Outfox the Market reviews: add your feedback

Xenon

I have moved from Ebico (Ebico Zero Green Fixed V2) to OTM (E-Low Fix 1.0) and had no issues so far - all been smooth sailing.
However - being aware of the issues people have been having - will keep a close eye on the bills to make sure they are accurate - as i give regular meter readings.

allinatizz

Just to share my experience, despite providing regular meter readings, my account with OTM is now £300 in credit (DD is £92 a month). I'm obviously happy to overpay in the summer to cover the winter, but our winter usage is max £100 a month so I thought I would ask for a part refund.

20/12/2019 - Submitted a request for a refund

24/12/2019 - Received an automated email, explaining that it is normal to build up credit over summer, etc. but that they would get back to me.

31/12/2019 - Received an email saying they would refund £200 on 19/03/2020. I replied querying the length of time it would take.

3/1/2020 - They responded saying that they receive an abnormally high number of requests for refunds at this time of year and that they process and schedule the refunds as they come so it couldn't be helped. They pushed the payment sate forward to 5/2/2020. I responded asking whether the fact that I'd built up such a large credit since before the previous winter was an indication that my DD had been set too high.

7/1/2020 - They ignored my question but pushed the payment date forward to 21/1/2020.

I've never had to request a refund before so I don't know whether I was being unreasonable, but the fact that they didn't even entertain lowering my DD did annoy me. The cheap energy club is telling me I can save £20 a year with Green. but not sure that's worth the hassle of moving.

Helens_Fox

Excellent service - been with them for nearly two years. Understandable bumps last winter but they sorted the problem quickly. More a PR problem than a real one.

FrogIsland

I’m having massive problems with OUTFOX the Market. I joined them recently. Went through the quote process and then signed up. Within a month they wanted to hike my direct debit by £70 to £140 ( I only use £70 in a typical winter month ).

I have stumbled upon a Facebook group called “OUTFOX THE MARKET DISCUSSION” and have been shocked to find hundreds of members there, also experiencing problems.
There is a lot of useful info in that group on how to deal with this supplier.

I would avoid this supplier like the plague and I will be switching ASAP.
The customer service has been terrible.

Seejuu

Heard from Ombudsman:

Remedy 1 Remedy: Comment: send you a direct payment of £60 for the failure of Regulation 6D for failing to refund your credit balance;

Remedy 2 Remedy: Goodwill Comment: send you a direct payment of £50 as a gesture of goodwill for the shortfalls in customer service and the inconvenience caused.
:T
Outfox have until 30 January.

rpip

They cant understand simple English or deliberate avoid issue. They were using my direct debit but the website stated that I had not switched. I have just noticed that my account is 2 months in credit. At this juncture I have only had a service for 3 months. They dont take account of my meter readings..
Dont bother to phone send letter by email AND post.

FrogIsland

My advice is join the Facebook Group : “outfox the market discussion”. It comes up as : “energy advice group” in the search results, but apparently that’s because one of the old admin went rogue by negotiating with the company to change the name. It's all back to normal now & the name is changing change back soon.

Nick_C

FrogIsland wrote: »

I’m having massive problems with OUTFOX the Market. I joined them recently. Went through the quote process and then signed up. Within a month they wanted to hike my direct debit by £70 to £140 ( I only use £70 in a typical winter month ).

I have stumbled upon a Facebook group called “OUTFOX THE MARKET DISCUSSION” and have been shocked to find hundreds of members there, also experiencing problems.
There is a lot of useful info in that group on how to deal with this supplier.

I would avoid this supplier like the plague and I will be switching ASAP.
The customer service has been terrible.

"Interesting that this is your first post" - to quote from your own post at 13:23 which you have now deleted!

I would be a little suspicious of any new forum member who is praising or slagging off a company in their first post. Of course, the post and the story the poster is telling could be genuine. Or not.

But I do feel OTM are being treated unfairly by MSE. I've just checked with Cheap Energy Club. Once again, OTM are the cheapest supplier by a long chalk, but MSE Cheap Energy Club caveat it with the following "Outfox the Market's customer service record has been poor recently, so think carefully before switching to it."

MSE's rating of OTM seems to be based entirely on this thread! Comments written by anonymous unverified posters.

The MSE two star rating says "19% Great, 16% Okay, 65% Poor (176 votes)".

Where are these votes? MSE CEC ask people to leave their feedback on this thread, but the feedback is not quantified.

Perhaps Cheap Energy Club should also come with a warning:

"MSE Cheap Energy Club is part of a commercial business whose main aim is make a profit. So think carefully before accepting it's partial advice"

FrogIsland

Well this forum appears to me to be much better.
At least our genuine reviews aren’t being removed, like they are on Trustpilot.
Helen’s fox post sounds like some of the comms coming out of outfox the markets own mouths.
The language Used is the same.

( For your information, I am new to this forum and I am struggling to work out how it works. I don’t even know if this reply goes on the bottom or just after your comment - I have no intention of deleting any of my comments )

Nick_C

Helens Fox joined the MSE forum in May last year, so if she did so with the sole intention of bigging up OTM then she's waited a long time to do it!

Thanks for highlighting the TrustPilot reviews though. I see they give OTM a 4* rating, with 72% of reviews being four or five star. This is based on over 14000 reviews, 24% of which are poor or bad. Most of the feedback is based on verified customers.

I find this more credible than the MSE CEC rating based on 176 votes from unverified anonymous internet users, a rating that doesn't seem to have been updated in six months.