Symbio Energy feedback

CRISPIANNE3

UnclaimedEnergy said:

They were tweeting/posting on FB a few times a day until the 22nd October. Their last reply on Trustpilot was on the 23rd October (a Friday). Their last price change for new customers was also on the 23rd October.

May just be a coincidence, however it looks  like they've potentially let go of some staff already?

I have a really bad feeling about this. Hopefully I am just being negative. 

Streaky_Bacon

CRISPIANNE3 said:

I have spoken to Symbio today at 14.00 hrs and and they advise they are having technical issues re their app and online service.
IMHO I think the game is up for them!

There are certainly a lot of red flags at the moment, and I also suspect that the game may be up soon, but the fact that they even spoke to you suggests that they haven't thrown the towel in just yet.

The recent attempt to get a court injunction certainly suggest that they don't have the cash to pay OFGEM. However it may have been a pointless attempt to avoid the inevitable, or a stalling tactic because they think that they can raise it.

Their billing practices may have been all over the place, but they at least attempted to rebalance it every month. They may have learnt too late why other suppliers are only too happy to stockpile cash in credit balances.

EDIT: According to the Microsoft Azure Portal information, the web error means one of three things.

There are 3 conditions that can cause this error to be presented.

• The site has reached a billing limit and your site has been disabled.
• The Website has been stopped in the portal.
• The Azure Website has reached a resource quota limit that applies to either Free or Shared scale modes.

It's possible that they stopped it to fix something, but it's also possible that they have run out of credit. Time to run to the corner shop for a top up card?

CRISPIANNE3

Found this message posted by Symbio today from another platform. 

With regards to your query, please be advised that our server is currently down. Rest assured; our technical team is currently looking into it. We request you to please try using the website later today or tomorrow.

If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our email is customerservices@symbioenergy.co.uk. Alternatively, you can call us on 0333 050 9372, Monday to Friday between 09:00 am to 06:00 pm and Saturday between 09.00 am to 3.00 pm.

• 1m

devondiver

Surely they are just desperately trying to forestall a flood of direct debit cancellations. Glad I got mine in in plenty of time. Who to jump to now? PFP just as bad? (Well, you know what I mean  )

matelodave

Unfortunately I can see this just going south very quickly - they will haemorrhage customers because of the uncertainty,bad publicity. Letting the website die/collapse will only exacerbate the problem - it's probably because lots of people have overloaded it to try and see what is going on. It will just become a self fulfilling spiral.

It's sad because a lot of people will lose their jobs. They were cheap but they couldn't organise one in a brewery and didn't seem to want to do anything about it.

I, like so many, decided to abandon ship before it actually hits the iceberg - I would have stayed but they couldn't even organise me to transfer onto another tariff without totally mucking it up.I can put up with poor customer service, strange billing and even incompetence especially for a good tariff but even I got hacked off with them.

I just hope that Neon Reef will see me through to next March so I get the benefit of cheaper leccy through the winter

UnclaimedEnergy

Server seems to back up now (must have paid an overdue bill to get it back running again)

As the online app servers went down at the beginning of the month... must have been another unpaid bill. Otherwise it's another coincidence.

rp1974

Just logged in,seems as though their doing the winter cash grab thing that they did last year,again.Curious as to what the reason is this time.Dont think we need twenty guesses though.
They estimate I will use 336 units in November,odd as I've a stable average of 200 units every month since August 2019 when I joined Symbio.There does appear to be many coincidences when your a Symbio customer.
Pantomime has returned,tis the season I suppose.

CRISPIANNE3

First of all great news they are back and perhaps on reflection it was just a technical issue. However just viewed my bill and as usual back to the silly billing for me. This time last year they estimated my usage for November as being 414 but this around they estimate 616 kilowatts. No way have we ever used that much consumption in the colder period. No doubt  they will adjust next time around.  TBH Not too happy at paying too much in advance in case they go south. 

Streaky_Bacon

I already have all of my bills safely backed up, but I've just logged in to take screenshots of everything available online. It can't hurt.

I'm not expecting another bill for now, as I am currently switching.

Those concerned about artificially high estimates being a cash grab, especially with the looming threat of administration, may wish to have a look at this section of Symbio's terms.

9.1 If you agree to pay by Direct Debit, you have the right at any time to cancel the mandate, if there is any dispute about your bill. This is subject to you providing us 72 hours’ notice prior to cancelling and Symbio Energy Limited not having resolved your billing query. Should your billing query be resolved, and you continuously failed to re-instate the DD within 30 days, you will be automatically moved to our higher non-Direct Debit tariff.

It may be wise to write to them now, give them a current read, demand that the estimates are reviewed and a new bill issued and state that, if it is not done within 72 hours, you will cancel the DD, until it is sorted, as expressly permitted in their own T&Cs.

https://www.symbioenergy.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/

devondiver

Sound advice SB. Always remembering of course that the T and Cs to which you link, under the Complaints instructions, sends you to a completely unrelated company viz: 

"OUR COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

15.1 If you are unhappy with our service, you can make a complaint by calling us or emailing us at customerservices@symbio.co.uk."

This could of course delay things somewhat. Especially as Symbio.co.uk's inbox probably crashed months ago.

Also note that Symbio Energy's email promises carry the disclaimer “The opinions expressed in this email represent those of the individual and not necessarily those of Symbio Energy.” 

You really couldn't make it up.