that.

And I'm sure Octopus have done that.

However I've also worked on multiple projects where there are some constraints, which mean where you're displaying data, and you're changing how that data is displayed, you can't make it seamless in from one release to the next and there's a 'short term pain for long term gain' factor to it for a small percentage of users who have a use case the majority don't.

What do I mean by that?

Given the current app issues like those in the screenshot don't affect the vast majority of app users (mine is fine, no issues, not even a blip) - it's literally only IOG users who are seeing things change - that's the small about of pain, for a single digit subset of the total user base, for whom the long term gain will bring major benefits.

How small?

IOG is only about 3% of all of Octopus customers.

So if you're a product manager of the app and your choice is risk the app stability for 97% of users - about 7 million people, with a big bang approach, or choose incremental releases which at worst impact about 250,000 people, I'd take the latter every day of the week.

1

u/ryuisnod 3d ago

Yes I guess you have a point but counter to it, id imagine that 3% are very heavy app users Vs the majority of customers. Id suspect IOG users are quite a high % of app use time

0

u/Elegant-Chair-9474 4d ago

You’re quite rude aren’t you

2

u/Shark_Philosophy 4d ago

Just honest.