Outfox the Market reviews: add your feedback

Biscuit_Tin

Quentin wrote: »

Is it the cheapest,???

Yes, they are actually :money:

Quentin wrote: »

Did you see the red warning which the CEC has for oftm and their other company (economy 7 energy)

No, because I wasn't looking at that supplier.

However, it wouldn't surprise me.
MSE seems to have warnings against most suppliers that don't give them kick-backs.

Perhaps what is surprising is that there is no MSE warning about OFTM.

Quentin

Biscuit_Tin wrote: »

Yes, they are actually :money:

No, because I wasn't looking at that supplier.

However, it wouldn't surprise me.
MSE seems to have warnings against most suppliers that don't give them kick-backs.

Perhaps what is surprising is that there is no MSE warning about OFTM.

Yes there is

See the quote in #940 above.

Red warning!

But interesting to see CEC has them as the cheapest for you.

Is that for gas or electric or the lot?

curlytail

Ignoring the messing about of people over the up and down direct debits I have kept with these because they seem to be cheap when comparing with others but I am ready to change as their website does not show what tarriff you are on. You have dig in to bills to find a poorly labelled link to do this.
Then when using the tariff they dont give you a full name then when you ask again to get that it either doesn't show on comparison sites or the tariff is different to what is shown. All in all a horrible website and company so well fed up with them as its hard work all the way.

oxters

I have decided to leave OTM and am in the process of switching to EDF (who I have been with previously) for their 1 year fix.

However, in fairness to OTM, I have found them to be ok and consistently cheaper than competitors and I have been on their variable rate.

Service has been generally good. I did not object to their attempt to raise D/Ds in peak months but they realised that the move was very unpopular and reversed it, but not before they lost a lot of customers. It was sensible in my opinion.

I was substantially overpaid recently and had to ask for a refund. Although the repayment took longer than they predicted, and I had to chase them, it was done a week or so after my prompt.

Overall I was happy with the Company despite many warnings on CEC.

yakima

Just renewed for another year with Outfox The Market (OTM). Ok, so my monthly charge will be more on the new Fix'd 19 2.0 tariff but they led the market by supplying cheaper energy and highlighting the greed of the big suppliers. They slipped up by trying to tamper with customers monthly payments by paying more in the 6 peak months and less in the other 6, but they were quick to reverse the decision due to its unpopularity. Until such time they don't remain substantially cheaper than the rest then I have no qualms about staying with them long term. For my level of combined gas and electric usage, which is low being a two person household, I can't fault them.

yakima

curlytail wrote: »

Ignoring the messing about of people over the up and down direct debits I have kept with these because they seem to be cheap when comparing with others but I am ready to change as their website does not show what tarriff you are on. You have dig in to bills to find a poorly labelled link to do this.
Then when using the tariff they dont give you a full name then when you ask again to get that it either doesn't show on comparison sites or the tariff is different to what is shown. All in all a horrible website and company so well fed up with them as its hard work all the way.

INCORRECT - logging in to the site it clearly shows me the name of my tariff, my direct debit amount, when the next payment is due and bank details. DIdn't have to do any digging at all. A simple and straight forward website that makes it easy to input your meter readings on the 9th of the month. For your further information the MSE website has also consistently sent me email reports that I've been on the cheapest deal out there. What's not to like!

big_all

i like others was cheesed off at altering the d/d on a fixed rate

but they have now retracted and appologised and in general complaints are fix fairly quickly and easilly



have signed up for a further year as the bad experience was very mild compared to 2 other switches over the years where one went bust

and another one took over a year after leaving to get the final bill sorted

Norman_Castle

I don't like the new website. Very annoying "chat with us" bouncing around endlessly. You can make it stop but it comes back. Make it stationary. It doesn't need to move to draw attention to itself.

My account credit is shown on the transaction history in red with a minus sign in front, -£34.77, making it appear my payments are behind. My £34.77 in their account is a debit to them but a credit to me.

VoucherMan

Norman_Castle wrote: »

My account credit is shown on the transaction history in red with a minus sign in front, -£34.77, making it appear my payments are behind. My £34.77 in their account is a debit to them but a credit to me.

At least on the main overview page you will have a green box with

Your account is currently £34.77 in credit. in it






I agree with others that they appear (at a glance) to be okay now, although they still have one overriding fault that will prevent me ever recommending them. The final line of their T&C.

it is your responsibility to read the terms and conditions regularly to make sure you are aware of any changes.

Now most reputable companies I deal with will notify you of changes, but not Outfox.


Maybe I'm a bit thick, but I don't think scrutinising T&C for unannounced changes is a simple task. Not if they simply change a couple of words in a long paragraph, which then gives the term a whole new meaning.


I have a simple spreadsheet into which I can paste the text of the T&C, and it will compare the text to the previous check. This week someone must have been bored at OTM as the T&C have been completely reformatted.


At a quick glance I see they have made some actual text changes too

- You start to take supply from us (e.g. you move into a property that is on supply with us).

has been added to term 1.2


I wonder what other changes they've made. Certainly not

We updated our Terms and Conditions on 18th June 2019

which is clearly incorrect.

Norman_Castle

VoucherMan wrote: »

At least on the main overview page you will have a green box with

Your account is currently £34.77 in credit. in it

True, but the transaction page has a whole column named balance showing negative amounts in red which are all actually positive amounts. Why not show them in green as positives? The ambiguity doesn't help. My £34.77 is a negative for them but a positive for me. The transaction history page appears to be to give customers information about their transactions, bills and balance so should be designed for a customers perspective, not the suppliers. For customers the transaction page is factually incorrect.



Expecting customers to spot relevant changes may be against ofgen rules.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/gas/retail-market/market-review-and-reform/notification-price-changes
"Domestic energy suppliers are required as a condition of their licence (Standard Condition 23 of the supply licence – SLC23) to notify their customers of prices increases, or any other changes that may significantly disadvantage them."