Symbio Energy feedback

Qyburn

Deltadia said:

Hi 
I am with Symbio for past 4 months and I have recently noticed that the FIXED rate increased. Did anyone else have similar issue?

Could that be their VAT error?  They publish their tariffs with VAT included, but their bills show the ex-VAT figure for the calculations, with VAT added at the end.  They've been getting this wrong.  For example our tariff (inc VAT) is 13.455p per kWh.  However until fairly recently they've been using an ex-VAT figure of 12.780p which comes out slightly less.  So the price has gone up, but it's gone up to the figure that it should have been in the first place.

Talldave

Qyburn said:

Has anyone managed to get a solution to their stupid high estimates?   For me it seems to have started in January with the January estimate being significantly higher than Decembers, and in fact it turns out to be 88% higher than actual use.  December's and November's estimates in contrast were 4% and 6% higher that actual.   

I've been in dispute with then since April.  Each month I've suggested a sensible estimate that I would accept for the following month's bill, but each month they've stubbornly stuck to using their nonsense.  Even though month after month their figures have been shown to be nonsense, and our actual use coming in at a bit less than my suggested figure.

In general my correspondence has been going round in circles with them refusing to answer quite basic questions, or suggesting I accept a fixed DD set comfortably higher than their variable bills have been.  However today I agreed to take a phone call and during that call he almost but not quite accepted that their estimates have been screwed up since January.  The current position is that I will leave the May and June bill unpaid, and assuming the July bill comes in with a sensible estimate I will settle everything at that time.  Of course I took the sensible precaution of cancelling the DD.

My complaint is with the Ombudsman Service but that process seems to take forever.  Whether this influences Symbio is anyone's guess, I'm not convinced that the guy I spoke to had even heard of the service.
Regards, Q

It's frustrating and I'd love them to stop doing it but what will the ombudsman do about it?
It's not a cumulative overpayment,  it's consolidated out every month. So if your EAC payment is say £50, their current 35% percent over-estimate means you're lending them £17.50 this month. And every month their over-estimate is lower than the previous month, you're actually paying less than your EAC/12 amount. 

I'm intrigued to see whether their approach changes after 12 months, when they know your actual usage for a whole year - assuming they haven't folded? OK, I should know that they're too incompetent to do anything other than follow their stupid "interest free loan off the customers" approach.

Qyburn

Talldave said:

It's not a cumulative overpayment,  it's consolidated out every month. So if your EAC payment is say £50, their current 35% percent over-estimate means you're lending them £17.50 this month. 

Several times their estimates have been out by over 300kWh.  For example the over charge on the April bill was £44.99

MWT

Qyburn said:

Of course I took the sensible precaution of cancelling the DD.

... if you are on a tariff that requires a DD, cancelling it may cause them to move you onto their expensive deemed tariff, so it may not be as sensible as it seemed at the time. 

molerat

If you don't like paying the estimates you phone them up and whinge and they put you on a fixed monthly payment, usually lower than it needs to be.  They then show an underpaid amount on each bill which when added to the amount paid is less than the amount of energy used.  I do love their incompetence.

Qyburn

molerat said:

If you don't like paying the estimates you phone them up and whinge and they put you on a fixed monthly payment, usually lower than it needs to be.

Unfortunately that didn't work for me.  They were only prepared to accept a fixed price around 10% higher than my historical average, and of course if I'd accepted that they weren't going to refund the £45 over charge from the April bill.

lalna

Email: 

We at Symbio Energy, have kept our promise and continue to provide you with low and fair prices. We have grown significantly and are making overall improvements to our processes.
This is to inform you that we are updating our terms and conditions and would like to share the details with you. The updated Terms and Conditions will come into effect 30 days after you receive the notification email. Your continued use of Symbio Energy Limited will be subject to the new terms and conditions.
You can review the new Terms and Conditions by clicking here. We recommend that you take a look at the full updated version of the Terms and Conditions, so you are familiar with the same.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our email is customerservices@symbioenergy.co.uk or call on 0333 050 9372, Monday to Friday between 09:00am to 06:00pm and 09:00am to 03:00pm on Saturday.

What has changed?

Swipe

lalna said:

What has changed?

Reading them now

molerat

A quick read seems to be

a £10 minimum charge for not supplying an opening read 

they can change the fixed monthly payments if you get more than half a month in debit

can pretty much make up what your monthly estimate will be

we have to jump through hoops to get a refund if the account is in credit ie provide a meter photo and minimum £25 refund above 1 month DD amount.

CRISPIANNE3

3.3.3 The electricity consumption in winter is significantly higher than in sum-mer. Therefore, payments in winter are based on winter estimates and summer bills will be in line with the summer us-age.unquote.

Really! Why then is my summer estimates higher than my winter ones them.