Symbio Energy feedback

griffb

molerat wrote: »

I want to know how their billing system is going to reconcile the "underpayments" from the estimated bill these reset DD amounts will cause. The bills only seem to be able to reconcile under & over use from the estimated figure.

Getting an extra large bucket of popcorn in as we speak; it's going to be an interesting few months ahead. I've got one eye on the Symbio situation, the other on Green. and Neon Reef reviews; both are within £1/month of Symbio for my EAC, but variable tariffs.

Talldave

molerat wrote: »

I want to know how their billing system is going to reconcile the "underpayments" from the estimated bill these reset DD amounts will cause. The bills only seem to be able to reconcile under & over use from the estimated figure.

The front page of the bill deals with payments and has an "Unpaid balance" entry which would show any underpayment. The "Cost of energy" will then be significantly lower than normal (or negative) provided they stop using massive over-estimates for February.


That's how I imagine it should work, but no doubt Symbio will have their own amusing spin on the process.


Never before have energy bills been so entertaining!!

griffb wrote: »

Getting an extra large bucket of popcorn in as we speak; it's going to be an interesting few months ahead. I've got one eye on the Symbio situation, the other on Green. and Neon Reef reviews; both are within £1/month of Symbio for my EAC, but variable tariffs.

I bet neither of them will be giving away random quantities of free electricity each month - that's what's keeping me with Symbio at the moment!!

merchcon55

Talldave wrote: »

The front page of the bill deals with payments and has an "Unpaid balance" entry which would show any underpayment. The "Cost of energy" will then be significantly lower than normal (or negative) provided they stop using massive over-estimates for February.


That's how I imagine it should work, but no doubt Symbio will have their own amusing spin on the process.


Never before have energy bills been so entertaining!!



I bet neither of them will be giving away random quantities of free electricity each month - that's what's keeping me with Symbio at the moment!!

Tell us more about the free electricity - sounds great !

PixelPound

Symbio already use a pay ahead system where you are paying for energy before you use it, so you and now just paying a bit further ahead. Assuming normal processes work on the next bill we'll get a credit back, now unless the amount you have been overestimated for Jan is more than they say you will use in Feb, there won't be any negative DD due.

tk47

nic_c wrote: »

Symbio already use a pay ahead system where you are paying for energy before you use it, so you and now just paying a bit further ahead. Assuming normal processes work on the next bill we'll get a credit back, now unless the amount you have been overestimated for Jan is more than they say you will use in Feb, there won't be any negative DD due.

Based on the consumption figure they are currently assuming for us for January, it most probably is in excess of what we will use on January & February combined.

But what makes you think they won't over-estimate February's consumption?

December cost was 33% more than most previous months for us.
Now January they have estimated is 70% up on December.

Wouldn't surprise me if, come February, they estimate 140% or thereabouts up on January. :cool:

Talldave

merchcon55 wrote: »

Tell us more about the free electricity - sounds great !

Apologies to anyone who's read it before but...


Give your reading to Symbio the day after their estimation period on your previous bill. For example, my December bill estimated 489.03 units between 1st Dec and 31st December. So I provide them with a reading on the 1st January. On the January bill, this triggers Symbio to add an extra day to their previous estimate - in this case they estimated 45.03 units for the 1st January, revising their total estimate to 534.06. Because I only actually used 468.10 units, their variance calculation means that they credit me with 65.96 units (£7.17).


The flaw in their cranky algorithm is that they never charge for the 45.03 units, so I get those units for free. This has worked for the 3 months I've tried it so far.

tk47

Can anyone interpret what this is supposed to mean, please?

It's an extract from a reply posted by Symbio Energy 5hrs ago to a 'Gary Collins' on trustpilot

All customers were emailed last week informing them of their new bill for the winter period (we can apologise to those that did not receive the same).

So were all customers sent an email by them last week or not?
The evidence above in this thread alone suggests not all customers were sent such an email, and Symbio appear to contradict themselves in the same sentence by conceeding some people have not received such an email.
:huh:

The only emails I have received from them recently are:

Sun 29/12/2019 - Request for Meter Read
Tue 31/12/2019 - Automatic reply: We have received your Meter Readings
Thu 02/01/2020 - Automatic reply: We have sent your meter readings for approval

and this, which was actually from gocardless.com
Mon 06/01/2020 - New Direct Debit payment to Symbio Energy

In that same reply, Symbio Energy also state:

...customers who provides monthly meter reads are less likely to have a variation in their monthly direct debit....

Most customers who send their monthly meter reads should not have been affected.

Well they obviously have been affected. :mad:

Otherwise, I wonder why Symbio think there was a "huge influx of call on Monday" :huh:

Swipe

tk47 wrote: »

So were all customers sent an email by them last week or not?

I received my January bill via email on Saturday afternoon,. No mention of winter extra estimates though apart from in the actual bill itself.

griffb

tk47 wrote: »

The only emails I have received from them recently are:

Sun 29/12/2019 - Request for Meter Read
Tue 31/12/2019 - Automatic reply: We have received your Meter Readings
Thu 02/01/2020 - Automatic reply: We have sent your meter readings for approval

and this, which was actually from gocardless.com
Mon 06/01/2020 - New Direct Debit payment to Symbio Energy

My timline is exactly the same as yours with the addition of:
Saturday 04/01/2020 - Full Bill received via email
Can't understand why you are missing out on this one

tk47

griffb wrote: »

My timline is exactly the same as yours with the addition of:
Saturday 04/01/2020 - Full Bill received via email
Can't understand why you are missing out on this one

I can't understand it either, but I'm certainly not alone it would seem.

e.g. gt94sss2 posted 05-01-2020, 7:05 PM (post #696) that they too had not received an email, and it seems now that Symbio themselves acknowledge that a number of their 'valued customers' have not received such an email.

But the lack of email/bill seems irrelevant now. Everyone seems to have been affected by overbilling estimates for January, and Symbio Energy should have realised that by now.

In such a case, they should do what they did last September.
i.e. admit they have made an error, withdraw all of January bills (where issued) and stop the DD collection intended for Thursday.
That will give them time to issue ammended bills later this month, and organise a DD collection for that amount accordingly.

If they did that, I'm sure most of their "valued customers" would understand and continue to support them

We would like to apologise to and thank customers in equal measure. We apologise if we are not as good as we would like to be at present but we are improving every day. We would like to thank you for supporting us as we seek to provide real competition and lower prices to the UK. We are and will always try to be better and improve. Thank you for your support.

https://symbioenergy.co.uk/about-us/

Otherwise, they are just damaging their own reputation, something they seem to be currently spending more time attempting to defend rather than concentrating on resolving the issues they have caused.

If they don't address the issues at source, the complaints will just carry on being posted about them.

(Not to mention the added pressure they will have resolving the issues of many of their customers invoking the terms of the DD Guarantee on Thursday onwards if they don't act immediately)