Outfox The Market

wild666

It took me over 8 months to get my final bill in December 2018 when I left them, they claimed I was in debt to them but in reality I was in credit as it was proven when I got my final bill after complaining through resolver. 

The reason I left is because they were going to do a winter/summer tariff and the winter payment £120 would have covered my whole years usage and the £70 summer would have put me over £680 in credit. I did get £70 compensation out of them though so it wasn't that bad.  

Nick_C

wild666 said:

It took me over 8 months to get my final bill in December 2018 when I left them, they claimed I was in debt to them but in reality I was in credit as it was proven when I got my final bill after complaining through resolver. 

The reason I left is because they were going to do a winter/summer tariff and the winter payment £120 would have covered my whole years usage and the £70 summer would have put me over £680 in credit. I did get £70 compensation out of them though so it wasn't that bad.  

OFGEM have tightened up compensation since then.  When you switch, your old supplier must issue a final bill within 6 weeks.  Automatic £30 compensation if they fail to do this.  They must also refund any credit balance within 10 working days (so two weeks) of issuing a final bill.  Again, automatic compensation if they fail.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-if-you-are-owed-money-your-energy-bill

The whole switching process does seem to be improving.  I switched from OTM to Sainsbury's on 3 October, and Sainsbury's emailed me on 20 October to say the handover readings had been agreed and verified.  That's a big improvement since last time.

I'm still sorry to be leaving OTM.  I found their customer service was good, their bills were always easy to understand and matched my spreadsheet to the penny, and until now they were the cheapest supplier for me.  They also started getting readings from my old SMETS1 meter a couple of months ago.  It took them 8 days to reply to a recent email, but these are exceptional times.

TonySimon

Can I ask people who left these when they announced the price rise to check their banks.  They knew I was leaving 2 months ago as they emailed me to ask for a reading.   They have continued to take monthly DD's from my bank and not issued a final bill.  This is very shody service and I fully intend to claim compensation from them as soon as the 6 weeks is up.

JGB1955

I left OTM for Sainsbury's on 5 October.  I cancelled my DD to ensure no further payments were made.  I've received my final bill today and have been promised a refund of my £130 credit within 10 working days.  It's all been smooth from my point of view.

FreeBear

JGB1955 said:

I left OTM for Sainsbury's on 5 October.  I cancelled my DD to ensure no further payments were made.  I've received my final bill today and have been promised a refund of my £130 credit within 10 working days.  It's all been smooth from my point of view.

My switch completed on 2nd October. Still waiting for the final bill and the return of £65 credit.. I had cancelled the DD so that they couldn't get their mitts on any more money. The 6 weeks will be up on the 13th Nov, so will wait until then to see if fingers are pulled out.

Liku

TonySimon said:

Can I ask people who left these when they announced the price rise to check their banks.  They knew I was leaving 2 months ago as they emailed me to ask for a reading.   They have continued to take monthly DD's from my bank and not issued a final bill.  This is very shody service and I fully intend to claim compensation from them as soon as the 6 weeks is up.

They took quite a while to issue the final bill to me though they did it just in the required time. I decided to let 1 more payment go out to ensure I didn't have a debt to deal with. Was a silly decision in the end since I'd have owed <£1. But they cancelled the dd after the final bill was issued.
So I'd say expect it a few days before the time is up (but hope it isn't to get that comp!)

Probably best to cancel the dd really when you leave. Can always pay what you owe. The payments are all automatic and OFTM aren't the first to take a dd after I left. Last one I reclaimed since they owed me lots already.

Flight3287462

DadExtraordinaire said:

I was £300 in credit with OTM September 2021. I asked for the credit to be refunded 

Not going to happen on the run up to the winter and the new prices kicking in.

Flight3287462

I switched from OTM to Sainsburys on 2nd October, after speaking to them I cancelled the direct debit before it was due out, took my meter readings calculated what I owed them and made a payment online.  Easy peasy.

wild666

Nick_C said:

wild666 said:

It took me over 8 months to get my final bill in December 2018 when I left them, they claimed I was in debt to them but in reality I was in credit as it was proven when I got my final bill after complaining through resolver. 

The reason I left is because they were going to do a winter/summer tariff and the winter payment £120 would have covered my whole years usage and the £70 summer would have put me over £680 in credit. I did get £70 compensation out of them though so it wasn't that bad.  

OFGEM have tightened up compensation since then.  When you switch, your old supplier must issue a final bill within 6 weeks.  Automatic £30 compensation if they fail to do this.  They must also refund any credit balance within 10 working days (so two weeks) of issuing a final bill.  Again, automatic compensation if they fail.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-if-you-are-owed-money-your-energy-bill

The whole switching process does seem to be improving.  I switched from OTM to Sainsbury's on 3 October, and Sainsbury's emailed me on 20 October to say the handover readings had been agreed and verified.  That's a big improvement since last time.

I'm still sorry to be leaving OTM.  I found their customer service was good, their bills were always easy to understand and matched my spreadsheet to the penny, and until now they were the cheapest supplier for me.  They also started getting readings from my old SMETS1 meter a couple of months ago.  It took them 8 days to reply to a recent email, but these are exceptional times.

In the 8 months it took them it would take them 14 days to reply to any email and when they did they said it was questioning my  reading with the new supplier, which I gave to both OFTM and Bulb at 23.55 on the day of leaving OFTM, they were saying the bill should be £60 plus but in reality it was just £5.70, and my reading was way less than what they were claiming. It ended up with me paying a bill of £5.70 plus getting £70 compensation.

wild666

FreeBear said:

JGB1955 said:

I left OTM for Sainsbury's on 5 October.  I cancelled my DD to ensure no further payments were made.  I've received my final bill today and have been promised a refund of my £130 credit within 10 working days.  It's all been smooth from my point of view.

My switch completed on 2nd October. Still waiting for the final bill and the return of £65 credit.. I had cancelled the DD so that they couldn't get their mitts on any more money. The 6 weeks will be up on the 13th Nov, so will wait until then to see if fingers are pulled out.

You can cancel the DD so they cannot take any more money from the account but they don't need your details to put money into your account as they have them from when you signed up to them. 
Cancelling the DD stops them taking money from your account but not from putting money into your account.