Symbio Energy feedback

CRISPIANNE3

tg99 said:

Has anyone else switching away from Symbio (initiated after 3 Oct) received email from symbio customer services asking to click a link to provide consent? I’m not going to click the link but may just email them back to give consent albeit I assume this is just an auto generated email and who knows if this email address is being monitored now by Eon.

I clicked on the link and they just wanted confirmation it was at my request and reason for leaving.  I just told them because they had gone bust. Everything is progressing well and my switch will be completed to NR will be in 2 days. 

Not leaving anything to chance I gave the readings yesterday to the new supplier, Symbio and E.on Next. 

wittynamegoeshere

I've just got an email from Symbio to say my direct debit payment has failed.  They were still attempting to take the payment for estimated use until the end of October, very glad I've cancelled the direct debit from my bank.

Why is their billing system still running?  They must have taken lots of £1000s today from all the customers who didn't cancel.  Is this money protected or not, they're not our supplier any more as Eon took over on Sunday 3rd October.  I suppose at worst others can recover this money via their bank's direct debit guarantee.

I can imagine someone laughing like a bond villain somewhere at the amount of money they've just taken from people.

Inigo_Montoya

wittynamegoeshere said:

  Is this money protected or not, they're not our supplier any more as Eon took over on Sunday 3rd October.  

Yes its protected due to Ofgem rules

molerat

Yes the customer is protected by the levy scheme for the amount of credit held by Symbio but I am not so sure where the actual money goes. Does it stay with Symbio, used to pay off their debts or does the regulator claw it back ?

MWT

molerat said:

Yes the customer is protected by the levy scheme for the amount of credit held by Symbio but I am not so sure where the actual money goes. Does it stay with Symbio, used to pay off their debts or does the regulator claw it back ?

It will be customer by customer, amounts received after the date the administrators were appointed can be used to settle the final invoice for each customer at the agreed meter reading for the day of transfer, but anything else has to be passed on to the SoLR, it can't be used for other creditors.

The regulator doesn't directly get involved in the process though.

fusela

wittynamegoeshere said:

I've just got an email from Symbio to say my direct debit payment has failed.  They were still attempting to take the payment for estimated use until the end of October, very glad I've cancelled the direct debit from my bank.

Why is their billing system still running?  They must have taken lots of £1000s today from all the customers who didn't cancel.  Is this money protected or not, they're not our supplier any more as Eon took over on Sunday 3rd October.  I suppose at worst others can recover this money via their bank's direct debit guarantee.

I can imagine someone laughing like a bond villain somewhere at the amount of money they've just taken from people.

I'm one of those people who didn't cancel the direct debit, the payment hasn't been posted to the account according to the customer portal. The payment put me into credit, but the portal shows I owe Symbio cash. Hope the payment appears in the customer portal otherwise this will make things harder for Eon to sort out!

spot1034

fusela said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I've just got an email from Symbio to say my direct debit payment has failed.  They were still attempting to take the payment for estimated use until the end of October, very glad I've cancelled the direct debit from my bank.

Why is their billing system still running?  They must have taken lots of £1000s today from all the customers who didn't cancel.  Is this money protected or not, they're not our supplier any more as Eon took over on Sunday 3rd October.  I suppose at worst others can recover this money via their bank's direct debit guarantee.

I can imagine someone laughing like a bond villain somewhere at the amount of money they've just taken from people.

I'm one of those people who didn't cancel the direct debit, the payment hasn't been posted to the account according to the customer portal. The payment put me into credit, but the portal shows I owe Symbio cash. Hope the payment appears in the customer portal otherwise this will make things harder for Eon to sort out!

Direct debits can often take a few days to show up on accounts, presumably because there has to be a confirmation sent through the system that the payment has been taken successfully. 

PaoloWD

fusela said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I've just got an email from Symbio to say my direct debit payment has failed.  They were still attempting to take the payment for estimated use until the end of October, very glad I've cancelled the direct debit from my bank.

Why is their billing system still running?  They must have taken lots of £1000s today from all the customers who didn't cancel.  Is this money protected or not, they're not our supplier any more as Eon took over on Sunday 3rd October.  I suppose at worst others can recover this money via their bank's direct debit guarantee.

I can imagine someone laughing like a bond villain somewhere at the amount of money they've just taken from people.

I'm one of those people who didn't cancel the direct debit, the payment hasn't been posted to the account according to the customer portal. The payment put me into credit, but the portal shows I owe Symbio cash. Hope the payment appears in the customer portal otherwise this will make things harder for Eon to sort out!

Yep, same here! Thanks for the heads-up. Hopefully, it'll resolve itself by the end of this week, so E.On have a correct closing/opening account balance for all of us who are affected.

spot1034

That's interesting, I hadn't even thought to do this, but having read the above post I have just checked my own Symbio account and I find that my direct debit, taken Oct 1st, has not shown up in the customer portal. Something to keep an eye on.

wittynamegoeshere

Interesting.  I just checked my Symbio account.  I cancelled my direct debit so obviously nothing received this month.  However, I have seen that the payment dates for previous months were...

September: Bank says 10th, Symbio says 13th

August: Bank says 6th, Symbio says 9th

July: Bank says 12th, Symbio says 13th

So a few days' delay is normal, it's too soon to yet conclude that the money ended up on the former director's paradise island, especially as it's currently only one working day after I got the email stating that the DD had failed (Friday).