Should I cancel DD when energy supply hugely in credit? Symbio Energy

Egbert

There are a massive amount of posts about SymbioEnergy already, and I am still trying to see if my question has already been asked so apologies for beating a well-worn drum. 

Symbio Energy have massively overcharged on our DD's - we are up to £800 in credit. When we do get through on the phone, they will only every say that we are £350 in credit, but they refuse to refund anything either. It's always "We'll ask a manager and call back" but of course no calls, no answer to emails, nothing. 

I can see it looks like they will go bust soon and we will be moved on to another supplier, but should that not happen, and before they take another DD for over £200 next month, is there any reason legally I cannot cancel my DD until we are no longer so hugely in credit?

Leon_W

Cancel It.  You haven't entered any kind of credit agreement, it's not reported, so it will not affect your credit rating.

I've had companies go bust on me and the first thing I do is cancel the DD, but if I was that much in credit and the company were making no efforts to refund I'd cancel anyway for a few months.

Brie

Cancel and begin a switch to another provider.

JGB1955

Cancel it....I've just done the same with Outfox the Market.  Only been with them a couple of months but already £160+ in credit.  Not willing to pay them another £80 on top of that!  My bill up to the date of transfer will be in the region of £50.

jimjames

Brie said:

Cancel and begin a switch to another provider.

Symbio still seem to be the cheapest provider so I'm not sure of the benefit of switching until you absolutely have to?

Swipe

jimjames said:

Brie said:

Cancel and begin a switch to another provider.

Symbio still seem to be the cheapest provider so I'm not sure of the benefit of switching until you absolutely have to?

If they leave they'll never get their credit back anyway until they go bust. These clowns are not refunding balances even after you've left them.

Reed_Richards

My Symbio account showed a credit balance (£123 according to their reckoning) at the end of July.  I asked for it to be refunded and they did this promptly enough.  

Swipe

Reed_Richards said:

My Symbio account showed a credit balance (£123 according to their reckoning) at the end of July.  I asked for it to be refunded and they did this promptly enough.  

I left 2 months ago (moved house and they have not refunded my credit balance) although they keep insisting it will be paid + £60 compensation. Go on trust pilot and see how many people are in the same position so the OP shouldn't bank on a refund any time soon.

Inigo_Montoya

I joined Symbio a few months back on their variable direct debit billing

The way my bill is working is that they overcharge for the next month in advance using an inflated estimated read 

however as long as I give then a read on the last day of the month they then refund that overcharge for the previous month and the the cycle repeats

So have you given them a read on the last day of the month recently ? - because if your billing works the same way as mine then at least in theory there should either be an automatic massive refund that occurs or if not that they should take a zero DD as the existing credit covers the next months bill ?

Or does the billing work differently once you build up a lot of credit ?

Or are you on a fixed direct debit ? - if so ask them to switch to variable direct debit maybe ?

I suspect if you cancel the DD they will start charging you a penalty for each failed DD & may put you on a more expensive tariff

I was very hesitant to join symbio due to all the horror stories but now I can see how their billing system works I don't really have an issue with it because as long as I give a read at the end of every month I can only ever be a relatively small amount in credit - in fact its actually better than a lot of other companies who set a fixed direct debit up thats far too high

niktheguru

I really dont understand how you could have let it get to £800 credit?
Did you give them an accurate annual usage? (they always overestimate depending on what you inputted originally, so always best to underestimate your EAC)
Are you giving monthly meter reads? If so then you should only ever be 1 month in credit.

When you speak to them on the phone, insist to either reduce your fixed direct debit (if you have one and its too high) be firm but polite, don't get fed the whole " we will speak to a manager and get back to you", say you want to speak to the manager as you've been waiting long enough and your request is a simple one.

As a last resort you can cancel the direct debit.

Make sure you do your sums and check how much your account ACTUALLY is in credit, work it out based on meter readings and direct debits paid.

Getting a refund from them is difficult, but doable. Plenty of us have done it.

The main question is how long will they be in business for?

drsquirrel

I've been seeing terms with certain companies that they will "fine" you if you miss a direct debit payment, is this actually an issue and wouldn't this be an issue if so?