Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes

MuneyBear

orangesnaps wrote: »

We switched from Eon to OTM on late May of this year. Our monthly debit is £100.21, we are currently £370+ in credit. Our monthly bill is £50-70 & that's with the meter reading (no estimates). I've just got an email that they are hiking our DD to £140.29 without any way to decline it. I don't agree with it. Once the bill for this month comes which will be about the same usage from last month, we will be in credit for £400+. How much more do they want?

We can't switch without avoiding the exit fee as we are in a fixed tariff with them.
From our experience with Eon, they gave the customer the option to lower the direct debit to a certain point.

I thought there was no exit fee from Outfox the market ever?
I too am regretting ever switching supplier after thirty years no switch.......here is my latest email.....I have a bad feeling that this company will not survive!


Dear Sir/Madam
Reference your mail below.
We are in Spain for four months.
In the UK, only background heat and a couple of security lights.
So the amount of direct debit £100.04 is much too high.
You sent me this note below a couple of weeks ago, now you change again, I was going to accept this until I got home as it was manageable.

Estimated Annual Cost

October to March Monthly Direct Debit

April to September Monthly Direct Debit

Previous Notification

£688.65

£80.34

£34.43

22nd November Notification

£550.92

£64.27

£27.54

Now you say>>>>>>>>> A Direct Debit payment is due in respect of the above Direct Debit Instruction for £100.04
and will be collected on, or just after, the 27th of December 2018. Further payments of £100.04 will then be collected on, or just after, the 27th of each month until further notice.

I only came to you as a provider in September and now I have nothing but worry and bother about these direct debits.
Please sort this out.


Regards

BedrockFred

Got this email on the 29/11/18


[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your email.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am very sorry to learn that you have already switched energy suppliers. I sincerely apologize in the name of our company for any inconvenience this direct debit change have caused you.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Your new reviewed direct debit values would be as below:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Winter £59.75[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Summer£25.61[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Unfortunately we will no longer be offering the old DD system moving forward.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We apologize for the inconvenience.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We will leave the complaint open for 7 days so you are able to inform us if you are unsatisfied. After this time, we will close the complaint as resolved. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Best Regards,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Matt Sarachman[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Customer Resolution Team[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]T: 0800 014 98 96 | EXT: 4060 |[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]E: [/FONT][EMAIL="complaints@foxglove.energy"][FONT=&quot]complaints@foxglove.energy[/FONT][/EMAIL]


But they have still reinstated my DD with a completely different amount of over £100 today


Seems they aint got a clue what they are doing unless they are so desperate for cash they are hoping customers wont check and see the inflated DD's are reinstated


My switch completes by the end of the week I have nearly £200 in credit no doubt I will have problems getting a refund but I simply refuse to let them have another £100 + maybe I will lose some of my credit but it's a small price to pay to get away from this unscrupulous company

How long can they contiue to survive I wonder

marcadona

Hi everyone. I have decided after the treatment by Outfox the Market and reading through all these posts, to leave. I was given a leaflet in the food hall of Marksies and was going to sign up to them, but when I came home and looked it up it was actually Octopus Energy so I went with them instead as they was a bit cheaper. Good luck everyone with this lot.

MuneyBear

wild666 wrote: »

[EMAIL="kapow@outfoxthemarket.co.uk"]kapow@outfoxthemarket.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Above is the email I have for OFTM it has always gone through as up until last month I used to email my meter readings to them.
I leave this shower of 5H1TE on the 14th and don't ever intend to use them again!

P.S.
Today they took a DD out of my account and it wasn't for £109 or £87.50 or even £70 it was for £50

Could you tell me who is good to change to, I think I should leave OutfoxTM and get rid of the hassle!

MuneyBear

paters wrote: »

I'm switching supplier in a few days time so I thought I was done with OTM's nonsense, but this morning I got their emails telling me the DD is going up on the 26th. They should have known about the switch for 10 days or more, so there's no reason at all to increase it - just more incompetence.



I haven't previously cancelled my DD but they have also given me a new reference. I guess they've had so many people cancel them, it was easier just to give everyone a new one.

Could you tell me who is good to change to, I think I should leave OutfoxTM and get rid of the hassle!

wild666

MuneyBear wrote: »

Could you tell me who is good to change to, I think I should leave OutfoxTM and get rid of the hassle!

For me it was Bulb but people's energy seems to be the choice of some people. Why not do a price comparison on the cheap energy club, uSwitch, Compare the Market, Go Compare or any other site you can think of, but bare in mind that sites might not have the latest info on the providers in the list.

paters

MuneyBear, the exit fee is only on OTM's fixed tariffs, there's no exit fees on variable tariffs. I can't tell you who is good to switch to as I don't know all your details, it depends on how much energy you use etc. The Cheap Energy Club is easy enough to use. If you are on OTM's variable rate, just use the the OTM "Blast Novermber 2018" as your current tariff as that shows the price OTM will be charging from 1st January. Personally, I would advise going to a well established supplier (a fixed deal would probably be a good idea too), not some name you've never heard of before or ones CEC says have no or lots of poor feedback. Also, after you find a good supplier on CEC, check Top Cash Back or Quidco to see if there's any good cashback deals available.

acrimonious

Received this morning without explanation. Both at 05:31 so assume not manually sent.

No.1: Notification of changed DD but no amount quoted.

Date: 03 Dec 2018 05:31

Important: Advanced Notification of a Changed Direct Debit Instruction

Dear **************

We are writing to advise you that your Direct Debit collections have changed as detailed below.

Account Name: *******************
Account Number: **********
Bank Sort Code: ************
Service User Name: Outfox The Market
Service User Number: *********************
Reference: ********************

If any of the above details are incorrect, please call us as soon as possible on 0800 1032702 or e-mail us at dd@outfoxthemarket.co.uk. However, if your details are correct you need do nothing and your Direct Debit will be processed as normal. For your information, the collections will be made using the reference above.

Should the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit change, we will notify you at least 10 working days in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Services Manager
Outfox The Market

No.2 - There is an amount this time - £60.78. When I joined this scam in late September I was told my monthly fee as a very low user would be £27...

Date: 03 Dec 2018 05:31

Important: Advanced Notification of a Changed Direct Debit Instruction

Dear **************

We are writing to advise you that your Direct Debit collections have changed as detailed below.

Account Name: ***********************
Account Number: **************
Bank Sort Code: ***************
Service User Name: Outfox The Market
Service User Number: ***************
Reference: ****************
Payment schedule:

A Direct Debit payment is due in respect of the above Direct Debit Instruction for £60.78 and will be collected on, or just after, the 28th of December 2018. Further payments of £60.78 will then be collected on, or just after, the 28th of each month until further notice.

If any of the above details are incorrect, please call us as soon as possible on 0800 1032702 or e-mail us at dd@outfoxthemarket.co.uk. However, if your details are correct you need do nothing and your Direct Debit will be processed as normal. For your information, the collections will be made using the reference above.

Should the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit change, we will notify you at least 10 working days in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Services Manager
Outfox The Market

No.3 - This is the email I sent in response (I was really cross and didn't really think it through)

"Please see forwarded email. This has now become unacceptable.

You cannot just send notifications of massive rises without explanation.

So far my bill has more than doubled in two months and it’s not even January yet.

Please treat this as a formal complaint about these constant unexplained rises.

This is not what I signed up for and frankly the entire scheme is starting to feel like a scam.

Along with many fellow customers I strongly feel you should be investigated by the regulator.

I do not authorise you taking a payment of £60.78 when my account is currently in credit.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of the justification for all planned and implemented price increases from October through to January within seven days."

__________________________________

Could anyone advise me if this response was appropriate? I have already started the switch to First Utility (paid them security deposit on 29/11/18 - necessary due to my DRO) so maybe it is linked to this.

I cancelled my direct debit a few days ago but understand OFTM will just reinstate it regardless?

This debacle has just reminded me that if something seems too good to be true it frequently is. The late 1990s style website was something of a warning sign to be honest.

I am disappointed in MSE and the Cheap Energy Club for recommending these charlatans. I guess they were fooled with the rest of us. What is sad is that many people will receive all these official looking emails and believe the repeated assurances they are still the cheapest and looking out for their customers.

So thankful my parents didn't change over as I suggested.

ogwellian

Just done a live chat and the reason why my DD is going up from £45.50 to £157.67 is they're using their Estimated Annual Consumption of 3,952 units electricity and 16,500 gas and not my actual of 1,478 and 5,870. I've been with them since January and disputed their estimates on more than one occasion but they never budged so I paid an inflated membership fee.

They're reviewing it again. They've had weekly readings since January.

Using my exact annual consumption with the January prices and new standing charges my annual cost would be around £630 per year.

Steve456

Remember that the Direct Debit Guarantee enables you to instruct your bank to reverse any payment. If, for example, you are changing supplier and your OFTM account is left in credit, I suggest that you give them a specified time in which to refund that credit failing which you will instruct your bank to reverse the previous DD payment.

I did this a few weeks ago when (ironically) I switched to OFTM from "Together Energy". I'm still waiting for a final statement from Together (in fact any statement from August onwards!). I ended, at my estimation, around £170 in credit and reversed my last two Direct Debits so that I probably owe them £30 or so.

I am much happier being in control of my own money!