Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes

jk0

Same here buddy. However I suspect the emails we've received were computer generated.

Anthorn

Nickvale wrote: »

I'm £35 in credit according to the OFTM Hero Hub. As they didn't justify their massive proposed increase in my DD (it was overall 25% higher than the original) I transferred to the Green Network, who confirmed they were my supplier on 11th December. They started taking payment and I was unable to get through to OFTM about getting my credit refunded. On 2nd January OFTM took a direct debit from me, for nearly double the last payment. I cancelled it immediately and got the money refunded by my bank, OFTM emailed to ask me to re-instate the DD. I replied, telling them as I was with another supplier now I'd assumed the DD was a mistake, I'd not been able to get through to customer services and could they contact me urgently to let me know when my credit would be refunded. Now I've got their attention it'll be interesting to see what they say.

You don't post dates and times so it's not possible to provide an accurate reply. My guess is that although your switch was complete your OFTM final bill had not been produced and your account had not been closed. In such a circumstance OFTM was fully entitled to another payment when due.

If the final bill has not been produced that should be your first priority. Then you can start complaining about the credit on the final bill not being refunded if that refund is not forthcoming.

Nickvale

Anthorn wrote: »

You don't post dates and times so it's not possible to provide an accurate reply. My guess is that although your switch was complete your OFTM final bill had not been produced and your account had not been closed. In such a circumstance OFTM was fully entitled to another payment when due.

If the final bill has not been produced that should be your first priority. Then you can start complaining about the credit on the final bill not being refunded if that refund is not forthcoming.

I got the welcome email from Green Energy on 20th November, sent them opening readings (and same to OFTM) on 7th December GE took their first payment on 11th. The last payment to OFTM was on 3rd December, they then tried with the new DD on 2nd January. My view is that as I'm in credit the final bill is their problem and they need to send me it. Obviously I'll pay if it's more than the credit they say I have, but as they have up to date readings that match the new supplier's opening readings it's hard to see how that could be the case.

Steve456

Anthorn wrote: »

You don't post dates and times so it's not possible to provide an accurate reply. My guess is that although your switch was complete your OFTM final bill had not been produced and your account had not been closed. In such a circumstance OFTM was fully entitled to another payment when due.

If the final bill has not been produced that should be your first priority. Then you can start complaining about the credit on the final bill not being refunded if that refund is not forthcoming.

I would dispute that they were "fully entitled to another payment".



Why were they?



They bill you a month in advance. They are aware that you have moved to another supplier and are therefore not entitled to bill in advance for energy which they know will not be supplied by them.


At the point of moving they should automatically stop their standard monthly billing and just issue a final statement as soon as they can

Steve456

ben501 wrote: »

Still busy trolling on behalf of OFTM I see. The OP objected to a direct debit increase of about 25%. The amount later taken was almost 100% higher. Please explain how this can be justified. (from information supplied we don't even know if any notification of this increase was given, even less if such a notification met legal guidelines)

Plus, of course, they took that direct debit payment (for energy supply in advance) when they were no longer the supplier!

Anthorn

Nickvale wrote: »

I got the welcome email from Green Energy on 20th November, sent them opening readings (and same to OFTM) on 7th December GE took their first payment on 11th. The last payment to OFTM was on 3rd December, they then tried with the new DD on 2nd January. My view is that as I'm in credit the final bill is their problem and they need to send me it. Obviously I'll pay if it's more than the credit they say I have, but as they have up to date readings that match the new supplier's opening readings it's hard to see how that could be the case.

As I posted earlier in this thread, there is a time factor involved in switching not least of which is the comparison of meter readings involving each supplier and the national database. As I also posted earlier some OFTM customers appear to want a switch and a refund of credit done almost instantly and quite frankly that isn't going to happen.

If you want a refund of your credit then you need the final bill and in order to stop direct debit payments you need the account closed and those two are linked.

I really don't see why the above which I have posted yet again in this thread appears to be so hard to understand. It's not unique to OFTM and applies to all suppliers!

orangesnaps

Whenever we switched providers our experience was they didn't take out a direct debit when the switch got through and were waiting to generate a final bill.

This has happened with NPower, Sainsbury's Energy and Eon. I was hoping that Eon would take a direct debit payment when the switched went through with outfox the customer as we were in debit with them for £200+ but they didn't take any payment while they waited to generate the final bill.

Now with outfox the customer, we are in credit by £200+ when we switched to Octopus Energy, I've calculated the amount of energy that we are going to be billed for from Dec. 23-30th with the meter readings that I took and that would be around £33 so enough to cover that and get a refund but no, they still want to take £130+ payment when they are no longer our provider.

My partner called them today as we got an automated email about them not being able to debit his bank account and they said that it's just automated and to ignore it and wait for the final bill.

Pete99

Once the losing supplier gets the verified meter readings there's nothing to stop them immediately producing the final bill, they got mine on the 18 December, although my OFTM account shows a new statement for the whole of December with an estimated reading, my switch to Octopus completed on the 5 Dec.


Your Direct Debit mandate is used to debit money from your account not to credit money to it, it does what it says on the tin 'Debit' only.

Anthorn

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

That's right orangesnaps. Once a switch is underway and the new supplier has been in touch, accounts are locked down and no further Direct Debit payments are taken until the final bill has been issued.

Malc

I really don't think E.ON controls the accounts of all energy suppliers or even the suppliers themselves and therefore E.ON does not speak for all energy suppliers. Further E.ON is not the energy ombudsman. But please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Personally, I think the E.ON representative should avoid such blanket definitions which quite clearly is not true.

My experience of my switch from Scottish Power as I posted earlier in this thread is that my switch to EDF completed on 10th December, SP took payment by DD on the usual due date of 24 December, a final bill was created, the account closed and refund of credit on 2 January.

I have switched every year for the last three years from Peterborough Energy (OVO) to Scottish Power to EDF and each time the switching process has been identical and I would hasten to add that if I continued to switch every year for the next umpteen years the switching process would similarly be identical.

But hey if anyone wants a supplier that they can switch from instantly and get a refund of credit instantly they should apparently go with E.ON.

Quentin

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

That's right orangesnaps. Once a switch is underway and the new supplier has been in touch, accounts are locked down and no further Direct Debit payments are taken until the final bill has been issued.

Malc

No

You can't possibly say this in such an authoritative manner!

This thread isn't even discussing the company you are allowed to post answers about!

Others should not take this advice as being definitive!