Symbio Energy feedback

WBCPB

Does anyone know if these clowns are now able to read a Smets2 smart meter? the reason i ask is because in my historic meter read area of the online portal i have a reading not submitted by myself, taken on 24th June stating "smart meter read" and is within a couple of kwh of my own daily recorded readings

niktheguru

WBCPB said:

Does anyone know if these clowns are now able to read a Smets2 smart meter? the reason i ask is because in my historic meter read area of the online portal i have a reading not submitted by myself, taken on 24th June stating "smart meter read" and is within a couple of kwh of my own daily recorded readings

Looks like you've answered your own question there. (and provided the evidence)

Tallerdave

CRISPIANNE3 said:

As usual tried to give them a reading via my iPhone and a picture of the meter. However every time I tried to submit data I kept getting logged out. In the end just gave them a reading via their portal. 

This month my actual usage is 255 against their increased forecast for June of 545 units.

This month's actual is 302kWh compared to their estimate of 616kWh. I think that's the first time they've exceeded 100% over-estimation.

Swipe

Tallerdave said:

CRISPIANNE3 said:

As usual tried to give them a reading via my iPhone and a picture of the meter. However every time I tried to submit data I kept getting logged out. In the end just gave them a reading via their portal. 

This month my actual usage is 255 against their increased forecast for June of 545 units.

This month's actual is 302kWh compared to their estimate of 616kWh. I think that's the first time they've exceeded 100% over-estimation.

I can beat that this month

Symbio estimate: 332 kWh

Actual usage:       66 kWh

Inigo_Montoya

Im not with Symbio but was considering joining them before reading this thread

From a brief browsing of the thread my understanding is they bill customers to their own massively inflated estimated usage ?

Can someone explain how they they can do this even when you give them a monthly read ?
- do they just ignore the reads they are given ?

Also can this inflated usage be mitigated by, say, telling them when you join them that you use only  50% of what you actually use ?

Reed_Richards

Inigo_Montoya said:

From a brief browsing of the thread my understanding is they bill customers to their own massively inflated estimated usage ?

Can someone explain how they they can do this even when you give them a monthly read ?
- do they just ignore the reads they are given ?

Symbio don't ignore the reads but they don't appear to factor them in to whatever they use to estimate your consumption for the next month and they bill you for a month in advance.  So whilst my electricity usage is dropping like a stone as we move into summer, Symbio are edging-up their estimates of my monthly consumption.

Inigo_Montoya

Reed_Richards said:

Inigo_Montoya said:

From a brief browsing of the thread my understanding is they bill customers to their own massively inflated estimated usage ?

Can someone explain how they they can do this even when you give them a monthly read ?
- do they just ignore the reads they are given ?

Symbio don't ignore the reads but they don't appear to factor them in to whatever they use to estimate your consumption for the next month and they bill you for a month in advance.  So whilst my electricity usage is dropping like a stone as we move into summer, Symbio are edging-up their estimates of my monthly consumption.

ok thanks, that partly explains how it works

can I ask what happens the following month though ? - when the next read you give them is significantly below what they charged you for a month earlier in advance - is there any adjustment made to take account of this ?

Im just trying to figure out if there is anyway to ensure reduce the estimate inflation to a reasonable level or if its unavoidable & you will always end up with a huge credit balance

Tallerdave

As long as you provide monthly readings on the last day of the month they consolidate the overpayment, credit it back and then charge the coming month's ludicrous estimate. So you never build up credit greater than a month's over estimate.

You can end up with a negative bill when they have a period of less ludicrous estimates. That used to happen in summer but this year they seem to be keeping the estimates up. Probably because they're convinced by their own BS that consumption is going up due to: cooling (yeah we all have massive air-con systems), covid/working from home (yeah, once you work from home for over a year your laptop's consumption triples), climate change (no idea), and sex toys (I made that up, but mains powered is the route to a new high).

niktheguru

Tallerdave said:

As long as you provide monthly readings on the last day of the month they consolidate the overpayment, credit it back and then charge the coming month's ludicrous estimate. So you never build up credit greater than a month's over estimate.

You can end up with a negative bill when they have a period of less ludicrous estimates. That used to happen in summer but this year they seem to be keeping the estimates up. Probably because they're convinced by their own BS that consumption is going up due to: cooling (yeah we all have massive air-con systems), covid/working from home (yeah, once you work from home for over a year your laptop's consumption triples), climate change (no idea), and sex toys (I made that up, but mains powered is the route to a new high).

You must have a lot of sex toys tallerdave, lol

WhyohWhy

I'm thinking of joining despite the bad reviews.  I will not be moving house which seems to be the source of a lot of complaints.  My supplier has put my up by 33%  so need to move sharpish. I'm going for the fixed direct debit rather than seasonal and I'm happy with monthly reads as I always do this anyway, what are the downsides?