Symbio Energy feedback

devondiver

niktheguru said:

devondiver said:

niktheguru said:

Contact them by phone

Easy to say. Much harder to do according to multiple reports. Sadly, not everyone has the time, negotiating skills or luck to accomplish what you suggest. 

Only easy to say as I’ve actually done it. You’d be surprised what can be achieved if tried.
Nobody is that busy that they can’t take a bit of time out to sort out stuff. You can even put your phone on speaker and do something else. Either that or just pay up, switch and wait.

With the greatest respect I personally am not, and would never be, the slightest bit surprised as to what can be achieved by some people. But, unless one exists in an alternative universe, one has to accept that a great many people, possibly of limited means, do not have a clue when it comes to this sort of stuff. And, despite all the eloquent warnings in the world about steering clear unless they are on the ball and game for a possibly rough ride, these are exactly the people who are being sucked in by the attractive tariffs and then given a right royal shafting and endless genuine grief. The purpose of this forum is to help such people to save money; but not by encouraging them to risk their financial and mental wellbeing by using a rogue company such as Symbio Energy.

niktheguru

devondiver said:

niktheguru said:

devondiver said:

niktheguru said:

Contact them by phone

Easy to say. Much harder to do according to multiple reports. Sadly, not everyone has the time, negotiating skills or luck to accomplish what you suggest. 

Only easy to say as I’ve actually done it. You’d be surprised what can be achieved if tried.
Nobody is that busy that they can’t take a bit of time out to sort out stuff. You can even put your phone on speaker and do something else. Either that or just pay up, switch and wait.

With the greatest respect I personally am not, and would never be, the slightest bit surprised as to what can be achieved by some people. But, unless one exists in an alternative universe, one has to accept that a great many people, possibly of limited means, do not have a clue when it comes to this sort of stuff. And, despite all the eloquent warnings in the world about steering clear unless they are on the ball and game for a possibly rough ride, these are exactly the people who are being sucked in by the attractive tariffs and then given a right royal shafting and endless genuine grief. The purpose of this forum is to help such people to save money; but not by encouraging them to risk their financial and mental wellbeing by using a rogue company such as Symbio Energy.

Although I partly agree with a few of your points I don’t actively promote symbio to people. “Not having a clue” is quite simply not a good enough excuse, both for symbio as a company and customers/people in general. I’m not denying symbio are dodgy in their overestimations of usage for the month ahead and their customer services and punctuality at dealing with complaints is rubbish at best, in their defence their term and conditions and explanations of how they run their business are all there on their website, it’s just people never bother to read them. (Whether you should have to or not is another discussion)

if people don’t have a clue they need to educate themselves, that’s partly why forums like these exist.

with regards to financial and mental well-being, apart from the percentage of people who struggle to make ends meet of which there must be a proportion to which symbio practices may be detrimental I doubt there are loads of people who are losing hundreds and hundreds to symbio……and if they are they’re probably the sort of customers who would be massively in credit with any other supplier as they don’t provide regular meter reads or don’t bother to look at their bills ever. Customers need to take a bit of responsibility from time to time.

I wonder what the true average extra credit is for a symbio customer. Given that you are rebated the difference of the last overestimation every month it can’t be that big.

indeed the purpose of this forum is to save money. I’m trying to give people advice about how to deal with this company. We all know you hate them, got your extra compensation payments and have gone to pfp, who seem to be the only company with vaguely similar prices (and their own problems but to a lesser extent)
the alternative is for customers to go to more expensive suppliers, maybe with less hassle but giving more of their money away permanently, or using symbio maybe giving a little more money to them temporarily but knowing they’ll get it back, and like you, will probably get compensation payments on top to make it even cheaper. The choice is theirs, they’re all adults and have capacity to make a decision based on the facts.

farmingisnt

to NiktheGuru and Drsquirrel - thank you for being part of the sort Symbio out team I sent my estimate of my balance to Symbio yesterday (calculated they owe me £700) ... as for the cancellation of the objection that drsquirrel had, well that's odd as I had one of those emails as well yesterday?? The email to object was sent on Sunday, which really narked me, as it meant I spent a good two hours yesterday calling not only Symbio but my new provider to ensure they didn't cancel my switchover, as they did last time when they got an objection from Symbio. Anyway, I've written to my MP who's replied already to say he's writing to Ofgem, and I've also written to Vished Patel who's the director of Symbio, very dodgy companies house listing. I will definitely be onto the Ombudsman next week once my 8 week period is over, and then push it through to make sure that Symbio will back off, let my switchover take place and give me my money back.. the last part I am not so sure about...

niktheguru

farmingisnt said:

to NiktheGuru and Drsquirrel - thank you for being part of the sort Symbio out team I sent my estimate of my balance to Symbio yesterday (calculated they owe me £700) ... as for the cancellation of the objection that drsquirrel had, well that's odd as I had one of those emails as well yesterday?? The email to object was sent on Sunday, which really narked me, as it meant I spent a good two hours yesterday calling not only Symbio but my new provider to ensure they didn't cancel my switchover, as they did last time when they got an objection from Symbio. Anyway, I've written to my MP who's replied already to say he's writing to Ofgem, and I've also written to Vished Patel who's the director of Symbio, very dodgy companies house listing. I will definitely be onto the Ombudsman next week once my 8 week period is over, and then push it through to make sure that Symbio will back off, let my switchover take place and give me my money back.. the last part I am not so sure about...

You'll definitely get your money back, but it may not be as quick as you'd like. Definitely go to the ombudsman as soon as the 8 weeks are up so they can facilitate, and continue to push symbio to sort out your transfer. Who have you decided to move to?

farmingisnt

I'm going to PFP Energy, they have a slightly better TrustPilot rating - I'm chasing rates so I've got a rate of 11.5p per kw .. hoping that their bills will be more transaparent, as the main issue with Symbio was the indecipherable bill and the estimate of a months charges ahead. Hoping that my MP might help to get the issue raised with Ofgem who are definitely the silent partner with Electric Companies. They were similar with my biomass system to heat the house, which turned out to also be a duffer. Don't have any luck in selecting vendors, thank the Lord I am not in Purchasing  

devondiver

niktheguru said:

devondiver said:

niktheguru said:

devondiver said:

niktheguru said:

Contact them by phone

Easy to say. Much harder to do according to multiple reports. Sadly, not everyone has the time, negotiating skills or luck to accomplish what you suggest. 

Only easy to say as I’ve actually done it. You’d be surprised what can be achieved if tried.
Nobody is that busy that they can’t take a bit of time out to sort out stuff. You can even put your phone on speaker and do something else. Either that or just pay up, switch and wait.

With the greatest respect I personally am not, and would never be, the slightest bit surprised as to what can be achieved by some people. But, unless one exists in an alternative universe, one has to accept that a great many people, possibly of limited means, do not have a clue when it comes to this sort of stuff. And, despite all the eloquent warnings in the world about steering clear unless they are on the ball and game for a possibly rough ride, these are exactly the people who are being sucked in by the attractive tariffs and then given a right royal shafting and endless genuine grief. The purpose of this forum is to help such people to save money; but not by encouraging them to risk their financial and mental wellbeing by using a rogue company such as Symbio Energy.

 We all know you hate them

"We all"?? Just for the record - I don't hate anyone, and would never presume to read the minds of fellow posters.

devondiver

farmingisnt said:

I'm going to PFP Energy, they have a slightly better TrustPilot rating - I'm chasing rates so I've got a rate of 11.5p per kw .. hoping that their bills will be more transaparent, as the main issue with Symbio was the indecipherable bill and the estimate of a months charges ahead. Hoping that my MP might help to get the issue raised with Ofgem who are definitely the silent partner with Electric Companies. They were similar with my biomass system to heat the house, which turned out to also be a duffer. Don't have any luck in selecting vendors, thank the Lord I am not in Purchasing  

FWIW, as someone's recently noted, I switched to PFP just over 7 months ago when Symbio stepped up their shenanigans and their Trustpilot rating fell ever further. My PFP fixed deal was slightly cheaper than Symbio's best variable offering at the time, and, so far, I sleep easy and can't fault them. BTW, before cynics suggest otherwise, I have absolutely nothing to gain from mentioning PFP by name.

Good luck with MP, Ofgem, Ombudsman etc. You will need patience.

Reed_Richards

devondiver said:

...BTW, before cynics suggest otherwise, I have absolutely nothing to gain from mentioning PFP by name....

...but quite a lot to gain if you can manage to refer a friend?

devondiver

Reed_Richards said:

devondiver said:

...BTW, before cynics suggest otherwise, I have absolutely nothing to gain from mentioning PFP by name....

...but quite a lot to gain if you can manage to refer a friend?

Hmmm . . . . Not sure I have any friends who are worth so little! And, for all I know, PFP may be the next Symbio.

Until the regulatory framework which allows power companies to behave like highwaymen is seriously beefed-up then they are all potential Symbios. I wouldn't recommend any of them. All I can do is relay my personal experience. 

CRISPIANNE3

UPDATE

Well checking my account today they have eventually produced my July bill today. Even though I only used 254kw in June they have estimated I will use 554kw for July. This is even higher than the Winter period. Perhaps they have a Dianne Abbot clone doing the estimates.