Symbio Energy feedback

Tafrock

I expected symbio to disappear over a year ago when the ignoring of actual meter readings started and the inflated bills started arriving. I left pretty sharpish after I received my grossly inflated bills . Somehow they still carry on . To be fair some people are happy with them but I could never fathom out the extremely complicated bills and I object to overpaying on a monthly basis 

Benjy123

I left Symbio at the start of the year after seeing my estimated bill direct debits go through the roof, and reading on here about them missing Ofgem payments (alarm bells going off that they were going bust - an experience I had with Eversmart that I'd be happy to avoid again). Luckily I didn't get locked in as some are in this thread.

My switch went ok, but they've been very, very slow in either giving me a final bill or refunding my balance. They've produced a final bill for me, about three months after leaving and it amounts to over £600 (with no mention of my £30 which I'll push).

Fortunately for me, I can live without the £600 for now, but those who have tighter budgets absolutely have my sympathy. Ofgem need to throw the book at this company. It's not moral what they're doing.

On a side note, if you check out their corporate filings for the year, you'll see they describe having massive customer service trouble with their Indian call centre operation over 2020. This apparently has been resolved with their new customer service outsourcing firm, which they have taken a 10% stake in (and which has a 10% stake in Symbio).

Hopeless firm.

rp1974

Benjy123 said:

My switch went ok, but they've been very, very slow in either giving me a final bill or refunding my balance. They've produced a final bill for me, about three months after leaving and it amounts to over £600 (with no mention of my £30 which I'll push).

Fortunately for me, I can live without the £600 for now, but those who have tighter budgets absolutely have my sympathy. Ofgem need to throw the book at this company. It's not moral what they're doing.

So is that final bill accurate?.
I might not be picking this up right,do you owe Symbio £600,or does Symbio owe you £600?.

Swipe

Benjy123 said:

(with no mention of my £30 which I'll push).

You'll never get that £30 unless you take them all the way to the ombudsman. I wouldn't waste your time pursuing it unless you relish a battle.

thelight

Swipe said:

You'll never get that £30 unless you take them all the way to the ombudsman. I wouldn't waste your time pursuing it unless you relish a battle.

I would absolutely recommend pursuing them for the £30 and inevitable extra £30. It doesn't take a lot of effort and the more people who go to the Ombudsman about this the more likely it is that they will eventually take note and do something about it

HonestJohn

thelight said:

Swipe said:

You'll never get that £30 unless you take them all the way to the ombudsman. I wouldn't waste your time pursuing it unless you relish a battle.

I would absolutely recommend pursuing them for the £30 and inevitable extra £30. It doesn't take a lot of effort and the more people who go to the Ombudsman about this the more likely it is that they will eventually take note and do something about it

I agree. The ombudsman process is really straightforward. Just assemble your evidence and away you go.

Benjy123

rp1974 said:

Benjy123 said:

My switch went ok, but they've been very, very slow in either giving me a final bill or refunding my balance. They've produced a final bill for me, about three months after leaving and it amounts to over £600 (with no mention of my £30 which I'll push).

Fortunately for me, I can live without the £600 for now, but those who have tighter budgets absolutely have my sympathy. Ofgem need to throw the book at this company. It's not moral what they're doing.

So is that final bill accurate?.
I might not be picking this up right,do you owe Symbio £600,or does Symbio owe you £600?.

Symbio owe me £600+. They charged me stupid-money for my last month or so.

I should check actually if the bill is correct, it wouldn't surprise me if they missed a load out. Do they have a history of that?

bubieyehyeh

Yeah the ombudsmen process was really simple. I understand OFGEM look at the number of complaints to the ombudsmen, so it might hasten OFGEM looking at symbio consumer practices if people complain. However after reading the OFGEM documentation for the recent £100K penalty it felt to me as if symbio wasn't fit to be a licenced energy provider anyway.

The person who adjucated was clearly on the ball with my complaint, they were well aware of the automatic payments rules for late billing. I don't know if the ombudsman inform symbio before they told me of the result, since symbio paid the £60 in what was supposed to be automatic payments just before I was told I won the case. Apparently symbio have two more weeks to pay an additional goodwill payment and send me a written apology, waiting to see if that will happen.

rp1974

Benjy123 said:

rp1974 said:

Benjy123 said:

My switch went ok, but they've been very, very slow in either giving me a final bill or refunding my balance. They've produced a final bill for me, about three months after leaving and it amounts to over £600 (with no mention of my £30 which I'll push).

Fortunately for me, I can live without the £600 for now, but those who have tighter budgets absolutely have my sympathy. Ofgem need to throw the book at this company. It's not moral what they're doing.

So is that final bill accurate?.
I might not be picking this up right,do you owe Symbio £600,or does Symbio owe you £600?.

Symbio owe me £600+. They charged me stupid-money for my last month or so.

I should check actually if the bill is correct, it wouldn't surprise me if they missed a load out. Do they have a history of that?

How can you not know if a bill of that size is correct or not?.
Were you sending meter readings,or were Symbio using estimated figures to arrive at your bills?.
Anything that Symbio can mess up,Symbio will mess up at any opportunity guaranteed.

CRISPIANNE3

When I first joined in 2019 they had no such thing as advanced billing but shortly after joining them they adopted this method of billing and offered us £5.00 for the change. However they did say we could leave to another provider without penalty. Also because they made a mistake when transferring my supply originally they gave me without asking £30.00 for the inconvenience. 

To me they are not the same company now.