Symbio Energy feedback

[Deleted User]

Reed_Richards said:

At the moment I have used more electricity than I have paid them for so now would be a good time for Symbio to go out of business.

It doesn’t work like that. An Administrator has a statutory duty to recover all debt owed to a failed company.

devondiver

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

So who do you think (ultimately) picks up the tab when they fold?

SPOWER

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

They better not go out of business.  I am waiting on £110 compensation.  £110 of YOUR money because you continue to line their pockets.  

Don’t really think the customers pay for your compensation.

Whats up with that quote button, I keep pressing it and it don't change.

Guru, the customers pay for my £110.  Of couse they do.

niktheguru

SPOWER said:

Guru, the customers pay for my £110.  Of couse they do.

So at what point during the 1 Yr fixed contract are "we all" paying for your £110 compo when you eventually get it off them. Has the unit rate gone up? Has the standing charge gone up? Will they over estimate to get some extra funds, maybe, but if they fold will that credit balance be passed on to the solr....yep. so how is the customer paying for YOUR compensation.

The more compensation payments they pay out for their incompetence alongside them offering some of the lowest prices (prob with little to no mark up) the more likely they will go bust......so eventually that'll mean the customer will lose out as they'll have to go to the next cheapest supplier. So in that way yes the customer will lose out.....but don't kid yourself that the remaining customers on symbio are paying your compensation.

The debtors will pay for your compo if the company goes into administration. The customers due to the solr process won't lose any money paid into the business.

devondiver

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

Guru, the customers pay for my £110.  Of couse they do.

So at what point during the 1 Yr fixed contract are "we all" paying for your £110 compo when you eventually get it off them. Has the unit rate gone up? Has the standing charge gone up? Will they over estimate to get some extra funds, maybe, but if they fold will that credit balance be passed on to the solr....yep. so how is the customer paying for YOUR compensation.

The more compensation payments they pay out for their incompetence alongside them offering some of the lowest prices (prob with little to no mark up) the more likely they will go bust......so eventually that'll mean the customer will lose out as they'll have to go to the next cheapest supplier. So in that way yes the customer will lose out.....but don't kid yourself that the remaining customers on symbio are paying your compensation.

The debtors will pay for your compo if the company goes into administration. The customers due to the solr process won't lose any money paid into the business.

?? Maybe consider the broader picture. 🤔

Tallerdave

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

Guru, the customers pay for my £110.  Of couse they do.

The debtors will pay for your compo if the company goes into administration. The customers due to the solr process won't lose any money paid into the business.

And whilst they're not in administration, where does money to pay bills/invoices/compensation come from?

ywlgy

devondiver said:

ywlgy said:

ywlgy said:

Tallerdave said:

Of course their refunds of overestimated units are done using the unit rate on the current bill and not the unit rate that they actually charged you on the previous bill.

So if your unit rate has gone up, you gain. If your unit rate has gone down, you lose. It's real basic stuff that they can't get right.

I'm tempted to email them to point this out because I suspect their explanation/excuse would be comical. The expected response would be "you're correct, we'll fix it". But I don't think they have anyone intelligent enough to understand the issue.

This just happened to me...
Symbio underestimated my night usage for the previous months and now reconcile it using the new and higher unit rate, which costs me £30 more...Just sent an email asking for correction. Let's see what will happen.

No reply so called them today. After 30 min wait, the chap said a ticket had been raised to revise the bill and it would take 10 working days...Not happy about the speed but hope it will get fixed eventually...Just cancelled my DD

Symbio's efforts now seem to be focussed solely on using every trick going to grab your cash and hang on to it. Having cancelled your DD they add extra charges, stick you on a higher tariff, block you from switching and try to force reinstatement of your DD - fraudulently if necessary.

If you haven't already done it you need to set up a spreadsheet tracking what is genuinely due to them according to your contracted tariff, and then pay only this directly to their bank. The details are:

https://zipzero.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360006577977-Symbio-Energy-Limited

- taken from a link provided in this thread (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5960285/symbio-energy-feedback/p213)

You then have control. If they try to threaten you I don't think they have a leg to stand on, so long as your account is even slightly in credit according to your contract.

When I did this they didn't try to block my switch. But I am still waiting for the toothless Ombudsman to award compensation for the late return of my small positive balance. Hope this might help. 

I am not thinking of switching because they are still the cheapest at the moment. I see there is an option to activate the DD mandate in the online portal. I will just wait and active it after receiving the corrected bill. 

niktheguru

Tallerdave said:

niktheguru said:

SPOWER said:

Guru, the customers pay for my £110.  Of couse they do.

The debtors will pay for your compo if the company goes into administration. The customers due to the solr process won't lose any money paid into the business.

And whilst they're not in administration, where does money to pay bills/invoices/compensation come from?

Regarding the advanced billing and estimation, You all knew this when you signed up. Or at least if you didn’t when you signed up you quickly learnt it within a month or two, lol.
The point I’m trying to make is you won’t be losing this money you’ve paid them if they go bust due to the rules ofgem have in place regarding energy companies going bust. Your credit and debit balances are protected. Its not the same as having shares in a company and the company going bust and you losing your share capital is it.

niktheguru

devondiver said:

?? Maybe consider the broader picture. 🤔

I have considered the broader picture. Are you telling me energy prices are going up because of symbio? Let’s be realistic here. The only people symbio are damaging with their business practices in the long run are their own business. You can paint it with broad based brush strokes and say “the customer is paying for this” but that’s rubbish. As has been well documented, lots of these challenger firms have come into the market for a plethora of reasons and made massive losses, just look at the councils who funded Robin Hood energy. (Now that is a case where the public, in particular the tax payers in those councils paid for it!), companies like eversmart, gne etc etc all come and gone.

My point is what was it like before these smaller firms entered the marketplace, the big 6 were giving us all great deals right? Right? If that was the case why did anyone bother to switch?

The fact of the matter is that the consumers have benefitted from these lower prices. There are a few ppl on here crying wolf because they’ve had issues with symbio, yet they had the cheapest energy, and are waiting for some big compensation payments making their energy even cheaper.....we know their customer services are shocking, we know it can be infuriating, we know that when things go wrong it can be a nightmare, we know their estimated advanced billing is a bit of a joke,  this should teach you that if customer services is important pay a bit more with a bigger company. (Tho look at the other horror stories on the board with bulb, eon, British gas etc)

I sympathise that people are annoyed that symbio take more money from them than they should due to their advance billing techniques, I appreciate that is not good for people on tight budgets but as has been said, if you stay on top of it you can prevent massive credit balances, but it relies on the customer being proactive and taking an interest. They shouldn’t do it but that’s their business practice, if you don’t like it then leave at the earliest opportunity. 

yes in an ideal world symbio should be better, but they’re a small firm offering the lowest prices and have cut corners to try and survive. It is not a company for the average consumer or the “auto switcher”. But it works for those of us who are switched on and willing to play the game.

I agree with you when people say that the consumer in the end will pay for things like the smart meter rollout fiasco....yeah of course, but that’s a cost all energy companies will have to cover so it gets passed on to the consumer. But I just took exception with the comment that we’re all paying for SPOWERS symbio compensation payments. If you can explain it to me, I’m all ears.....other than saying words like “long run”, “bigger picture” or “the customer always pays in the end” without actually having any evidence to back that up.

fewkeste

@niktheguru - even though I wouldn't consider switching to Symbio, I thought your post was a very logical, well argued and balanced appraisal of the situation. The problems come when people sign up without knowing what to expect.

I regularly do energy comparisons using three diffrerent comparison sites (energyhelpline, Which and MSE cheap energy club) and regrettably, all the companies who appear at the top of the comparisons without exception have appalling customer service ratings. I keep hoping that a company with a decent CS rating becomes competitive but for now I'm jumping ship from Scottish Power (awful company) - I'm a Yorkshire Energy refugee, to Green. who have a good CS rating. Not the cheapest but I know the price one pays for aggravation poor CS can cause not to mention the amount of time wasted chasing things up means decent CS is worth paying for.