Outfox the Market reviews: add your feedback

Lochmaben

Be VERY careful if you do this. I cancelled mine after leaving them, only to find that they set up (WITHOUT MY PERMISSION - which is illegal!) a new Direct Debit under a different Reference number and proceeded to take money from my account for the coming month, although I had told them when I was switching, sent the final meter readings, even from their site worked out what I had paid, how much I had used included the standing charge and done the sums in a form even a primary school pupil could understand. I informed them that I would cancel the DD from a particular date. It seems they didn’t either understand or deliberately chose to ignore the communication. Yesterday they sent me an email saying my bank had refused to,pay them any money and please reinstate the DD. My instrctions to my bank - after cancelling this newDD- were that ON NO ACCOUNT were they to allow OTM to have any further access to my account whatsoever. I suggest you do the same.

Lochmaben

For each payment they have taken over the pointbwhen the account was neither in credit or in debit, you can take out a Direct Debit Indemnity with your bank. Immediately this is done, inform OTM of what you have done and why.

daverickard13

A follow up to my post above (1st Feb. 2:05pm).

Very shortly after posting here I left a very similar review on Trustpilot, very soon after that I got a call from someone at Outfox The Market who was very keen to address the issues I'd had even though I have already switched away from them. Even offering to refund the two £96.47 payments (that should never have been taken) immediately. I was surprised by this after the conversation I'd had with one of their customer service team and would have accepted had I not already spent 20 minutes on the phone arranging to claim the payments back via my bank (which I was suggested but their customer services). I was told I'd been contacted because of the review below and that I'd added my account number. So I'd say if you're not happy and feel the need to leave a negative review add your account number where asked (it says it's optional) and if your complaint is genuine it seems like they'll get in touch and try to sort it out. It's just a shame they aren't yet providing this level of service from the outset. If they can sort this out and all the problems around the direct debits, they might be ok.

I appreciated the call and admission that it shouldn't have happened but I found the experience regarding the direct debits and huge over charging unacceptable.

Consumerist

MoneySavingAtWork wrote: »

Anyone know how long an energy provider has to refund a credit balance following the final bill?

The new Statutory Instrument to implement a 10 working days refund requirement should have come out of the committee stage by the end of the 3rd week in January. Energy suppliers then have 2 months to implement its provisions.

So, from around the end of March, energy suppliers will have to pay £30 automatic compensation if they fail to meet the 10-working-day deadline. There are provisions for further compensation payments if suppliers fail to automatically pay the compensation.

I can foresee some real shenanigans arising from these automatic compensation payments - especially from the smaller suppliers.


Watch this space :eek:

BRYNEL

No contractual method or common sense on the part of OTM then.
I've asked for the final bill & will do nothing until I receive it.If in the meantime they send me a "Final warning before action in the County Court" I will inform them that not only will I vigorously defend the action but will lodge a counter claim against them for dishonesty.
That's my contractual method & common sense.I'll just Outfox them

keef-WhatStandards

As my emails to OFTM & Os-enegy.org appear to have been ignored and Ofgem don't read what is sent to them, I found I could enter a complaint via the Ombudsman's website. Not a pretty way of doing things, but at least that way I can get the ball rolling.

Like others I have started a switch to another supplier, who of course want yet more money up front.

It takes months to even start a claim, so maybe I'll get my money back in time for my next switch.

MuneyBear

Britlion wrote: »

Energy club is recommending them as the top saving (with the caveat that they are new, so no feedback). I tried the website in two browsers (one of them edge with no plugins, just to be sure). Got through the whole quote process, with a very buggy slow website and ended up with a quote page that says "Your Energy Hero Tariff is Monthly £ Annually £ - This quoted figure includes the monthly membership fee. This quote is based on electricity only".

Several things wrong with that. Firstly I'd asked for dual fuel.

Secondly, in case you missed it, there wasn't actually a quote. Just a pound symbol. Unless they are saying it's free, in which case, it's a stonking deal, and they'll go out of business.

I think they are having technology difficulties - which is pretty unforgiveable for a company that depends on the website and doesn't look like they are keen for someone to call them.

Clicking on "Web chat" gets nowhere. It's not even a clickable link, on a page that says they encourage people to use webchat. Well done.

On the whole, if they are this disorganised in selling to new customers, one can only imagine with trepidation how bad they might be for customers trying to contact them with a problem. Poor show. I'll probably avoid.

I moved to OTM in September, after 35 years with Brit Gas & Scot Power. Quote was £45 pm as I am a low user. About three weeks later I got their message that thy are going to charge me more in winter, less in summer, so in winter you will pay £160 pm! I contacted them to say I only spend about £20pm in winter as I'm abroad....no reply. What if I was watching the pennies, had the agreement for £45, couldn't afford £160?
Anyway after weeks of general apologies to all their customers, "we are looking again" etc, got message that my new tarrif would be £100pm!
And..... it was impossible to contact them. I gave up, moved back to British Gas, I'm paying a bit more for peace of mind.
OTM took a direct debit on 27 December, my switch happened 28 December so they owe me about £74.
I contacted them mid January, can I now cancel my direct debit? Yes cancel it , we can refund your money as we have the bank details.
I cancelled the Direct Debit, then at end January, I got an email, "your bank has refused the Direct Debit sent 28 January, contact us to say how you want to pay!"

I'll not go in to more detail, complete amatuer nightmare, I regret ever switching

MuneyBear

daverickard13 wrote: »

A follow up to my post above (1st Feb. 2:05pm).

Very shortly after posting here I left a very similar review on Trustpilot, very soon after that I got a call from someone at Outfox The Market who was very keen to address the issues I'd had even though I have already switched away from them. Even offering to refund the two £96.47 payments (that should never have been taken) immediately. I was surprised by this after the conversation I'd had with one of their customer service team and would have accepted had I not already spent 20 minutes on the phone arranging to claim the payments back via my bank (which I was suggested but their customer services). I was told I'd been contacted because of the review below and that I'd added my account number. So I'd say if you're not happy and feel the need to leave a negative review add your account number where asked (it says it's optional) and if your complaint is genuine it seems like they'll get in touch and try to sort it out. It's just a shame they aren't yet providing this level of service from the outset. If they can sort this out and all the problems around the direct debits, they might be ok.

I appreciated the call and admission that it shouldn't have happened but I found the experience regarding the direct debits and huge over charging unacceptable.

Same here, they took the INCREASED DD 27 December, my switch was 28th Dec so I asked them if I could cancel the DD, they said yes, then tried to take it 27 January again, total nightmare!

rhcp

I left in December and I was still getting new bills. I went on live chat to ask them to stop sending new bills and give me my final bill, and I got my final bill the next day. All I have to now is wait for the 9p that they owe me, but I might just let them keep it as they seem to be hard up for cash!

wavelets

Lochmaben wrote: »

For each payment they have taken over the pointbwhen the account was neither in credit or in debit, you can take out a Direct Debit Indemnity with your bank. Immediately this is done, inform OTM of what you have done and why.

Probably best to have a chat with OFTM before you do this.
It could save you £25 a pop :money: