Symbio Energy feedback

molerat

Just received an e-mail from Symbio that an application has been made to take my supply again - at least they informed me this time. Going to have to ring them and find out if it is Utilita again, if it is I will be demanding compensation from them this time.

fewkeste

molerat wrote: »

Just received an e-mail from Symbio that an application has been made to take my supply again - at least they informed me this time. Going to have to ring them and find out if it is Utilita again, if it is I will be demanding compensation from them this time.

This is quite concerning. Have you previously had any dealings with Utilita or any sort of sales person offering to swap you and save you money?

I wonder if an iffy 'advisor' has passed your details on for a referral commission?

molerat

fewkeste wrote: »

This is quite concerning. Have you previously had any dealings with Utilita or any sort of sales person offering to swap you and save you money?

I wonder if an iffy 'advisor' has passed your details on for a referral commission?

Nothing so sinister, just incompetence I suspect. I was previously with Eversmart and my switch date to Symbio was the date they went bust. Utilita, the Eversmart SOLR, then stole my supply on 18th Sept but I was not informed of this and my supply was returned to Symbio on 6th Nov after raising an erroneous transfer complaint. Will have to wait until tomorrow to confirm what has happened.

molerat

fewkeste wrote: »

This is quite concerning. Have you previously had any dealings with Utilita or any sort of sales person offering to swap you and save you money?

I wonder if an iffy 'advisor' has passed your details on for a referral commission?

Nothing so sinister, just incompetence. I was previously with Eversmart and my switch date to Symbio was 6th Sept, the date Eversmart went bust. Utilita, the Eversmart SOLR, then stole my supply on 18th Sept but I was not informed of this and my supply was eventually returned to Symbio on 6th Nov after raising an erroneous transfer complaint. Will have to wait until tomorrow to confirm what has happened.

adindas

I wonder why would anyone want to care whether this company might go into liquidation or not ? You are not lending them money in fact you use energy first and pay later.

fewkeste

adindas wrote: »

I wonder why would anyone want to care whether this company might go into liquidation or not ? You are not lending them money in fact you use energy first and pay later.

Presumably because of the hassle of being moved to a SOLR. I've never had it happen to me but I'm not sure if people are moved on the same tariff as their old 'gone bust' supplier or if they are moved onto the SOLR's standard tariff.

They then presumably have to move to a supplier that gives them the best deal for their circumstances.

If you think a supplier is likely to go belly-up why would you choose to move to them and expose yourself to hassle?

That's my take on things - perhaps others who've actually had this happen to them can add more.

Talldave

adindas wrote: »

I wonder why would anyone want to care whether this company might go into liquidation or not ? You are not lending them money in fact you use energy first and pay later.

No, you pay them first and then use the energy. Then they produce a ludicrously complicated bill that tries to compensate for the difference between what you paid in advance and what you actually used by adjusting the advance charge for the energy they guess you're going to use in the current month.

brewerdave

fewkeste wrote: »

Presumably because of the hassle of being moved to a SOLR. I've never had it happen to me but I'm not sure if people are moved on the same tariff as their old 'gone bust' supplier or if they are moved onto the SOLR's standard tariff.
.

I was unfortunate enough ,to be with THREE suppliers last year who failed, IRESA, USIO and ONE SELECT!! On every occasion, I was moved to a much worse tariff by the SOLR:(

Gerry1

In 2016 I was with GB Energy which was the first domestic supplier to go bust. It was big news because everyone imagined their lights would go out and they would lose hundreds of pounds. However, the Co-Op took over and things went smoothly. They honoured the existing GB tariff and kept the brand name.

However things don't always go so well today, and many people are nervous about switching to or staying with a small supplier. In the worst case you can lose a significant amount of money, e.g. Richard Mason, the co-founder of switching website Moneysupermarket, is still waiting for more than £1,500 he is owed by Solarplicity.

Ofgem really needs to get its act together because the Big 6 will have no incentive to become more competitive without small suppliers such as Symbio. The default payment should be variable direct debit so that customers don't end up with large credit balances that may be lost or have to be refunded by surcharges levied on customers of all the other energy customers. Symbio seem to use a form of variable direct debit so that's something in their favour.

griffb

Out of interest - has anyone had their November bill yet? They have been arriving on 11th for the last few months. I'm fairly sure someone asked the question yesterday, but the posting disappeared as I was about to reply. I'm not too bothered by its absence (on the "no bill, no pay" theory)