Symbio Energy feedback

molerat

Swipe wrote: »

I've just read this on Trustpilot:

Company is owned by Gold Nuts Limited which has had a winding up order served on October 2019 (check companies house for symbio).

Which is a complete misrepresentation of the facts. When you check companies house this comes up :-

01 Feb 2019 Cessation of Gold Nuts Limited as a person with significant control on 22 March 2018

It seems they are / were a financial services provider who simply took a share in Symbio against their financial backing.

Tafrock

That trustpilot review is a load of hogwash

Symbio are only charging you for what you have used. The variance charge is not an extra charge. It's the difference between symbios underestimation of your electricity usage and your actual usage

You have used this electricity. You owe them for it. They are giving you a credit and adding that credit cost to your next bill

Up until winter you were probably getting money knocked off your bill due to symbio overestimating your usage. You weren't complaining then were you

As for gold nuts and going bust. Gold nuts are no longer involved with symbio. Lots of people have resigned as directors this year. I'm not worried. This happens

I'm quite happy with symbio. If they go bust I'll deal with it if it happens

Jo_Hric

Tafrock wrote: »

I Have a smets1 dormant smart meter and signed up to symbio no problem back in April.

However if I now try to get a quote on their website it says I can't as I have a smart meter. It's a bit short sighted to block out everyone with smart meters dormant or not.

I'm quite happy to be supplied by symbio however come tariff renewal in April if I run into problems I will switch probably to green.

I believe, most smart meters can be used as a normal meter. Ei. just taking regular monthly meter reads and doing online submission to whatever provider. However, Ofgem has a regulatory for Smart Meters. Unless the supplier is compliant they can't take Smart Meters. Symbio must have allowed some customer at the start to join them on the basis that the customer is responsible to provide meter reads, rather them Symbio taking the reads automatically of the system. My guess is that Ofgem must have flagged this up and not allowed Symbio to take any more Smart Meters until they are fully compliant with the regulations. At least their post on the Facebook explains so.

matelodave

As far as I can see, there should be no reason why Symbio cannot use a smart meter as a dumb meter.

Although they may not support it in it's "Smart" mode, it's still a meter and still records & displays consumption in the same way as a non smart meter does.

I dont know if they are getting their arm twisted by OFGEM to automatically enrol any Smart meters that they inherit or whether they just wish to wait until their systems are all working properly, but having a dumb smart meter shouldn't preclude them from taking a customer.

Reading Symbio's FAQ's indicates their intention to get customer's onto smart meters sometime in 2020. One would think that taking on an existing smart meter, especially of the type that has already been assessed as suitable to enrol onto the DCC should work out a lot less expensive than sending a man out to swap it for another one

MABLE

MABLE wrote: »

I submit regular reads on the last of every month and they have always used my reads. However I do take a snap shot of the meter supporting the actual read taken and never any issues.

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I think I wrote too soon. They revised my bill and have decided I did not use that the much electricity by 10 units. Seems strange when I go to the trouble of taking a snapshot of the meter read every month for them to see.

However very pleased with them and even more because I was allowed to change to a cheaper tariff. I was paying 13.4 a kw and 15.2 standing charge a day. Now 10.9 plus 22p a day fixed for 12 months.

Tafrock

I was worried about that when I joined in April. I got mine about a day before I went live if I recall correctly

Jo_Hric

I think this is quite a nice touch from Symbio. Also, I like St Mungos they are very good.
symbioenergy.co.uk/warm-heart-tariff

Bigtwin

My advice - avoid at all costs. Website that doesn't accept meter readings. They then ask you to provide photographs of readings - there is no possible way to do this as they admit on the 'phone ("we are waiting for a website update"). They lied on the website and claimed they would be fitting all customers with smart meters "by the end of 2019". They don't even have a licence to do this, and won't have till at least 2ndQ 2020, let alone actually doing it. They ignore email correspondence (and do the usual trick of poor companies of sending everything from noreply addresses - grrrr!) and ignore meter readings you give them on the 'phone and just carry on with estimated. In summary - not even close to being even vaguely competent as an energy supplier.:mad:

Gerry1

Bigtwin wrote: »

... and claimed they would be fitting all customers with smart meters "by the end of 2019".

Be fair, that applies across the entire industry, not just Symbio. The whole smart meter programme is a fiasco and has slipped to 2024.

Bigtwin wrote: »

... and do the usual trick of poor companies of sending everything from noreply addresses - grrrr!

Again, that's just standard practice, otherwise they'd be drowning in a deluge of Out Of Office Auto Replies, bounced emails, rejected notifications because of Spamhaus blocking etc, etc. Nobody would get a timely reply !

I've never been with Symbio and they may be dire, but you can't blame them on these issues.

matelodave

Not had any trouble myself, cheapest leccy around as far as I'm concerned so I'll happily put up with any minor problems.

As far as Im concerned, I'll keep my own records, pay my DD and come the end of my tariff I'll sort out the reconciliation but so far even with collapsed energy companies (of which I've been with three), it's worked out because I keep my own records and download bills and statements (even if they are wrong)