Outfox the Market reviews: add your feedback

Cornucopia

Based on the example in the OFTM email:

- Winter payments: 6 x 1.4x normal = 8.4x normal

- Summer payments: 6 x 0.6x normal = 3.6x normal

Add them together to get the whole year =12x normal (i.e. the same as before).

Or working it through based on my payments:-

Winter - £40pm x 6 = £240
Summer - £18pm x 6 = £108

Add together = £348, which is the £29pm I am currently paying.

bigpaul66

they want as much money as possible in their bank account whereas i want it in my account. people have large credit balances and they are increasing our dd amount by 50% +

shazzablue

I think by quoting one price then raising it by £40 is wacking up!...this policy was never mentioned at the time of signing up.very poor way to run a business.

Cornucopia

shazzablue wrote: »

I think by quoting one price then raising it by £40 is wacking up!...this policy was never mentioned at the time of signing up.very poor way to run a business.

If you have only just joined, they should have mentioned it to you beforehand.

However, as Hengus pointed out, this is not "wacking up" prices. It is "wacking up" (if you like) payments on account. That's a different thing (and the difference is common to every Utility company, albeit that no one else AFAIK is trying Summer/Winter split payments... yet).

I am keeping a close eye on my account with OTFM, and already after less than 6 months it is looking messy. (One missed invoice in October, one withdrawn bill in September and quite a few estimated readings, even though I have provided actual readings). However, and despite all of that, my account appears to be in basic good order - which is more than I can say for NPower when I was with them. (My entire account had to be rebilled over a period of 18 months). For various reasons, the companies do seem to over-complicate what is really a very simple thing, and I think they could do better.

I've just asked them on Chat to sort out my missing invoice, and they are on the case.

System

shazzablue wrote: »

I think by quoting one price then raising it by £40 is wacking up!...this policy was never mentioned at the time of signing up.very poor way to run a business.

Which price has been ‘whacked up’ by £40?

We all want energy supply at basement prices with exceptional customer service. Sadly, that isn’t the case. Energy suppliers pay for their energy in advance of supply so it isn’t unreasonable to ask for customer money up front if this stops the cost of borrowing being added to tariff prices. Whether it has been communicated well is for OTFM customers to give a view on.

bigpaul66

the people above must work for them. massively increasing my dd when i already have a large credit balance is not justifiable. unless they know the next ice age is going to hit tomorrow. i want to pay for what i use not be loaning at zero interest large amounts of money to my energy supplier

Cornucopia

bigpaul66 wrote: »

the people above must work for them. massively increasing my dd when i already have a large credit balance is not justifiable. unless they know the next ice age is going to hit tomorrow. i want to pay for what i use not be loaning at zero interest large amounts of money to my energy supplier

Have you asked them about it? Or are you referring to the DD changes that apply to all of their customers?

Over-estimated DD payments have been a common complaint about Utilities for a long, long while.

I don't work for OFTM.

thelight

Pmarmalade wrote: »

I found in the past that if I used my original tariff name the numbers via Cheap Energy Club weren't updated, so were artificially low. I selected one of the November 2018 tariffs that matched my electricity usage and it was accurate with my latest estimated figure in the recent email about the price rise.


Have just switched to Green Network Energy via the latest CEC deal.

I've just been trying this and I can't get any of the November tariffs to match the unit prices on my latest bill.

jono1975

I had a web chat just with them, I asked if they could tell me my new DD payment amount and got this scripted response:

"The direct debit is under review, you will be contacted within a week to discuss this. At this point we are accurately calculating your usage to determine what you need to pay regarding your account.
You will receive this within a week.

The direct debit process is something that is being introduced for all customers.
We cannot change this unfortunately, I would advise you contact us directly to discuss this further
You will be able to contact us directly on 0800 103 2702 when you are next available. A member of our phone team will be able assist you further."

Also, after reading a post on here saying that they only use readings sent on a specific day of the month, I got this response:

OFTM: "Yes the billing date is each month of 01st so if you provide us the meter read example on 25th the bill will be estimated for 5 days"

ME: "So I should always provide my reading on the first day of the month if possible."

OFTM "yes please provide 1st of each month"

Will wait to see what happens next, seems to be the cheapest still on uswitch etc but I guess they are still using the September rates for comparison.

ben501

VoucherMan wrote: »

Call me sceptical,


From the figures they gave as a guide it looks like they plan to take 5% of the annual cost during each of the summer months, with the remaining 70% spread over the 6 'winter' months.


now they're trying whatever they can to get some cash in.

Cornucopia wrote: »

The cynic in me thinks that the move is designed to improve their immediate cashflow.

Based on the figures in the email, it will be around £40pm Winter and £18pm Summer. (The multipliers are 1.4x (Winter) and 0.6x (Summer) if anyone wants to play with the figures).

General agreement all round then, and 2 different ways to work out the price. Much though I dislike the company, I hope they don't go under. For those of us on the early fixed tariff it's a good rate, not likely to be seen again. At least that's my opinion.