Outfoxthemarket direct debit changes, avoid the exit fee

editor1

What have they increased, they have split their DD payments into two seasons, one peak and one low in an effort to stay afloat no doubt. The fact remains over the course of 12 months that you annual payment remains static, its your monthly payments that have changed.

For the record, my folks are elderly, my folks use more energy than a regular 4 family household due to my father wasting electricity and electricity charges that are high in our household during the Winter months.

Whilst accepting your real concerns, financially my folks remain better off with OFTM by a considerable degree - Bulb are not a charity and their electricity unit charges are far higher than OFTM Fixed deal, as are their gas charges.

Further, and in the real world, that is for those of us residing outside of the UK, we don't have the choice of DD payments spread over 12 months, we are charged monthly and must pay within 14 days or have our power disconnected - my Electricity usage costs in the Summer months have been as high as £260 - now this is in Hong Kong, but Singapore and other Capitalist societies have similar structures, i.e., their businesses don't act like charities, you pay for what you use promptly or face disconnection, as such, the UK actually seems like the exception to the Rule!

Now, this thread is about exiting a contract and switching to another provider without incurring exit fees - in my opinion, and given the lack of T&C's sent out with the welcome package, it seems clear OFTM are in Breach of Contract and I think a small claims court would find in the consumers favour - I'm checking with one of my Barrister colleagues on this fact based on the lack of clarity in the T&Cs, i.e., none were forwarded when you signed on.

That said, and given the costs, OFTM were always a gamble I'm afraid, i recognised this, but their costs were significantly cheaper than my families previous three providers. Indeed, two of the other businesses i looked at have now gone bust, among them Spark, so, we remain ahead of the game, others are not so lucky and it is this group that should consider changing provider.

System

editor1 wrote: »

What have they increased, they have split their DD payments into two seasons, one peak and one low in an effort to stay afloat no doubt. The fact remains over the course of 12 months that you annual payment remains static, its your monthly payments that have changed.

For the record, my folks are elderly, my folks use more energy than a regular 4 family household due to my father wasting electricity and electricity charges that are high in our household during the Winter months.

Whilst accepting your real concerns, financially my folks remain better off with OFTM by a considerable degree - Bulb are not a charity and their electricity unit charges are far higher than OFTM Fixed deal.

Further, and in the real world, that is for those of us residing outside of the UK, we don't have the voice of DD payments speed over 12 months, we are charged monthly and must pay within 14 days or have our power disconnected - my Electricity usage costs in the Summer months have been as high as £260 - now this is in Hong Kong, but Singapore and other Capitalist societies have similar structures, i.e., their businesses don't act like charities, you pay for what you use promptly or face disconnection, as such, the UK actually seems like the exception to the Rule!

In truth, OFTM made a mess of their future customer energy projections leading to artificially inflated DDs so they were on to a loser from the start. Their timing of the change could not have been worse (Christmas) but I suspect that ‘events - dear boy’ has caught them out. The other misconceptions that consumers have is that a fixed contract means fixed payments, and that DD payments are charges for usage - clearly, both misconceptions are wrong. Referral sites - with top picks - don’t help either as it ‘seduces’ consumers into thinking that the supplier has undergone some form of external business check which isn’t true. A quick look at the accounts at Companies House shows how at risk many of these suppliers are.

All of what consumers now say they want is possible; however, we would have to accept that changes/harder regulation may well lead to higher prices. The irony here is many of us choose suppliers such as OFTM because they offered below market average prices. I got my fingers burned with GBEnergy and Iresa, but I have had excellent service from Zog; Bulb and now Octopus: such is life. Even when one goes for a Big 6 supplier (which I had to do recently after a house move/deemed supply), there is no guarantee that pay more equals better service. Four months on, I am still waiting for a Final Bill.

editor1

@Hengus,

As long as OFTM survive until the end of March 2019 I'll be quite happy - they certainly know how to deliver poor customer service via crass business decisions, but it does seem my folks are a bit of an 'exception' as to how we have faired with OFTM.

Like you, I actually did a Companies House search on OFTM and checked out what i could online, also read all Customer reviews, most of which in March were positive - obviously its now negative but again i look at facts and these are simple, namely I'm better off with OFTM until, or if, they hit the wall, hence, its fingers crossed they survive until the Winter is over.

As for the legacy players, many horror stories on these threads, so, as ever its horses for courses and persons really do need to understand 'Risk', as long as any credit with OFTM is safe I'm happy enough, particularly given had we stayed with First Utility on their two year fixed deal our monthly bill would have been over £105 a month for two years and its that figure I'm looking at, hence, a £119 charge for six months when compared to that monthly charge puts matters into perspective.

VoucherMan

bs7 wrote: »

but on the 8th of October 2018 the terms were saved here -

Good to know its been useful to a few. I saved the page when I was searching for details about them, just before I started my Outfox whinge-athon. I also posted some of the changes in the two sets of T&Cs.


Unfortunately I don't think it's possible to save subsequent versions of the T&C on the archive website manually, though I've no idea how the site decides when to make new caches. The only system I've currently found is to print a copy after making sure every tab is open. I just print it to a PDF file.


As for the rest, I think I've repeated my opinion quite frequently. Suffice to say I'm in the same boat as editor1, at least in regard to hoping Outfox survive another 10 months. Appallingly run company, but for those of us on the fixed tariff, with enough money in reserve for the increased payments, we're unlikely to find anything close to the price. It's going to be a shock to the system when this contract ends and we have to face the reality of the latest prices.

editor1

@Voucherman,

I'm glad common sense plays a part in your calculations, the fact remains the OFTM 18 month Fixed Cost deal available in the first quarter is presently £16 per month cheaper than the cheapest Variable deal being offered via the Energy Club, so, I just hope OFTM survive until Winter is over - I'm all for 'complaining' and have done it often enough on these boards, I'm not one for financial suicide though or incurring avoidable costs. However crass OFTM have acted, the thought of having a £200 a year in gas and electricity charges, not withstanding a added 50 quid Exit charge just does not appeal, that and the fact my folks are not financially broke, stretched certainly, but they can afford the increased DD charges and come the demise of OFTM will have to stomach gas and electric costs £200 spend higher a year than they were paying in February this year, that's some kinda inflation is that.

bs7

@ editor1 i'm delighted that your parents are well off and that you're happy with OFTM, however, I suspect anyone that has read these threads about OutFox have read several times you repeat the exact same thing over and over again and suspect everyone is now well aware of your parent's relative wealth and happy for them.


I appreciate you have some weird fascination about spouting defence of OutFox - just as it seems Hengus has - but this thread was started to offer some hope for people that are stuck with a massive jump in their direct debit payments and may be unable to continue with OFTM.


I note your comments about OutFoxTheCustomer perhaps being the cheapest - however, not everyone will be able to continue paying the higher amounts with such little notice.

editor1

@bs7,

Please don't give the impression my folks are wealthy, they are not, they are working class pensioners who like many folks of their generation had a better time of it than us younger folk.

As for anything else, a dose of reality seems not to chime with you, again, try living overseas with no competition, try getting electricity without putting down a decent deposit and stop giving the impression that OFTM has increased its actual charges, they have not, they have recalculated the annual payments scheme and made a hash of explaining this to consumers, notwithstanding sending an email out that actually did increase actual costs, later corrected - these are examples of poor, rushed management decisions and indicative that the business is under stress.

Now, I accept many persons budget utility charges spread over 12 monthly payments of equal value, at the same time I'm old enough to remember having to make both a deposit payment and pay quarterly bills in full when this market did not exist in the late 80's. And this market does not exist where i reside most of the year, hence my apparent sympathy with OFTM. However, the fact remains on a annual basis costs have not risen for those of us on Fixed schemes, rather Direct Debit monthly payments have increased, and in many instances these DD payment's don't cover the actual cost of the energy consumed in peak period. So, OFTMs business model is wrong for the market we are in, but that does not mean we should suggest somehow a theft is involved when over the course of the contract your actual annual cost remains the same as the day you joined, well apart from those hit by the Banding changes earlier in the year.

Dad_Deep_Pockets

editor1 wrote: »

@bs7,

As for anything else, a dose of reality seems not to chime with you, again, try living overseas with no competition, try getting electricity without putting down a decent deposit and stop giving the impression that OFTM has increased its actual charges, they have not, they have recalculated the annual payments scheme and made a hash of explaining this to consumers, notwithstanding sending an email out that actually did increase actual costs, later corrected - these are examples of poor, rushed management decisions and indicative that the business is under stress.

editor1, I think your replies are very condescending to the vast majority on these forums who have made decisions around OFTM's poor service and future viability. I think most commentators realise that an increase in a direct debit is not an increase in charges, the increase for me was not the reason for leaving but the total shambolic nature of the company and their failure to adhere to regulations - reinstating DD's without consent, changing T&C's without notification and attempting to rely on implied terms for a B2C contract. I too have lived abroad and agree that in other countries the consumer has no power, however, we are talking here about the UK so that argument is irrelevant.
This thread was posted to highlight there potentially is a loophole to exit without fee for those trapped in a company whose financial future is precarious to say the least. Have a good look at those accounts and you will see why the holding company is Maltese and do some leg work about why. This company has some questions to answer around it's finances and I for one do not intend to be left with a large credit come Q2 19 when they have to increase their 'club' prices and rates or risk insolvency. A race to the bottom is not a race to win and be proud of, steering a course through rocky waters when everyone is in the engine room and no one is in the wheel house is financial suicide.

stphnstevey

Scrapping DD changes and raising prices and implementing standing charge

Others look better now, but MSE comparison tool is always a few months behind with the tariff, so comparison is always difficult - is there a comparison site you can input the rates and standing charges yourself?

System

stphnstevey wrote: »

MSE comparison tool is always a few months behind with the tariff, so comparison is always difficult - is there a comparison site you can input the rates and standing charges yourself?

Evidence of that claim: it doesn’t match my experience. Try the Citizens Advice Energy Comparison Tool but AFAIK there is no PCW that will allow you to input in the way that you would like. You just have to select the tariff that you are on.