Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes
Comments
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shaftthemarket wrote: »
(b) information has to be available and used. This is where the flat earth question arises: when all the evidence shows that OTC are not the cheapest and are arguably the most visibly incompetent and hassle prone supplier, why do folk ignore the evidence and continue to chant OTC are the cheapest?
(c) for the market to 'work', punters have to be active, ie act on the information. By staying put with OTC when they are not the cheapest, and their service is on a par with a Ryan Air flight to Hell and back, the die-hards are defeating they very market forces that are supposed to deal with rogue suppliers.
You joined oftm just before a price rise and a change in how they take monthly payments. Annoying but hardly worth joining a forum to start a campaign to discredit them and others. Get over your bad timing.0 -
"We are sorry we got caught trying to fleece our customers in order to prop up our failing business but we're really desperate for a new yacht this Christmas and the bank won't loan us any more money so we thought we'd give it a go. We are sorry we underestimated your capacity for rational thought and we didn't realise that our customers had access to calculators"
There is no possible universe in which adding 25% to everyone's bill could be a genuine mistake which can just be shrugged off. We're not talking about 25p on a loaf of bread, we're not talking about running stuff through the till in Tesco's twice: this "mistake" had it not been challenged would have made them _millions_ of pounds in December alone: an extra £10 from 100,000 customers is a million quid and most people's "mistakes" were for a lot more than £10. It's either absolute incompetence or an attempt at fraud.0 -
I am not objecting to the price increase because I was told that one was coming when I joined up at the beginning of November. It is the change in the dd system which I am opposed to. They have said that they aren't a credit agent, well, neither am I. They have whacked up my s.d from £78 to over £100 a month and only giving me 10 days notice. I still haven't had a reply to my emails to them explaining my position, so I have arranged a switch to another company which will switch over on the date of my next dd which I will be cancelling as I am already £155 in credit with them. I will send them the same reading as I send to the new company and will be asking them for a bill which shows the calculations of the cost of the energy and membership fees. If that tallies accurately, I will then offer to pay the bill by card. They don't have a secure email system, they asked me to photograph my meter readings and send them by email. I am 73 years old, hard of hearing and unsteady on my feet. The electric meter is high up and I have to use a step ladder. I need both hands to hold a camera. Will they be responsible if I fall off, as I am following their instructions?
ATB Dougie0 -
DouglasRankine wrote: »I am not objecting to the price increase because I was told that one was coming when I joined up at the beginning of November. It is the change in the dd system which I am opposed to. They have said that they aren't a credit agent, well, neither am I. They have whacked up my s.d from £78 to over £100 a month and only giving me 10 days notice. I still haven't had a reply to my emails to them explaining my position, so I have arranged a switch to another company which will switch over on the date of my next dd which I will be cancelling as I am already £155 in credit with them. I will send them the same reading as I send to the new company and will be asking them for a bill which shows the calculations of the cost of the energy and membership fees. If that tallies accurately, I will then offer to pay the bill by card. They don't have a secure email system, they asked me to photograph my meter readings and send them by email. I am 73 years old, hard of hearing and unsteady on my feet. The electric meter is high up and I have to use a step ladder. I need both hands to hold a camera. Will they be responsible if I fall off, as I am following their instructions?
ATB Dougie
Given their total disregard for customer welfare in "making a mistake" that 25% to everyone's bill, I doubt very much that they would accept any liability for your injury. Like you I have had no reply to my emails explaining my position, which is similar to yours I think. Please don't climb that ladder!
If you're worried about cancelling the DD and them trying to take your money anyway, talk to your bank: mine (First Direct) have blocked OFtM's access, and that of their shady shell companies, have written to OFtM telling them that they will treat an attempt to reinstate it as attempted fraud and will notify the police, and if they try to charge me £25 for cancelling the DD having given them more than the required 10 days' notice, they (the bank) will reimburse me. Take care.0 -
An energy supplier has apologised to all 100,000 of its customers after it sent out bills that were too high.
I guess mine got lost in the post.0 -
Norman_Castle wrote: »People aren't stupid. For many oftm are the cheapest. The "punters" who are with oftm are the active ones. The inactive ones have never changed.
You joined oftm just before a price rise and a change in how they take monthly payments. Annoying but hardly worth joining a forum to start a campaign to discredit them and others. Get over your bad timing.
Like many others I accept that energy costs have gone up and they have had to put their prices up as a result. That's not the issue. The issue is they "made a mistake" which would have brought them millions of extra pounds over the next month alone. A "mistake" of £10 on 100,000 customer bills is £1 million and the average "mistake" was much greater than that. Had forums like this not existed their customers would not have realised that this was happening to everyone and therefore it needed to be challenged.0 -
alittleowl...that made me laugh!...on a more serious note I have phoned my bank twice now to advise that no payment should be made to oftm,bank says to keep a close eye on debits and if oftm reintroduce dd bank will refund...I had thought me cancelling this would have stopped any payments!.0
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Switched to Avro Energy through MSE energy club.Price quoed for 18 month contract Really unhappy , after weeks of haggling they have reneged on the original deal of £101.76 DDand want to increase the price to £136.00 pcm .They are also saying that they will review the contract after 12 months..Is the MSE deal as well researched ?0
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OFTM aren't the only company trying this tactic.
At least some of them will let you change your DD in your account and not argue the toss about it.
It must be a huge drain on their CS resources dealing with customer complaints.0 -
shazzablue wrote: »alittleowl...that made me laugh!...on a more serious note I have phoned my bank twice now to advise that no payment should be made to oftm,bank says to keep a close eye on debits and if oftm reintroduce dd bank will refund...I had thought me cancelling this would have stopped any payments!.
It should have done but it seems that OFtM have tried to reinstate the DD of many people, maybe everyone, who cancelled and are switching. I didn't expect my bank to take it quite so seriously but in the letter they sent me they make it very clear that contacting the police will be their next step. Of course they may have information about this company and/or its directors that we don't know about.0
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