Symbio Energy feedback

tk47

JazzyJ wrote: »

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.

If what you claim is correct, then you have the justification to recall all the amounts collected as no advance notice was provided.

The date specified on the bill is not advance notice.

You may wish to double check that you have not received any advance notice from GoCardless. I'm sure everyone else has been receiving these advance notices. The email will indicate it is from sender 'Symbio Energy', but if you read that email carefully, you will see it is from GoCardless

This is distictive from any email direct from Symbio Energy who use a variety of terms to describe themselves as the sender of any email, (e.g. 'Customer Services') but have never used 'Symbio Energy' as far as I recall.

devondiver

Sorry TK, no mistakes and authenticity not in doubt. Saturday's Symbio message came with attached inflated bill and stated: The billed amount of £170.54 will be taken on 11-01-20.
The following gocardless messages stated: on or shortly after January 10, 2020; and on or shortly after January 9, 2020.
Hope your last point is wrong. That really would stir things up!

[Deleted User]

from my dealings with Symbio where they seem to be in utter chaos, they have now taken twice my monthly payment even though the dd had been cancelled. They do not reply to emails, answer the phone or give online help

Swipe

helmsy157 wrote: »

from my dealings with Symbio where they seem to be in utter chaos, they have now taken twice my monthly payment even though the dd had been cancelled. They do not reply to emails, answer the phone or give online help

They probably weren't about to go bust but this latest mess up probably will push them further towards it. Sounds like your payment was already initiated before your DD cancellation went through.

Tafrock

I'd be astounded if they recover from this personally. Their reputation (which was never really squeaky clean anyway) has been shot to pieces.

The overestimation was far too high but they could have sorted it out by means of decent communication with their customers. However apart from cut and paste nonsense about winter bills bring higher which as a mainly gas user is utter nonsense they seem to have gone to ground

I was going to give them a chance to redeem themselves but after their lacklustre response to this debacle I jumped ship

Can't wait to get rid now

Swipe

I'm staying with them but wasn't affected by this debacle as I was given a choice between variable or fixed DD when I signed up last month. And to my surprise, they actually honoured the fixed DD amount which came out of my account this morning. I'm not particularly bothered by over estimated amounts if my monthly DD stays the same as it will all work itself out eventually.

I'm not tempted to switch as I have a £25 exit fee and there's no one else offering anywhere near electricity at 10.771p per unit (with 22p daily standard charge).

Tafrock

12.354p per unit 15p standing charge (green oak). Neon reef aqua one 12.36p per unit and 12.831 p standing charge.

Both cheaper for me than my symbio April tariff of 12.41p per unit and 15.5p standing charge
It's not all about cost for me anyway. It's about trust and ease of access to customer service

griffb

Tafrock wrote: »

1Neon reef aqua one 12.36p per unit and 12.831 p standing charge.

I had a quick look at Neon Reef.

We know they are related to Utility Point (their app developer is UP, common directors, addresses etc). Their Social Media accounts were registered in June 2019, but the first posts on Facebook were dated 3rd December, basically saying "open for business" One 5* review also dated 3rd December! Nothing since.

On Trustpilot however there are 11 five* reviews all dated either 13th or 15th August 2019. 6 are single review posters; of the remaining 5, 4 are transferring from Utility Point, and have given glowing reviews of UP within the previous 12 months.


Anyone else a bit suspicious?

Swipe

griffb wrote: »

Anyone else a bit suspicious?

I had a bad experience switching away from UP so I'd steer pretty clear. UP's renewal tariff was expensive too otherwise I'd have probably stayed with them but then would have been none the wiser to the shambles switching away from them was. At least I got £30 compensation from them though.

tk47

No response yet from Symbio.

Had my 9:00 AM appointment with my local bank manager and was provided a full and immediate refund.

Let's see if that prompts a response from Symbio. :cool:

I see they are back on a well know review site. This was posted 2 hours ago in reply to someone:

Dear Sir,
We value all our customers and do our best endeavour to respond within a reasonable time.
Please note that if you have contacted us with your query, a member of the team will usually be in touch with you within the next 72 hours or earlier where possible.
It is unfortunate that the team was not given the opportunity to resolve your query regarding your bill and/or direct debit.
Symbio Energy has been the cheapest supplier in the industry for the past 7 months and our aim is to ensure that customer services remains the core of our business.
The aim of the exit fee is not included in the contract as a penalty, however, to ensure that the customer value the services during their contract and given the best price in the market.
Our team is still open to treat your query urgently should you email them at [EMAIL="customerservices@symbioenergy.co.uk"]customerservices@symbioenergy.co.uk[/EMAIL].

Well I contacted them over 72 hours ago, and as I say, no response from them yet,

I've provided them an opportunity to resolve this between ourselves, but they have not taken advantage of that.

As for exit fees, wll those who received the email of 01-Dec-2019 have an exit fee waiver.

Or you could seek to rely upon what they state on their own twitter account:




:rotfl: