Outfox the Market reviews: add your feedback

alittleowl

cyka wrote: »

That's what I thought, but I believe they mean any DD payments missed, not the bill payment.

According to my bank, who I trust a great deal more than OFtM, as I have given them more than 10 days' notice of my cancellation, and my bank has accepted my reasons for revoking their access to my account and will label any further attempts to reinstate the DD as fraudulent, OFtM _shouldn't_ charge me £25. Even my ridiculous new DD amount + £25 is still less than my credit amount. Obviously I'd like as much of my money back from them, and if they try to charge me £25 I will threaten legal action (yes, I know, they won't care). In terms of budgeting in the run up to Christmas, that money is already gone and my new (old) supplier is only going to be marginally more expensive than my old OtFM DD amount.

jonathan_Wickett

I'm in the same situation as you. But OFTM just told me that they will charge £25 for any missed DD's EVEN though I'm in Credit. Have complained to to OFGEM, but don't hold out much hope.

orangesnaps

alittleowl wrote: »

According to my bank, who I trust a great deal more than OFtM, as I have given them more than 10 days' notice of my cancellation, and my bank has accepted my reasons for revoking their access to my account and will label any further attempts to reinstate the DD as fraudulent, OFtM _shouldn't_ charge me £25. Even my ridiculous new DD amount + £25 is still less than my credit amount. Obviously I'd like as much of my money back from them, and if they try to charge me £25 I will threaten legal action (yes, I know, they won't care). In terms of budgeting in the run up to Christmas, that money is already gone and my new (old) supplier is only going to be marginally more expensive than my old OtFM DD amount.

I'm so sorry for your loss, alittleowl & that's great of your bank to assist you in that manner.
Outfox the customer should really give their customers even those on a fixed tariff a change to leave if they don't agree to the changes. I feel like as a fixed tariff customer we are being held hostage because of the £100 exit fee. The run up to Christmas and the holidays is already stressful enough without adding this pile of garbage on top of it as well.
Last year we, were with Eon who charged us a conservative direct debit to start with & because it's just our second year as homeowners are still learning about how to best understand energy deals and such. Their rates were competitive but because the initial offered direct debit was low, we weren't able to build up a credit for winter, so were in debit with them come January & until we left them. The good thing about Eon is that we never felt harassed even if we were in £300+ in debit, they did up the direct debit amount but we were able to lower it in the direct debit manager account to one that was more manageable to us.

Now with OTC, we are currently in credit by nearly £400 which would be sufficient to cover our usage for the winter without increasing our direct debit amount but this cowboy have gone on to increase it as well as our membership fee even though our EAC for electricity has gone down since we joined them. Also compared to last year's usage our usage this year has gone down as we've changed appliances like our washing machine to a new energy efficient one & led lights so for them to increase it without any explanation is another strike on them.

I can't imagine that I would backtrack like this but I wish we should have stayed with Eon or better yet Sainsbury's energy which was our previous supplier prior to them.

I wish you well & good luck alittleowl!

gb908010

When i phoned them last Thursday i was told to cancel my DD if i couldnt afford the new increased false payments, they never mentioned any charge of £25 but tbh they can whistle for it after i have been treated like a fool.
Checking my DD everyday to ensure if its reinstated i will cancel as my bank requires 2 days to cancel a DD.
According to OFTM tomorrow is the 3rd escalation level of reporting my old supplier for closing meter readings? Even though they then said they may already have them but havent got round to updating the system. These are truly a bunch of muppets.


My old supplier have offered to phone OFTM to confirm these closing meter readings but OFTM said there is no need, ( i can smell a rat)

gb908010

Well i have just had an email from OFTM, too late as I ams till switching


[FONT=&quot]"We have admittedly made mistakes in communicating this new policy to our customers and for this we unreservedly apologise.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The good news is your annual energy costs should not be affected, and your revised Direct Debit payments are detailed in the table below.[/FONT]

Estimated Annual Cost

October to March Monthly https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/usercp.phpDirect Debit

April to September Monthly Direct Debit

Previous Notification

£1,299.00

£151.55

£64.95

22nd November Notification

£1,039.20

£121.24

£51.96

alittleowl

So, I've still had nothing from OFtM in response to my two complaints emails dated 17th and 20th November. No generic recalculation email nor an apology like some people have had. However, I've received this letter in the post from my bank (First Direct) which is just awesome:

"Thank you for alerting us to an attempt at unauthorised access to your 1st Account by Foxglove Energy. We'll do everything we reasonably can to stop them accessing your account again. If we become aware of another attempt by this company to access your account we will treat it as fraudulent and may give information to the police. If you believe that Foxglove Energy, or an associated third party, has made another attempt to access your account please let us know as soon as possible so we can stop this happening again and arrange any refund you're entitled to. We may ask for further details and ask you to give information to the police."

Wheres_My_Cashback

Thank you for your email.

This is a change of the Direct Debit details and the calculations are slightly incorrect.
We are obligated to set up a Direct Debit according to customers consumption and therefore the Direct Debit will be adjusted is over estimated/ under estimated.
However we must notify you that all customers will be receiving a new notification shortly with revised figures, as there was an error in the initial calculations. The new figures should be more in line with what you are expecting according to your annual consumption and therefore should provide adequate resolution to your complaint.
We will leave your complaint open for 7 days for you to inform us if you are unsatisfied, after this time we will close it as resolved.

Followed a few hours later by.....

Following customer feedback regarding their annual cost figures, we have conducted a review of every customer account and have made some revisions to the Direct Debit figures previously sent.

These changes still reflect our new seasonal Direct Debit model with a 70/30 split between the two periods of the year.

We have admittedly made mistakes in communicating this new policy to our customers and for this we unreservedly apologise.

The good news is your annual energy costs should not be affected, and your revised Direct Debit payments are detailed in the table below.



Estimated Annual Cost
October to March Monthly Direct Debit
April to September Monthly Direct Debit

Previous Notification
£695.85
£81.18
£34.79

22nd November Notification
£556.68
£64.94
£27.83

So now my annual cost with the latest DD is in line with expected annual costs which is more like it. Previous DD was £47pm
Personally I'm not too fussed at the 70/30 split as it's not costing me more overall.

I'll now drop my complaint.

Looby77

Organza_Lace wrote: »

I had the email too and they want to lower my winter direct debit by £40 a month. Too little too late. I'll never take good customer service for granted again.

Agree with Organza and others...I complained because my winter and summer usage is very similar. I have tracked it for years. I asked if leaving OFTM was my only option and was told yes. So I have instigated a switch. Now I get the new DD through. I cannot continue to work with a company that has such knee jerk reactions. Their business model cannot be well planned and thought through. Still moving. Cheap is one thing - Useless is another.

Looby77

Looby77 wrote: »

Agree with Organza and others...I complained because my winter and summer usage is very similar. I have tracked it for years. I asked if leaving OFTM was my only option and was told yes. So I have instigated a switch. Now I get the new DD through. I cannot continue to work with a company that has such knee jerk reactions. Their business model cannot be well planned and thought through. Still moving. Cheap is one thing - Useless is another.

I have been informed of my DD figure today 22/11/18 by email at 17.06. It says it will go out in the next DD. My DD goes out tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how much they take. The original £91, The 1st notification of £160, The 2nd notification of £128. Or a random as yet unknown number. I'm lucky I can manage this but how must it be for anyone on a mega tight budget or awaiting UC?

geoffW

I have only recently joined OFTM and have had 2 price rises already (pity they don't still do a 12 month price fix). I was looking to leave but they are still one of the cheapest deals so I think I will stay.
Many people are getting excited about the DD changes but I think it's just a way for them to keep the prices low for the customer.
I'm sure Iresa would still be going if so many people hadn't jumped on them ( I was perfectly happy with them and had signed up with them for another 12 months when they crashed).
People should look at Powershop where you need to buy power months in advance to save money, or if you want peace of mind go for one of the big six and pay an extra £500 a year or so.