Outfoxthemarket 

The moral of the story is that this company seem to be trying to become liquid through its customers' bank accounts. Those customers are told take it or leave it or are completely ignored.

My strong advice, based on having recently been a customer, is to avoid or leave this lot and make sure that you ask your bank to block their direct debits which they energetically increase and/or reapply irrespective of your written wishes even after you cease to be a customer.

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We have been with outfoxthemarket since March during which time the membership fee - read standing charge - has increased twice. It is now 20.99 having started at 13.99 - so an increase of £7 or 50% in just over six months. That should've had alarm bells ringing - they get you in and immediately hike the price through this mechanism. I'll be amazed if others find it different.

Then there was their behaviour earlier in November where they 'accidentally' increased direct debit for all customers to obscene levels. They later had to reduce as a result of an avalanche of negative feedback by customers (like me). But that was the indication that lead me to consider whether we should continue as a customer.

So I looked at the existing lower direct debit and found that it had built up £300+ against our winter usage.. That was despite their hike in the "membership fee" which was now more than our previous "Standing Charge". We are away during the week so our current usage indicated that £300 would cover most of our Winter bills. Great you'd have thought!

So I phoned outfoxthemarket 'customer service' to discuss the old (lower) direct debit which was clearly more than the amount necessary to pay our actual bills or even their over-estimated guesses at our usage. A quick play in Excel told me that the new higher direct debit - slightly reduced from their first attempt to get some liquidity - would leave almost £1000 in outfoxthemarket's bank account rather than ours by March'19.

What I was told is that because we were a little late each month in uploading our actual usage they continually estimated at a much higher level. They completely ignore the actual usage trend which was causing this build-up of our cash in their bank account.

Moral: MAKE SURE YOU UPLOAD ON OR BEFORE THE 3RD OF THE MONTH - otherwise your actual usage just get ignored and it will take 12 months for their over-estimate guesses to correct itself in the direct debit calculations.

As to the customer service experience: the most accurate description I can offer about their attitude is - take it or leave it.

I decided on the latter, thanked them and at the same time went to USWITCH where I chose a slightly dearer option.

Since then they have continually ignored my attempts to cancel direct debits which they plan to take after I have ceased to be a customer of theirs. For those of you thinking that I left this on the long finger - like our uploaded usage - they've had almost a month to cancel these direct debits since we USWITCHed and three weeks to do so since I wrote to say "do not take this money because you already have more than you need - ie £300"

However, they tell me NOW (three weeks later) that they have no choice but to take the money because they need two weeks notice. And there was me thinking that a month or three weeks was more than two weeks.

So I rang my BANK, explained the situation and they PUT A BLOCK. Took me 15 minutes - time well spent. Accept nothing less from your bank.

This morning I found that outfoxthemarket have twice tried to re-establish the direct debits and failed thanks to my Bank. I phoned to confirm this with my bank (Barclays) who confirmed and have been brilliant throughout.

Odd that they could respond to a cancellation and re-establish a direct debit twice in half a day when it takes two weeks to cancel one or a month to fail to do so.

My advice is just "do not become a customer of outfoxthemarket or if you are one then leave them as soon as possible". If you are a customer you must also make absolutely sure that your bank puts a block on their direct debits or they will reapply them against your wishes. Accept nothing less from your bank or you'll otherwise be donating to outfoxthemarkets liquidity.

What a load of codswallop OTM Team. I cancelled my switch to you within the cooling off period and received an email and also a verbal communication 'recorded' from OFTM saying my switch had been cancelled as had my direct debit. I was not in a legal contract with you. But you have still switched me to your energy supply. I have made a formal complaint to OFCOM. Your all a bunch of crooks. Compensation was also mentioned to me when i contacted OFCOM. See you in court if needed, although OFCOM will sort it out before it comes to that, i am not paying a penny.

OFCOM Erroneous Transfer Customer Charter

If you didn’t agree to switch energy supplier
This advice applies to England

If you get an unexpected final bill or welcome letter from an energy supplier, your supply might have been switched without your agreement. This could happen if:

A supplier made a mistake, for example by confusing your address with someone else’s you were misled by a salesperson.
Contact the supplier

You’ll need to contact either your old supplier or the new one. It’s usually quickest to call them - you can find their details on any letters or bills they send.

Let them know that you didn’t agree to the switch, and ask them to cancel it if it’s still in progress. If the switch has already happened, ask them to reverse it.

Make a note of the date and time you call, and who you spoke to. You might need to refer to this later if you need to complain.

If you’d prefer to complain in writing, you can use this example letter.
What happens next

Once you’ve contacted the supplier, they should write to you within:

5 working days to explain what they plan to do, and when
20 working days to confirm they’re reversing the switch

These deadlines are part of the ‘erroneous transfer customer charter’, which all suppliers need to follow. If the supplier doesn’t reply, or if they take too long, you should make a complaint.

You’ll still get bills from your original supplier, and won’t have to pay anything to the other supplier.

As you can see above by law i will not have to pay you a penny. And i will not be getting bills from my old supplier as i was on prepayment meter. tyvm Foxy

Absolute AWFUL company!!!

Just recently received emails stating that my £74 direct debit would be going up to £150 in the winter months!!!! EVEN though my account was £160 in credit.

I'm on state benefits, worked this out and it is over 25% of my household income.

Sent 3 emails clarifying this and got generic responses back. So, cancelled DD before they could empty my bank out. Now, I get an email saying this in breach of contract (which I wasn't in a fixed contract), and they are going to charge me £25 if they don't get payment and a new DD within 5 days - even though my account is STILL in credit....

Best of it yet, the email reads to resolve this (quote:)

As a part of our terms and conditions, it is stated that due to cancelling your direct debit a £25 surcharge will incur if a payment is missed, as it is a breach of the agreement.
We have a 5 working day period to receive a payment and reinstate your direct debit so this can be resolved. This will also ensure that your account will not fall into any debt.

If you could please get in touch with a member of our customer service team a call at your earliest convenience, we can go through the steps to resolve the issue.

Note the *CALL* part. When I joined I immediately filled in a priority services register form, and specificied I use a Tobii eye gaze speech generation device... so actually, NO - I CAN'T CALL THEM....

Avoid this company like the plague, they are clearly just out there to rip off the vulnerable and make sure they put you in a position of heat or eat.. *I* won't starve because I've got a feeding tube, but my partner will....

I have just switched to Outfox (well, as of tomorrow). I was tempted by them because of their (too low, really) monthly suggest of £50.74/month (it should be around £73 I reckon - I work in the industry, so I understand what I am talking about). Last week, BEFORE THE SWITCH HAD EVEN TAKEN PLACE, I received an email telling me they were putting me on a "variable direct debit" and would be charging me £88.08/month for six months in winter - a staggering 57% increase - and £38.06/mth in summer! From my understanding, the whole idea of monthly direct debits as opposed to quarterly bills is to spread the cost of payments EVENLY ACROSS THE YEAR. Needless to say, my switch is going to be re-switched in the very near future ... Having just checked their credit rating, they don't have one, probably because they were only established in January 2018. Furthermore, I have just checked and the email regarding the change to "variable direct debit" payments of £88 was sent THE DAY AFTER the 14 day cooling off period!!!

Just had this reply from OFTM;

"Hello Mark, all we are doing is asking customers to pay an accurate amount for their energy. Remember, we pass on wholesale costs and therefore it is only right that customers pay for what they use.
Once April comes around, customers direct debits will drop significantly. Whilst this model may not suit everyone, we believe it is the fairest way to continue to provide such competitive prices."

The problem is this, OFTM have absolutely no idea of my energy consumption as I`ve only been with them a few months! Doubling my direct debit is unfair, unethical and does not accurately reflect my energy use over the winter period.
I DO NOT use twice as much energy over the winter, in fact the latest government figures state that the average consumers bills increase by just 36%!!
This makes their response to me utter nonsense and disingenuous.

They've increased my direct debit by 76% over the winter months & reduced it by 24% over the summer months, despite being in credit.

I will be cancelling my direct debit first thing in the morning and will move to Pure Planet. I recommend everyone do the same.

If this company wasn't already in financial trouble, it will be very soon.

Clearly they are financially grabbing funds to ease cash flow issues. Get out whilst you can, especially if you are in credit as if they go bust you may not see this credit again!!!

Switched to a dual fuel tariff with Outfoxthemarket a few months ago. After a few weeks, I was told my switching date and I thought all was going smoothly. That is until I saw that I was still being charged from my old supplier, as well as Outfoxthemarket. Looking at my bill, it was clear that only my electricity had been moved over to Outfoxthemarket, yet they still amounted to a dual fuel monthly charge. It would have been nice to have known this, but I was to find out that communication is this company's main downfall (in my experience anyway). I proceeded to provide my gas meter details to customer services, who then claimed my switch would be completed in another few weeks. In the meantime, they asked for meter readings. Having collected my readings, I went online to submit them via their website only to find out that I can't get access to my online account because no-one had yet e-mailed me my access link. To this day, I STILL haven't got access to my online account, so I cannot view my usage, bills, submit readings, etc. I have asked for access to my account on several occasions. Each occasion takes approximately 3-5 working days to respond to my message, but only with a reassurance that I will receive my link soon... I STILL haven't received it. Poor, poor service. Which is a shame, because they have decent prices (hence the switch). But if this is the example they have set for service then I don't want any part of it. I will be pursuing my credit balance and will of course happily provide meter readings IF I ever get access to my account.

Just signed up with this company and had a problem signing in to my account but NADEEM resolved the problem very quickly.

Webchat with Farha to resolve problem setting up the Hero Hub. Very helpful, but not resolved as needed input from technical team. Farha emailed them for help.

Justyna provided me with very good assistance and my quirey was deat with immediatly. Excellent customer sèrvice

New customer from today and my first experience is very good.
Bryce