MSE News: Outfox the Market hits customers with FOURTH price hike in six months

CvPiper

thecrazycatlady wrote: »

I’m leaving them for another supplier and had a phone call from them asking me to confirm my address and give them my card details to pay the estimated final bill (which I refused to do as they called me!). We agreed they would follow up with an email giving bank details for me to make a bank transfer which they did - the email came from a company branded as Foxglove Energy Supply so I haven’t paid anything. I know I could ring them using details on my bill but wondered if anyone else had experienced this too?

Many thanks

Foxglove Energy Supply is technically their name, so i would trust that. Out of interest did you cancel your Direct Debit when leaving as you would have thought they would collect funds from that?

ben501

alittleowl wrote: »

Nope, just checked and OFtM are still there with this out of date information: "Outfox the Market charges a monthly membership fee depending on your level of usage instead of a standing charge."
Have lost all faith in comparison sites and am now highly skeptical of any "News" from MSE. Just glad I decided to switch away from OFtM when all this DD nonsense started two weeks ago.

Strange. The energy club is turning into something of a joke. Sadly that joke won't be as funny for those who sign up to a new supplier based on dodgy information.
Outfox is still listed as my existing supplier and I think the information is correct. No changes to the fixed tariff so nothing new for MSE to get wrong.
There is a screw-up in the When your deal ends you'll pay section as it still shows I'll be moving onto the Zapp April 2018 Tariff Medium User. My unit charge will be gas 3.224p per kWh and electric 10.450p per kWh.:rotfl:


[STRIKE]OFTM is noticeably absent for new deals for me.[/STRIKE]
Strike that. I just didn't open the page to show enough results. My cheapest new deal would be £604. Outfox is much further down the page at £722. Almost 20% higher.


They REALLY don't want to remove that dodgy information about the fee do they? It must be a couple of months since it was brought to their attention. And that's just posts I've seen.

editor1

@Olip74,

The fact that MSE are adding more oil to the water as far as OFTM is concerned is not helpful.

However, and as i pointed out in a previous post, OFTM are governed by Contract Law as it applies to England & Wales and any change to its membership fee based business model as far as fixed contract customers is concerned is a Breach of Contract, not only that, it would also constitute a clear case of miss-selling and leave the Business open to having to offer compensation for those impacted by their crassness.

Nice of them to suggest changes to existing contracts with the option of leaving the business if a Fixed customer. If i hazard a guess its their intent to actually get Fixed Contract customers to leave as we are now costing them money, that is they cannot make a profit from our monthly payments based of fixed unit costs offered at the time of subscribing to the business.

Again, and as others have stated it seems the variable rabe customers are being treated as a cash cow to cover losses incurred on all those on Fixed Contracts. I've not even mentioned the OFGEM changes, namely price caps that also are having a detrimental impact.

i'm actually reminded of British Airways cocking up on its aviation fuel Forwards Contracts a few years ago, which cost them a £1 billion loss - that's the game these smaller energy businesses are in and it seems many have underestimated wholesale market increases over the past three months - hence so many hitting the wall.

editor1

@Ben501,

Like you I've been checking the Energy Club comparison tool, have not checked any others, but will now do so.

in a nutshell, our Fixed Contract is appearing as the cheapest Fixed deal, when i look at Supplier it has my details correct, but on the other box, like you it shows outdated OFTM details, April 2018, that suggests a variable deal in 2019 will be cheaper than what we are paying now - no way i'm afraid given all price rises since August.

editor1

A quick note that may prove of assistance to OFTM customers.

First, have just taken meter reading and these were dispatched via the telephone by my folks, a little longer than usual wait I've been instructed, basically a couple of minutes and who ever responded seemed rushed off their feet - however, and despite what others state, my parents are registered with OFTM as 'special needs' and their meter readings were taken over the phone.

Secondly, a few posters have voiced concerns about the Energy Clue price comparison tool, so thought I'd check a couple of other sites listed on OFGEM's website, I run two quotes, one with uSwitch and the other with MoneySupermarket. uSwitch gave the cheapest hangover quote, similar to MSE Money Club, namely an increase of more than £180 a year if with now, whilst MoneySupermarket came out with deals starting more than £200 year than we are presently paying, both sites clearly indicate we are on the cheapest deal, namely the Whack January deal - so, and despite all the crap, again it seems economic suicide to engage in a switch if on a Fixed term contract.

Hindsight being a great thing, i could have got an excellent deal with Engie Energy in March this year for 2 years with some cashpack thrown in, this was for about £90 a month based on our usage - obviously, I took the cheaper option with all calculations based on what it would have cost to use OVO Energy or First Utility, our SMART meter worked with both companies funnily enough, however, their costs were both above £100 a month in March and considerably more now for Fixed deals.

thecrazycatlady

Thank you - I haven’t cancelled the direct debit as the switch hasn’t actually happened yet and they should be able to just work out an actual final bill once I’ve left. I imagine they’re losing a lot of customers and trying to get as much money in as possible to keep afloat.

Dreamscometrue

Got another email from them this morning to say that the DD would be increasing to £101 p/m. That's absolutely crackers as I typically spend £65 p/m and my account is already £44 in credit. Just switched to First Utility via Topcashback and fixed until March 2020.

Nicholas-bloody-Parsons

paters wrote: »

Not sure about this, but I read the energy price cap coming into effect on 1st Jan 2019 limits the standing charge for electricity at 23p per day and gas at 26p per day
So how can they charge 28p per fuel?

Well spotted. From OFGEM:

GAS standing charge Price CAP is 28.8p per day.
Electric standing charge Price CAP is 25.6p per day (varies per region)


they cannot charge 28p for electricty per day. OFGEM will not let them. Expect another OFTM price change email from them soon! :mad:

superkoopauk

Where do you see those figures Nicholas? From my own calculations I have even lower amounts. In any case it sounds like outfox have messed up and priced over the cap not only with the standing charge but the unit rate as well!

jaybeetoo

thecrazycatlady wrote: »

I’m leaving them for another supplier and had a phone call from them asking me to confirm my address and give them my card details to pay the estimated final bill (which I refused to do as they called me!). We agreed they would follow up with an email giving bank details for me to make a bank transfer which they did - the email came from a company branded as Foxglove Energy Supply so I haven’t paid anything. I know I could ring them using details on my bill but wondered if anyone else had experienced this too?

Many thanks

That’s interesting. I left them at midnight on Friday. On Saturday morning I had a call from a Leicester number which I didn’t answer as I was driving. I called the number back but couldn’t get through.

The number was 0116 465 4469. Was this the number you had the call from?