Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes

MadMat · 23 November 2018 at 1:00PM

Well finally got a reply from complaints@foxglove

Wasn't worth the wait, they've cut and pasted the same boiler plate that has already been posted here about how doubling my DD with no warning helps me to budget.

I don't think the person who replied even read the email I sent . . . . . .

Mat

Merlin139 · 23 November 2018 at 1:00PM

I have had my revised DD figures but they are the same as originally quoted. All they have done in this Email is to inflate the figures that they said were in the original email.

Original Email.

£736.56 £85.93 £36.83

Revised Email. Previous Notification

£920.70 £107.42 £46.04

22nd November Notification

£736.56 £85.93 £36.82

So for me nothing has changed.

My original DD was £61.38 and I was £284.37 in credit.

I have submitted another complaint about how this has been handled and am now demanding £50 compensation for 2 hours of my wasted time. I will bill them £25 per hour or part hour that I spend trying to sort this out.

shaftthemarket · 23 November 2018 at 1:03PM

I too got yesterdays 'Good News' email which was more of a Fox to Turkey Good News Christmas is Coming Early This Year type of email.

I too noticed the figures remained unchanged - still the same massive hike as in the 15th Nov email.

I then noticed there seemed to be rows in the prices table with nothing in them - so I tried the old trick of selecting the whole table to see if there was hidden text and - bizarre or what - there is! White text on white background but it sort of inverts when selected so you can see it... and yes it is about where it should be.

But it's too little too late. This whole farce has convinced me that OTC have no place in the market, at least as far as I am concerned. Sending emails with hidden text (!!!!!!, can't they get the basic markup right???) is just another example of basic incompetence.

I've already initiated a switch, to a two year fix. The Fox seems to have brainwashed a lot of folk into believing that OTC is significantly cheaper. In fact, this is not the case, for most it is marginally cheaper than other low cost tariffs. But OTC has other non-tariff costs like the hassle of the last month, DDs that go Whack!, mysterious hidden text emails etc etc (not to mention the final hassle of going onto a SoLR if/when OTC collapses under the weight of it's own incompetence) and even more importantly for those on OTC variable tariffs, sure as eggs is eggs, unit rates and almost certainly bunny club fees are going to increase in the coming months (provided OTC don't implode in the meantime) such that before too long OTC will be more expensive than today's fixes - and by then today's fixes will no longer be available. That's why this bunny jumped before the fox showed his next set of teeth.

Pete99 · 23 November 2018 at 1:17PM

I wonder what the Moneysaving expert thinks, he must have noticed how angry people are at the cavaliar way this company is taking our money with no way for us to be able to stop them.

Terry_Towelling · 23 November 2018 at 1:41PM

wild666 wrote: »

I live alone and use a hot water bottle and a flask of tea or coffee for drinks I drink about two flasks a day, 3 litres, plus the hot water bottle I spend all day on-line and surf the net. I am thinking of updating my surge protectors to ones that you can switch off each individual plug. Anything to save money, they already get £50 a month out of me and they claimed I was in debt but have been in credit by a few pounds after each £50 DD. I seriously think they are in trouble as the two in charge are either husband and wife, brother & sister or related through marriage someway.

I would advise against drinking the contents of the hot water bottle:)

I also applaud your ingenuity with the flasks but don't forget it takes the same amount of energy to boil 3 litres of water regardless of whether you boil it all at once or whether you boil lesser amounts as needed. The only disadvantage of doing it when needed is that there is inevitably a bit of left over water because you often can't boil just one mug's worth - unless you get yourself a jumbo mug.

BedrockFred · 23 November 2018 at 1:57PM

Organza_Lace wrote: »

Thats not too bad an increase. If they had increased my winter DD by that much i'd have stuck with them.

Maybe you would but you don't know the situation of the poster
I expect the DD to rise as soon as the December increase comes along, I would not trust them at all with the way they are handling this fiasco and if you look they have lowered your expected usage at least they have with mine it went from £620 expected usage to £512 make of that what you will no doubt as soon as you get near the expected usage they will increase the DD PAYMENTS

Signed up to a 2 year deal myself which is marginly dearer but no doubt will be cheaper in the coming months and the DD is the same over the year

With the amount of customers moving away from OFTM I doubt they can sustain their model

BedrockFred · 23 November 2018 at 2:00PM

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

I would advise against drinking the contents of the hot water bottle:)

I also applaud your ingenuity with the flasks but don't forget it takes the same amount of energy to boil 3 litres of water regardless of whether you boil it all at once or whether you boil lesser amounts as needed. The only disadvantage of doing it when needed is that there is inevitably a bit of left over water because you often can't boil just one mug's worth - unless you get yourself a jumbo mug.

We ditched the kettle and bought a water boiler we can boil a kettle full or just a cup great saving

alittleowl · 23 November 2018 at 2:35PM

I've had no response to any of my complaint emails to OFtM, no "apology" email, no revision, no hidden text. It might be because my bank (First Direct) has sent them a letter stating if they try to reinstate my DD or access my account they will treat it as attempted fraud and contact the police My bank rep didn't believe their claim they will lower the DD in April (she laughed out loud when I told her) and advised me to change supplier as quickly as possible, which is what I am doing. Once my account with OFtM is closed First Direct will try to recover my credit balance ASAP but I don't expect to get it before February.

Even if they did revise the DD down, I wouldn't trust them to find their way out of a paper bag. This is not a street market where bartering with your customers might be appropriate. Either they really need everyone to pay their first ridiculously high DD in order to survive so by revising down they'll go bust soon, or someone made a massive error using a calculator, or they are just scammers and were trying to bleed their customers for a free loan just before Christmas. None of those options suggests this is a company I want to give my money to, let alone trust to provide my gas and electricity.

Barneybear1 · 23 November 2018 at 2:41PM

Thank you metlin139 I have emailed them but am awaiting a response and instigated a supply switch, informed them of this but they take no notice. Interesting that a leaflet came through the door from fischer storage heaters giving away up to 1000kwh with new orders meeting certain criteria. I wonder if we are paying for this:

Dad_Deep_Pockets · 23 November 2018 at 3:17PM

Just ringing OTM to speak about my threatening email because I have cancelled my direct debit. I guess plenty of other people are doing the same - currently 27 in the queue :-)
Spoke to my new supplier, they expect to take over on the 7th of December, no way am i reinstating my direct debit!!!

Outfox The Market Direct Debit changes

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