Symbio Energy feedback

tk47

Tbm700 wrote: »

Personally, I would give this lot a miss. I signed up in November after leaving Yorkshire Energy. My first bill was £12, second £74 and most recent, £100.

Welcome to MSE :hello:

Whilst it will be clear from my posts above that I, like most of their "valued customers", are less than pleased with Symbio at the moment, and for very justifiable reasons, I do think we need to remain reasonable and balanced in our basis of complaint.

e.g. most "valued customers" first bill from Symbio would have been low in value as it was most probably only for a part month. i.e. they bill from the day they commence supply until the last day of that month or first day of the following month.

Tbm700 wrote: »

I've cut my ties with them, even though it'll cost me £25 to do so. I've gone back to Yorkshire who tell me that I will spend around £400 par annum on electricity (based on my previous usage with them) as opposed to £720 based on the combined figures above multiplied by 4.

That contrived use of mathematics is probably even more extreme than anything Symbio have done so far.

Tbm700 wrote: »

Also, when I rang to query, I received a voicemail saying no-one was available to take my call. Really??? I left a message and 2 days on, I've yet to receive a reply.
I've just cancelled my DD. Let them fight me for it :-)

Join the club, but I would urge you to use the time wisely to better construct your complaint against the supplier

JazzyJ

No reply to my email yet which I sent on Monday. However, I am guessing they tried to take the DD that I cancelled (due on 10/1) yesterday, as we received two auto-emails regarding its cancellation. Every month so far, they have taken the DD on the incorrect date, in one case four days early and another five days late. I haven't seen others complain about DDs being taken out on the incorrect days but we can't be the only ones. If I haven't heard tomorrow, I will contact them via Facebook.

tk47

JazzyJ wrote: »

No reply to my email yet which I sent on Monday. However, I am guessing they tried to take the DD that I cancelled (due on 10/1) yesterday, as we received two auto-emails regarding its cancellation. Every month so far, they have taken the DD on the incorrect date, in one case four days early and another five days late. I haven't seen others complain about DDs being taken out on the incorrect days but we can't be the only ones. If I haven't heard tomorrow, I will contact them via Facebook.

You raise a number of points here that I do not necessarily concur with.

As Symbio "valued customers" will be aware, Symbio use GoCardless as their agent to collect DD's.
I have had previous experience with GoCardless, and generally have no complaint with them. Indeed they are the only party so far to respond to my email complaint to Symbio (I included them to keep them informed, rather than expecting any resolution action by them)

I feel sure there would have been no collection attempt yet if you were informed by GoCardless that the money would be colleced on Friday 10th, though most of us seem to have been provided as Thursday the 9th as the intended collection date.

I'm not sure where you are taking your dates from, as I have always found the collection by GoCardless has always been on the day they specify, or on the odd occasion within 3 working days thereafter (e.g. if the collection date they specify happened to be a non banking day)

The reason you will have received notification of the cancelled DDI is because you cancelled it presumably direct with your bank, and the bank would have informed the supplier (or rather the agent in this instnace who would have promptly informed their customer).

Collection prior to the specified date in the advanced notice is strictly against the rules of the direct debit scheme. I have never experienced this with GoCardless either for Symbio or any other of organisation.
In fact I cannot recall ever experiencing a DD being collected by anyone prior to the advance notice by anyone.

Edit: I tell a lie, I recall our water supplier once did this a few years back. They promptly apologised confirming it was entirely their own fault, and advising all customers that there would be no issue if customers wanted to claim a full refund from their own bank. They also accepted they would refund any consequential losses that could be identified if any customer incurred these as a result of the error.

devondiver

Email to Symbio Monday 6th Jan:

"Dear Sir/Madam
Customer Reference: SEXXXXXXY
With reference to your recent emails I do not accept your intention to charge me £170.54 as advance payment for expected electricity usage for the month of January 2020 as your calculation is seriously flawed. Please therefore cancel this proposed payment now.
I realise that your complicated billing system is probably broken (rather than blatantly fraudulent) and that you are trying to fix it, so for the present I am prepared to bear with you for a limited period. However, I do not wish to be owed a significant sum when you go into administration.
Neither do I wish to hasten your demise by withholding legitimate payment so I am agreeable to you re-setting my DD payment amount to £120.00 per calendar month until further notice. Even though this sum is substantially in excess of that originally agreed with you, it is a sum which is in line with the amount of electricity I will realistically expect to use during the current month.
Best regards and good luck."

I switched to them 30th October. After I objected to their initial November, ramped up, DD amount they cancelled it and carried forward an agreed figure to my December amount, which was also agreed and matched my usage. My yearly historical usage (which they have), varies from £2.00 to £4.00 (max) per day at their current rates (at 75% nighttime rate). I have submitted regular meter reads on the 15th and 30th of each month.

I am very tempted to cancel my DD today, before (rather than trying to claw back after) the seemingly imminent contact between the proverbial excrement and aerial distribution device.

tk47

devondiver wrote: »

...
I am very tempted to cancel my DD today, before (rather than trying to claw back after) the seemingly imminent contact between the proverbial excrement and aerial distribution device.

You may be too late. Please check with your bank.

Most banks require cancellation of a DDI at least 1 clear banking day before the intended collection to prevent that collection.
Most of us have been informed that collection is intended to take place tomorrow.

However, that will not prevent you asking your bank for a full and immediate refund once the collection takes place (if it does)

devondiver

Ref TK47 above: on Sat 4th I received email from Symbio telling me the ramped up January amount of £170.54 would be collected on Sat 11th. Followed on Sun 5th by gocardless email saying Fri 10th. Followed on Mon 6th by gocardless email stating Thur 9th!

Sounds like panic stations to me.

JazzyJ

tk47 wrote: »

I'm not sure where you are taking your dates from, as I have always found the collection by GoCardless has always been on the day they specify, or on the odd occasion within 3 working days thereafter (e.g. if the collection date they specify happened to be a non banking day)

I have taken the due date of the DD as they date they advised on each of their bills and the actual dates the DD was paid by my bank. In all but one month, the DD was taken inappropriately, in my opinion, this is the relevant part of the email that I sent to them in that regard:

Bill 17/9-1/10, DD date given by you 24/9/19 - DD actually taken 20/9/19
Bill 2/10-1/11, DD date given by you 16/10/19 - DD taken 21/10/19
Bill 2/11-30/11, DD date given by you 12/11/19 - DD taken 13/11/19
Bill 1/12-31/12, DD date given by you 12/12/19 - DD taken 9/12/19

We have never received an email from Go Cardless, only ever the date given on the bill.

devondiver

Sorry TK you're too quick for me. Yes i realise that but I think one is in a better position to reclaim if one has instigated cancellation before withdrawal.

tk47

devondiver wrote: »

Ref TK47 above: on Sat 4th I received email from Symbio telling me the ramped up January amount of £170.54 would be collected on Sat 11th. Followed on Sun 5th by gocardless email saying Fri 10th. Followed on Mon 6th by gocardless email stating Thur 9th!

Sounds like panic stations to me.

I'm unclear what has caused all the issues over dates you have experienced.

Unfortunately, I did not receive the email containing the email regarding the full bill (as Symbio seem to accept some of their "valued customers" did not)

However, seeing the comments here on MSE, I did check my online account over the weekend and did notice a bill summary online, that indicated an amount was due by the 10th.

But it is the date specified in the official advance notice that is important as far as any dispute over the date of collection.

Most of us seem to have been informed by GoCardless on Monday that collection was intended to take place on the following Thursday.
It was certainly on Monday that the first person reported receiving their advance notice in this thread, (and that notice was received that day)

GoCardless always give 3 working days notice, and the experience of the rest of us is in accordance with that notice period.

I cannot explain why you received an email purporting to be from GoCardless on Sunday, nor why that would have indicated 5 working days notice contrary to GoCardless own processes.

I suggest you double check your dates, and the authenticity of any email you have received.
It may even be that you will incur two collections, one on Thursday and another on Friday if what you say is actually correct :eek

Talldave

Tbm700 wrote: »

Personally, I would give this lot a miss. I signed up in November after leaving Yorkshire Energy. My first bill was £12, second £74 and most recent, £100. I've cut my ties with them, even though it'll cost me £25 to do so. I've gone back to Yorkshire who tell me that I will spend around £400 par annum on electricity (based on my previous usage with them) as opposed to £720 based on the combined figures above multiplied by 4.
Also, when I rang to query, I received a voicemail saying no-one was available to take my call. Really??? I left a message and 2 days on, I've yet to receive a reply.
I've just cancelled my DD. Let them fight me for it :-)

Your £720 is illogical. If your account is in credit (in either cash terms or electricity units), that credit will be deducted from your next bill.

If you provide monthly meter readings to Symbio, you only pay for what you use. The only quirk with their billing scheme is that they ask for an advance payment up front and for January they've asked for far too much. But it will get cancelled out in February's bill.

Whilst I'm defending their billing system, I am not defending their utter stupidity in the January over estimating debacle. It's crazy and probably very stressful for customers in the worst possible month to do it. But it will resolve itself on future bills.

Surely, Symbio will come to their senses and realise that you can't switch from (annual consumption divided by 12) to (annual consumption divided by 12 plus 60%) without massively exceeding everyone's annual consumption?