Symbio Energy feedback

wendel17

wendel17 said:

Hi everyone,

Recently moved into a house only supplied by electricity, with storage heaters and on Eon's standard variable Economy 7 tariff. There's a smart meter in the property and the display device seems to be a SMETS2 one from what I can tell, which Symbio say they can read.

Symbio are coming up as the cheapest provider (actually, PFP Energy were until yesterday, but annoyingly they seem to have changed their tariff this morning before I got round to switching!).

I've read through (some) of this thread and my gut is telling me dealing with Symbio would be a nightmare, even though I'm good at keeping track of my energy usage/bills and chasing companies, etc.

I'll probably follow my instinct and go elsewhere... but if I was to switch to Symbio with a fixed same-payment-every-month direct debit and provide them with a lower estimated annual usage than I think we'll have (a complete guess given we were on dual fuel in our last house anyway), do you think they'd still make it a nightmare?

The only thing tempting me to go with them for their cheap price is that if we have a smart meter surely they have to take the readings from it automatically and won't have a leg to stand on if they try to rip us off. But is that wishful thinking?

Like I say, even as a I type this I'm realising I'd be going into this with very little trust of them, so I'll probably just pay more with someone else instead!

Thanks!

Should have said, it would be on their fixed rate, not variable, and we will likely be replacing the storage heaters with gas central heating later this year before winter.

Swipe

They'll take the smart meter readings automatically but will still do a wild estimate for the month in advance. Makes no difference to them whether the readings are smart or not.

Inigo_Montoya

Swipe said:

They'll take the smart meter readings automatically but will still do a wild estimate for the month in advance. Makes no difference to them whether the readings are smart or not.

But won't that auto correct the following month ?

i.e. you can only ever be (massively) over paying for at most 1 months of estimated fuel ? 

i.e. its not going to build & build, month on month as long as you either have a smart meter or give a read at the end of very month ?

If thats the case then personally I live with it 

If it was Impossible to avoid a huge build up of extra credit, say £500+, that would be a bit different

Tallerdave

If you're on variable billing then you only ever end up lending them a month's over estimated payment. Currently around 100% for me.

I've never been on their fixed payment scheme so have no idea how they set the payment. Possibly EAC/12, but they exaggerate EAC by 33% in my case. So people need to keep an eye and rebuff the "National Grid" rubbish reported earlier by @CRISPIANNE3.

The new scheme they recently planned and then scrapped involved a built-in 30% overpayment. For me, 30% on top of 33% would have meant 73% overpayment which over a year would be hundreds of pounds.

We shouldn't forget those people, particularly in electric-only homes, for whom paying 50%, 70% or 100% over their monthly payment may cause them financial difficulties.  Perhaps comparison sites should add a warning to Symbio results that to obtain energy at the quoted price, you actually have to pay more?

niktheguru

Inigo_Montoya said:

Swipe said:

They'll take the smart meter readings automatically but will still do a wild estimate for the month in advance. Makes no difference to them whether the readings are smart or not.

But won't that auto correct the following month ?

i.e. you can only ever be (massively) over paying for at most 1 months of estimated fuel ? 

i.e. its not going to build & build, month on month as long as you either have a smart meter or give a read at the end of very month ?

If thats the case then personally I live with it 

If it was Impossible to avoid a huge build up of extra credit, say £500+, that would be a bit different

This is true to an extent. So basically they overestimate for your month aheads usage, the following month they give you back the difference between your actual usage and what they had estimated, then they add another months estimated usage on top. Theoretically you should only ever be paying 1 month extra. But they get round this by increasing the estimated use every month, so if it was 120% extra than normal one month it could be 130% extra the flllowing month, hence the credit can start to build up, which is exactly why you should go for a fixed direct debit, as then you KNOW what is coming out of your account each month and their random estimates based on which direction the wind is blowing become less important.

remember when applying to reduce you eac calculation by 10-15% so when they overestimate it it will be closer to what your actual eac is rather than their vast overestimate.

good luck.

wendel17

Thanks everyone. Paying a fixed direct debit but having the account temporarily overcharged and then refunded every month doesn't sound too bad from a cost perspective. It does however sound like an incredibly shady practice, and not the most ethical ways of doing business! (I know companies always charge in advance — I just mean the apparently ever-increasing estimates even after months of actual usage being lower... Seems like it shouldn't be allowed!)

Does anyone have any experience of leaving Symbio at the end of a 12-month etc fixed-rate tariff? Do they try to stop you leaving or make it a nightmare? I'm sure I've read something about that elsewhere/earlier in the thread. 

I'm a bit torn — on the one hand our bills in the new house will be much higher due to our different fuel type and it would be good to go with the cheapest supplier... But on the other I'm instinctively deterred from giving any money to a company that seemingly misleads (and badmouths!) its customers as reported. 

niktheguru

Basically if getting the cheapest electricity available is the most important to you the. Symbio can’t be beaten.

however, if you want no hassle, care about ethics and don’t want to worry about having to keep an eye on your electricity account then I would say avoid.

have you done your price comparisons, what is the next cheapest and how much more is it. Is they difference substantial or small.

I have switched with them after 12 months on a fixed deal. Arguably I am still awaiting my final bill 3 months on. I had given them a few reminders about it and they assured me it’d be dealt with, I told them I will be going to the ombudsman this month if not sorted, and will claim the £60 auto compensation. I haven’t been in any rush though as I kept good control of my account and in fact by the end of the switch my account was in £2 debit so I owe them money, which will be cancelled off by my compensation payment, so even cheaper energy. I gave them plenty of time to solve it. (With reminders as I was trying to be nice)

if symbio were the cheapest provider for me again I would go back. But be warned their customer services is rookie at best and you have to be very on the ball.

spot1034

In the news

'My energy provider Symbio tripled my bills and is now refusing to lower them' - Mirror Online

molerat

About time the regulator got up off its fat lazy xxxx and started regulating these companies pro actively instead of trying to tidy up the mess after it has all gone wrong and fiddling around getting newspaper headlines.

UnclaimedEnergy

spot1034 said:

In the news

'My energy provider Symbio tripled my bills and is now refusing to lower them' - Mirror Online

I find it interesting the story mentions about him having an E7 tariff to save money in off-peak... but Symbio only do flat E7 rates I believe?

Ofgem prob aren't going to do anything about this because of 2 reasons:

1. Symbio don't have enough money to make a £ fine worthwhile, whereas they've been happy to fine the 'big 6' before.
2. If Symbio can pay all of their payments to Ofgem in time, they don't really care.