Symbio Energy

Stevelc

I have been chasing Symbio since December 20 for a final bill after moving to a new electricity supplier, Today I received a Government Money Claim against me out of the blue for the outstanding amount plus over £75 of costs!
It would have been nice of them to contact me first so I could have paid the bill.

rp1974

Welcome there's a Symbio thread here:https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5960285/symbio-energy-feedback#latest.
Might provide more information.

matelodave

As rp1974 says  there's an ongoing saga regarding Symbio and their shenanegans on it's own thread, however, if you've got evidence that you've been chasing Symbio for a final bill (e-mails or texts, even evidence that you've posted them letters) then challenge the claim.

 If all you've done is keep phoning then it's not so easy to prove that you've chased. Have you been checking your online account,,did you ever check your on-line statements, did you download and save bills when they were issued. Unfortunately most people dont do this and find that it's really difficult to get any evidence if it all goes belly up in the future.

Have a shufti here https://www.gov.uk/respond-to-court-claim-for-money/defend-the-claim

Chino

rp1974 said:

Might provide more information.

Unlikely. I don't think anybody's posted there about being pursued for debt through the courts by Symbio. As this is about a specific problem with Symbio, it makes more sense to keep it as a separate thread before it gets lost amidst all the othe complaints about Symbio.

rp1974

How does that work then?.
If they haven't provided a final bill,what basis do they have for starting Court proceedings?.
Could be rather more to this,anyway best of luck OP.

matelodave

If the OP has been waiting for the postman to deliver one, rather than keeping an eye on his on-line account or checking that stuff hasn't been consigned and lost the spam box then it's more than possible that he's missed it and they've decided to bring in the heavy mob.

I was with Symbio and it took the threat of the Ombudsman before I got my final bill  (they owed me money and I had the billing proof as I downloaded every bill as soon as it was issued).

I've always kept copies of all correspondence and bills for all my energy companies (I've still got ten years worth with nine different suppliers - PDF files are easy to store and retrieve rather than having drawers full of paper).

Call me paranoid if you like but it helped out when IRESA and Eversmart went bust, getting my credit back form Eversmart and sorting out the billing issues and meter readings between IRESA and Octopus.

As I said above, it's very difficult to sort the bones out when they've either gone bust or shut down the web account and it's then too late to get any info as to the state of the account. Doing it monthly means that it can't get more than a month out of date and you can jump on any anomalies before they develop into a big problem,

I also keep a monthly spreadsheet of meter readings so I know what my bill is going to be within a couple of pence - ten minutes a month can save hours of grief and aggro in the future

niktheguru

If you truly haven't received a final bill you should be due automatic compensation, regardless of whether you were in debit or credit. Have you checked your online account? Make sure you put in a written complaint as well as call them. You will no doubt probably need to go to the ombudsman as well. I hope you get it sorted.
Did you work out if you actually owed them money or they owed you money at the end by looking at your meter readings yourself? Had you cancelled your direct debit yourself? If you owe money it may be worth paying that amount (but not anything extra asked by symbio or any other company) just to zero the account and then you can fight the unfair extra charges and seek further compensation. 

Good luck.

Tallerdave

Symbio don't offer the bills online, they email them

niktheguru

Tallerdave said:

Symbio don't offer the bills online, they email them

The pdf bill is only available by email, but you can check if a bill has been generated as there will be skeleton details with the dates under the "my bill" section of the online portal. The information about the accuracy of the contents of that bill cannot be deciphered from the summaries given there but at least you can see if a bill has been generated. If there is nothing covering the final dates between previous bill and leaving then its obvious they haven't generated a final bill (which surely is the case here) and they will have some ammunition for the symbio complaints process (if they bother to reply to the email), and more likely the ombudsman, to get this sorted out.

falabella

Not enough stress in your life? Try Symbio Energy!         Absolutely frightful.

Earlier LAST year we had cut any future involvement with 'Look after my bills', or so we thought, as they were a joke.
BUT this year we found we had been switched to Symbio from Octopus Energy with whom we have been happy.
We emailed Symbio TEN TIMES telling them, in no uncertain terms, that we did not want to switch. They completely ignored us and went ahead. They now 'thank us for choosing Symbio'.
Can you imagine what it must be like as a customer with a bill problem? They will just ignore you.
We WILL stop this cowboy outfit from being our electricity supplier, if required by legal action, but it is a nightmare and very stressful when they just ignore our protests.
The impression is of a business that is run by one person in their bedroom!
Do NOT go near them - should have their licence revoked.

The more reviews I read the more I am convinced Symbio is one person in their bedroom.
Hopefully they will not be allowed to continue for much longer.

UPDATE we have managed to stop the switch by telling 'Look after my bills' we will hold them responsible if this goes ahead. They managed to stop it - Symbio just ignored us.

But - 'Look after my bills' ignored us till we threatened legal action.

Tallerdave

So your complaint is really with Look After My Bills, who switched you after you'd terminated their service?