Symbio Energy feedback

CRISPIANNE3

For Oct my estimate was 368 but the actual was 322. Now for November they have decided the estimate as being 616 and for the same period last year it was only 414. I really do not want to ask them to revisit this months bill because it can cause even more issues and I know this from when I did this last Winter.  In my experience I have it best to just pay the bill as  it normally gets adjusted the following month. 

Talldave

I have a screen grab of the variable direct debit payment graph they offered me on renewal for the EAC they'd estimated.  I'm below even that EAC but am simply asking them to honour the offer figures. They've reverted my EAC to last years and are using even higher estimates than last year.

I know the cash-grab is consolidated at the end of each month, so it doesn't keep increasing but for me it's a matter of principle. Ironically, if they hadn't shown me a payment schedule, I wouldn't be demanding that they stick to it.

From what others are saying on here it looks like an excess of 200-300 kWh per customer, around £20-£30? I don’t know how many customers they have, but that'll add up to a sizeable interest free loan for a few months.

rp1974

If last years overestimated bills are a reflection of whats happening now I'm not overly worried about it really.
Roughly as I recall the November-January bills I had were about £45ish instead of £30ish,then the February-April bills were £15ish instead of £30ish,dont see what that achieved,apart from increasing their coffers.
Probably counter productive as reading the comments from the last time they did this likely cost them a fair amount of customers.
Seems fairly likely they were struggling to pay their obligations/overheads,perhaps if they wasted less time on Facebook,Twitter,Trustpilot etc they wouldn't be in the mess they are/were in the first place. 

CRISPIANNE3

It would be nice to know if they have now met their obligations and paid the outstanding balance to OFGEM.

Snudz

Must be close to clearing outstanding balance.   Earlier this year I had a missed DD.   No fault of mine, Symbio just failed to collect.  Despite being fixed and therefore independent of any bill, they declined to collect on the basis that the bill was issued too close to the DD being requested.   So if bills have been issued already in November, suggests they are collecting the DD over estimates early to aid in clearing what they in turn owe OFGEM.

devondiver

I note that two of the directors have recently (10.09.2020) started a new company - Carbonyte Limited from the same Watford address to which they have 8 other companies registered, mostly concerning energy.

  - Interesting.

wwally

I have battled through as a Symbio customer for 12 months, and it had settled down to a steady monthly overcharge and reconciliation. So I renewed for another year. Yesterday I got my first bill under the new tariff, and find:
1. They have put me on the tariff they recommended, not the one I chose, which is cheaper
2. They have billed my excess use in October at the higher November tariff
3. They have charged me an inflated predicted usage for November of maybe +40%, despite the new tariff being fixed payments.

I rang - left a message - and emailed - no response - and have now cancelled my DD as they have put me on an incorrect contract. I did a year-end reconciliation based on the first year contract, and they seem to have overcharged me £28 on the year, despite underbilling in the initial months. I recommend insisting on a year-end reconciliation before moving to a new plan!

Seems they may be in financial difficultly, so I will await them resolving their issues. FB doesn't seem to be active, and no responses on Trustpilot recently.

Streaky_Bacon

Snudz said:

Must be close to clearing outstanding balance.   Earlier this year I had a missed DD.   No fault of mine, Symbio just failed to collect.  Despite being fixed and therefore independent of any bill, they declined to collect on the basis that the bill was issued too close to the DD being requested.   So if bills have been issued already in November, suggests they are collecting the DD over estimates early to aid in clearing what they in turn owe OFGEM.

From a very short term cashflow point of view they may be fine, because if they add £10 to 50,000 customers' estimates, that will get them their £500K to pay Ofgem.

However, I don't know the details of the payment terms with the networks but, presumably, if they estimate that a customer has used 800kWh, and bills on that basis, they will very soon have to pay the network for that 800kWh.

So, if they spend all of that money of the OFGEM payment, it will still leave them with a big hole in the money that they need to pay the networks.

It would be different if they were increasing the DD, without increasing the estimated usage. If they just added £10 to each DD, without increasing the estimate, then they would have an extra £10, without incurring an immediate liability of, perhaps, £8 or £9.

Talldave

Their estimates are totally artificial and, from what we know of all contributors here, way above what anyone actually uses. So they don't have to pass that money on to anyone. Which means it's in their bank account and available for keeping Ofgem happy.

Talldave

Their estimates are totally artificial and, from what we know of all contributors here, way above what anyone actually uses. So they don't have to pass that money on to anyone. Which means it's in their bank account and available for keeping Ofgem happy.