Outfox The Market

JGB1955

Got my £30 compensation today. Happy with that.

FreeBear

Finally got my money refunded. They only stumped one £30 statutory compensation.. Had to raise two formal complaints to get to this stage. Annoyed that the "advisor" would close the complaint(s) after passing the buck to another department rather than waiting for the issue to be resolved. Improves their KPIs I suppose, but does little to improve their reputation.

At least I've got my money back before they go to the wall.

Hammer_Time

I transferred from Outfox to Avro ( I am now a Octopus customer),  however they went bust before is was completed, I now have a final bill from them for the energy used from the 9 September to 30 September 21, however the statement date was 29 November 21. Would I be entitled to the £30 compensation?

TonySimon

Hi. It looks like 30 September was your last day with Outfox? Then yes, you would be if they didn't bill you until 29 November. They must bill within 6 weeks, or they owe you £30. If they don't pay the £30 within 10 days, they owe you another £30.

Hammer_Time

Thanks Tony, I will phone today.

TonySimon

This is from the Ombudsman Service....

The Electricity and Gas (standards of performance) (Suppliers) Regulations 2015 and the Electricity and Gas (standards of performance) (Suppliers) (Amendments) Regulations 2019 Standards of Service contain legislation set in place to confirm how suppliers should operate.

Regulation 6D of the Electricity and Gas (Standards of Performance) (Suppliers) Regulations 2015 states that PC must refund your final credit balance within 10 working days of your final bill OR within 10 working days of the corrected bill.

Regulation 8 states that should a supplier fail to meet this, or any other individual standard of performance, it must make a payment of £30 to the customer affected by the failure.  In addition, regulation 8 also details that the standard £30 payment must be made within 10 working days of the supplier’s initial failure.  If the supplier does not adhere to this timescale, it should then issue an additional payment of £30.

Hammer_Time

I was wondering as the supplier I was transferring to (Avro) went bust mid switch, would I still be entitled to the £30 compensation for the late bill? 

tsb

Hammer_Time said:

I transferred from Outfox to Avro ( I am now a Octopus customer),  however they went bust before is was completed, I now have a final bill from them for the energy used from the 9 September to 30 September 21, however the statement date was 29 November 21. Would I be entitled to the £30 compensation?

I'm in the same position. Mid switch from Outfox to Avro when they went bust. I have now received my bill from Outfox dated 29th November 2021 for energy up to 30th September 2021 and they have refunded the credit balance on the account.  

I wondered whether this compensation applied but haven't Outfox been waiting for the final reading from the Avro administrators before they could raise the bill? This wasn't anything Outfox could speed up so I didn't think this would apply.  Also my readings for the final bill are not the same as the reading I gave Octopus but my Octopus account still isn't showing anything but zero.  I presume if these readings match the opening ones with Octopus I don't need to worry?

Hammer_Time

Thanks tsb, yes I agree with you, my final readings was the same for gas but different for electric. I did phone Octopus and gave them the final Outfox readings.

dbks

TonySimon said:

This is from the Ombudsman Service....

The Electricity and Gas (standards of performance) (Suppliers) Regulations 2015 and the Electricity and Gas (standards of performance) (Suppliers) (Amendments) Regulations 2019 Standards of Service contain legislation set in place to confirm how suppliers should operate.

Regulation 6D of the Electricity and Gas (Standards of Performance) (Suppliers) Regulations 2015 states that PC must refund your final credit balance within 10 working days of your final bill OR within 10 working days of the corrected bill.

Regulation 8 states that should a supplier fail to meet this, or any other individual standard of performance, it must make a payment of £30 to the customer affected by the failure.  In addition, regulation 8 also details that the standard £30 payment must be made within 10 working days of the supplier’s initial failure.  If the supplier does not adhere to this timescale, it should then issue an additional payment of £30.

Whilst I do not seek to disagree with the legal position that the OS have given you, it should also be noted that the OS does not rely solely on the strict legal position when adjudicating on any dispute.

I have had sight of a recent ruling (not made public, afaik) that indicated that consumers are expected to be put in a position that easily allows them to budget their energy costs accurately.
As a result, the OS adopted the position that the supplier should provide an accurate final bill within 6 weeks of ceasing to supply you, except where the inaccuracy was not down to the failure of that supplier. (e.g. a revised final bill is issued later because of a successful disputed final meter reading complaint having been raised by the consumer)