Symbio Energy feedback

fewkeste

@niktheguru - excellent advice for those who want a challenging life (with admittedly low prices.) I think if people follow your advice they will hopefully minimise the grief they get being a Symbio customer. 

Boohoo

fewkeste said:

@niktheguru - excellent advice for those who want a challenging life (with admittedly low prices.) I think if people follow your advice they will hopefully minimise the grief they get being a Symbio customer. 

I am not sure if Symbio are still doing low prices.
I just got my "Annual tariff renewal" email from them and this was their deal.

TARIFF DETAILS:

Your new tariff plan is:	Fair and Green 12M Renewal B1.3
Tariff Type:	Fixed
Standard Unit Rate:	16.207 p per kWh
Standing Charges:	21.000 p per day
Tariff Effective From:	01 June 2021
Price Guaranteed Until:	31 May 2022
	£30.000 I have done a comparison and there are lower tariff's with Symbio and they came out the lowest prices for my area but were only £12 cheaper than the next firm. Daily charges are very high on a lot of energy firms now.

bristolleedsfan

Boohoo said  Daily charges are very high on a lot of energy firms now.

Neon Reef 12 month fix, S/C has been doubled to 25p ish per day for new customers

Tallerdave

Symbio always appear to set your default rollover tariff to an uncompetitive "renewal" one - almost a wise business decision (from a not going bust perspective). But clicking the link they send you leads to their more attractive rates.

From my personal experience, these renewal emails have spot on EACs, which appear to be based on your actual historical consumption data. The irony is that if you ask them to set your EAC to this figure supplied by them, they'll refuse!

fewkeste

The trick is not the let the daily standing charge influence you too much unless you're a really low user. Look at the anualised cost contribution of the daily standing charge to your annual bill compared to the day units charge and (if applicable) the E7 units charge. In my case (8000 kWh/year) the daily standing charge is a minor contribution to the total annual cost and so it never influences the annual total to the extent that the day or E7 unit rates would do.

For example for the tariff with green. that I'm about to go on, annually the day units work out at £799.92, the E7 units work out at £315.62 and the standing charge works out at £80.30 - about 6.7% of the annual total.

CRISPIANNE3

bristolleedsfan said:

Boohoo said  Daily charges are very high on a lot of energy firms now.

Neon Reef 12 month fix, S/C has been doubled to 25p ish per day for new customers

We had this with our gas supplier. The contract ended and we rolled over to a new one whereby the standing charge doubled. However because we are now using more gas the unit cost was a lot cheaper and this was the important thing because we were now using 50 percent more gas.

devondiver

SEEMS to have gone rather quiet here just lately. Perhaps everyone (like me) got fed up with posters with more time on their hands persisting in attempting to defend the indefensible.

Anyway, just calling in to say I finally won judgement from Ombudsman Services. Symbio must pay the grand sum of £60 (30+30) for failing to return my balance of a few quid within the required time frames. And this is no doubt dwarfed by costs they have to pay OS - what a way to run a business! (Using the term 'business' in rather a loose way, of course. Scam is probably more fitting.)

But I'm not booking the cruise just yet. AIUI they have 14 working days in which to appeal and then a further 28 days in which to cough up. Will they have scarpered with (what's left of) the loot by then? Or will they just keep delaying? Has anyone ever been paid? Ho-hum . . . 

bubieyehyeh

The ombudsman has just ruled in my favour also, they agreed Symbio owe £60 which they paid before judgement, and the ombudsmen has said they need to send me a written apology and an extra £30. I'm also waiting to see if symbio accept.

Interesting the ombudsman said that OFGEM have said energy supplier can't use covid as an excuse.

devondiver

bubieyehyeh said:

"which they paid before judgement"

- interesting.

bubieyehyeh said:

"and an extra £30"

- more interesting.

bubieyehyeh

devondiver said:

bubieyehyeh said:

"which they paid before judgement"

- interesting.

bubieyehyeh said:

"and an extra £30"

- more interesting.

To be clear they paid the £60 before judgement, but symbio never contacted me, as I said in a earlier post I was expecting them to ask me to withdraw the complaint.

The extra £30 was for having to chase them over and over, that hasn't been paid yet and I'm yet to receive my apology, but symbio haven't responded to the judgement as yet.

Symbio had the audacity to claim my late billing was a one-off, truly shameless and rather stupid, since easy for ombudsman to check if any other similar complaints.