Symbio Energy feedback

SPOWER

Hi. 

 I don't think for 1 second they are liars.  They are normal people trying to saving money during difficult times and getting poor service from this company.  If you come on here or go to Tripadvisor forums, then Trustpilot is like a dirty word.  Well it ain't, I like Trustpilot as it serves its purpose.

I've left 2 bad reviews of Symbio and will leave a 3rd one telling community how to extract every brown penny they can off this electricity company. I need to wait until 30 April though till my compo gets paid.

What annoys me about this forum area about Symbio is that people come on, the same people and moan moan moan about them but won't switch away so it just becomes boring.


I'm sorry but that's how I feel and as someone said to me, it's better out than in.

spot1034

JudgeDekker said:

Something to note: I never cared whether an energy company was honest or not, because as long as I kept records the energy ombudsman will always see you right and ensure you don't lose out. But I've just learnt from the Yorkshire energy case that the Energy Ombudsman will drop any complaints against a company that goes bust, and won't accept any new ones. So if, say, Symbio were to go under and rip you off through issuing a dodgy final bill, there's not really anything you can do.

The final bill would be issued by the administrators, not the company.

shinytop

As a Symbio customer and high volume electricity user I've saved a fair bit using them.  I'm on variable direct debit and it seems to have settled down so that the DD is there or thereabouts in terms of covering the next month but I'm also about half a winter's month in credit.  I submit my meter readings every month.  I'm OK with this given their cheapness.  As I understand it, the worst that could happen if they go under is that my supply is transferred somewhere more expensive and it takes a while to get any credit I'm due back.  But other than being with a more expensive supplier until I can transfer, I won't lose my advanced payment or credit. Does that sound about right?     

niktheguru

SPOWER said:

Hi. 

 I don't think for 1 second they are liars.  They are normal people trying to saving money during difficult times and getting poor service from this company.  If you come on here or go to Tripadvisor forums, then Trustpilot is like a dirty word.  Well it ain't, I like Trustpilot as it serves its purpose.

I've left 2 bad reviews of Symbio and will leave a 3rd one telling community how to extract every brown penny they can off this electricity company. I need to wait until 30 April though till my compo gets paid.

What annoys me about this forum area about Symbio is that people come on, the same people and moan moan moan about them but won't switch away so it just becomes boring.


I'm sorry but that's how I feel and as someone said to me, it's better out than in.

No, i've seen you repeatedly come on this thread and basically slag everyone off who says they are sticking with symbio, despite people saying they usually only stay because they are cheap. No one is trying to defend their customer services - we know it is crappy.

Trustpilot does serve a purpose yes, but it overwhelmingly consists of people who write bad reviews from bad experiences. Rarely do people write good reviews on there(or at least the minority of reviews are) unless they are sometimes stimulated to by the companies themselves or incentivised.

Look at most of the symbio reviews on trustpilot. Id say many are due to a lack of understanding of their "advanced billing", an inability to read their bills properly (though agree the bills are unnecessarily complicated) with many saying "they dont take notice of my meter readings" - well they do, but they overestimate your next month. Then many saying "their readings are massively over exaggerated", yes they are but the excess is given back each month and then reapplied, so you are basically paying a month in advance.

Then there are the mildly racist ones of "this is an indian call centre scam, i don't want to talk to these scam artists abroad" type ones.....the poor employees offshore are only doing (or not doing) what they're told! 
There are obviously some genuine ones too, such as those who have been waiting weeks for their credit balances upon leaving, those who have had switches blocked, those who had two direct debits taken in a month.

I'm surprised by the huge number of "they dont respond to emails" complaints......many of whom who have not even attempted to call them. I've always got through to them when calling. (speaking from experience it takes octopus energy over a week to reply to emails, and a lot of the time those replies are pretty useless, and they're supposed to be the best according to "Which")

The main shameful thing about symbio and trustpilot is symbios responses, the generic copy and paste reply which is completely shameful, with no regard to read the question. They are better off not replying at all than the absolute garbage they spew.

Im sure there are many people who hate symbio. But there are also many people who can tolerate a bit of rubbish customer service if they are saving money. (as how much do you need to speak to customer services!!) Like I said before, if you dont know how to handle your energy account and keep an eye on things, then symbio will be a very bad fit. but if you are proactive (like many of us on these forums are, then they are an ok (not great, just ok) company to deal with overall.

And I'm talking as someone who has been with many different utility companies over the years, i've been a symbio customer, and i've recently switched away.

Also, Spower, your example is a case in point, their incompetence is basically gonna leave you quids in bearing in mind the compensation you'll get paid (eventually), so yes it may have been a hassle, but your energy cost for the year was a bargain.

niktheguru

devondiver said:

Perhaps all the Trustpilot victims (probably tip of the iceberg) are liars.

 If accurate, this goes some way to explaining Symbio's increasingly reckless and outrageous behaviour. Rather worrying - especially for the poor souls I describe above (ordinary people who have neither the time nor wherewithal to analyse, understand and combat etc.).

Absolutely shocking.

Don't think trustpilot "victims" are liars. There are certainly some genuine problems, but there are also a lot of people who go on there to scream from the rooftops where it is clear from the description of their issue that they don't understand what is going on or havent' taken the time to understand or take ownership of the problem.
I agree though, as a barometer if the site is full of 1 star reviews like there is for symbio, you know there are warning signs and it may be one to avoid.....but just take a read of the complaints first.

I have little sympathy for people who ignore their bills, ignore their direct debits, dont read their meters (unless they have a smart meter) and then 6 months down the line go.....wait a sec my account is £300 in credit, the stealing ******. Its the customers responsibility to look at their bills, check their bank account and keep on top of their finances regularly. We all have busy lives, but if you can make time to watch x factor once a week, you can make time once a month to check things are in order.

devondiver

niktheguru - 

We seem to be going around in circles. Put simply - the point is that many normal people (i.e. not the smart Aleks like what post on MSE) do switch and are still switching, and being switched by LAMB etc., and being encouraged to switch by comparison sites - to SYMBIO and perhaps similar companies for all I know.

And they have no idea and are ill-equipped for the world of pain they are entering. But they trust that there are systems in place, i.e. the regulators and the law, which will protect them from predators. And perhaps even fine upstanding citizens who will call out wrong-doings and persuade, or insist even, that said regulators do their job. But, in this case at least, this has yet to happen.

THIS IS NOT GOOD.

It is not good either that people who understand what is going on and may even be capable of helping to do something about it continue to make excuses for what is blatantly exploitative behaviour (to put it politely). In fact they are happy for the situation to perpetuate so long as they feel they are personally able to take advantage of it (which may not turn out so well if JudgeDekker is correct).

"I'm okay Jack, pull up the ladder. And **** all those trusting souls (stupid idiots) who didn't, or can't, do their homework and are now in genuine distress". Really???

niktheguru

I think we’ll have to agree to disagree, like you say. There seems to be quite a bit of virtue signalling going on. Although I agree with some of what you have to say on the topic my main gripe is the apparent reflection you give that “normal”people are all victims.

It’s fair to say that most people are quite intelligent and forums like this should give a fair representation of advantages and disadvantages of things, enough for them to make their own decision. I’ve personally tried to give a balanced view based on MY OWN experience. Your experience may have been worse, fair enough.

the “smart Alecs” as you describe on this forum are generally the people who actually try and help the “new members” some of which who just access for help getting out of their bad situations. Like I said before, the whole energy industry is a mess and lots of dodgy stuff is happening from big and small suppliers. Just look at all the threads.

id also blame the fashion of using auto switching services like the awful LAMB, who are only in it to make money. They switch these poor customers to companies who they have no knowledge of, probably don’t read any of the details of the deal other than the “headline saving”, probably never looked at the terms and conditions (but obviously ticked the box that they did) and then get shafted.

we are not making excuses for symbio, we are just presenting the facts so that people can make their own opinions. The only reason they still have customers is because they are cheap.  It there is nothing that they do that isn’t described on their website and terms and conditions, it’s just most people don’t read any of it!

also, as has been previously stated the money you pay any energy company is protected. The energy ombudsman article judgedekker quoted basically means that you won’t be able to chase compensation from any companies if they go out of business, but as long as you keep records of meter readings, submit readings regularly, you shouldnt be out of pocket at the end of the day.

thelight

niktheguru said:

I'm surprised by the huge number of "they dont respond to emails" complaints......many of whom who have not even attempted to call them. I've always got through to them when calling. (speaking from experience it takes octopus energy over a week to reply to emails, and a lot of the time those replies are pretty useless, and they're supposed to be the best according to "Which")

I don't find this surprising at all. If an energy company offers it, I tend to only ever use them to contact them by email as it gives a nice simple record of what I have said to them, and what they have (or have not) said to me. It's been very useful in the past for giving evidence to the Ombudsman.

devondiver

niktheguru said:

- but as long as you keep records of meter readings, submit readings regularly, you shouldnt be out of pocket at the end of the day.

Shouldn't? I hope you're right. But what about peoples' time, energy and stress? Surely that has value?

devondiver

thelight said:

niktheguru said:

I'm surprised by the huge number of "they dont respond to emails" complaints......many of whom who have not even attempted to call them. I've always got through to them when calling. (speaking from experience it takes octopus energy over a week to reply to emails, and a lot of the time those replies are pretty useless, and they're supposed to be the best according to "Which")

I don't find this surprising at all. If an energy company offers it, I tend to only ever use them to contact them by email as it gives a nice simple record of what I have said to them, and what they have (or have not) said to me. It's been very useful in the past for giving evidence to the Ombudsman.

Couldn't agree more. I like to have everything in writing. I just don't have the time or inclination to debate things on the phone - and may well lose my cool. And I certainly am not prepared to record conversations.

As an aside - I general give cold callers a modified version of the Liam Neeson's "Taken" phone script - in my best Irish accent. They usually hang up before the end. 😉