When I finally managed to get them to put me on a fixed DD I directed them to my original EAC and the (fixed) DD I thought I originally signed up to. They relented and agreed albeit rounded up to the next pound. I didn't care at that point I just wanted to be on a fixed DD. As part of the complaints process they were quoting all sorts of figures to justify their actions. I pulled these apart and pointed out that they were untruthful. For example, the January debacle whereby they overestimated by 89%. My EAC was approx 310kWh per month. They estimated I would use 585kWh. I complained and based on mid January readings I told them I'd use 360(ish) and certainly no more than 400. They re-issued the bill with a revised estimate of 390(ish) and refunded a proportion of the over-payment they had taken. In fact I used 350(ish). When putting forward their "evidence" the figures and bills they submitted completely glossed over the one showing the 89% over-estimate. Instead they sent the revised one claiming a much lower over-estimate. They further claimed to have told the regulator about the billing problems and that the customers had been notified and the problem sorted. Another complete lie. What they had told the regulator about was the billing issue in Oct/Nov (2019) where they had used Summer rates instead of Winter. That was a completely separate billing issue to the over-estimates from January - June. I can't make up my mind as to whether they are actively trying to confuse and abuse the customer base or if they are just plain incompetent and have confused themselves. I'd also question the viability of the company now and whether they are still actively trading. Since mid-October the TrustPilot reviews have rocketed from approx 450 to 500. The vast majority being 1 start reviews. Previous 1 star reviews, mine included, generally received a response claiming not following procedure and cyber-bullying. None of the new reviews have had a response. Similarly, facebook comments are generally removed if negative. There has been no new Symbio posts since mid-end October and the replies to their last post are still in place and have not been removed. End of August I switched to Octopus. I've had no problems whatsoever. Nice sign up bonus payment. Reminders to submit readings. As soon as the reading is submitted my account is updated with no confusing bills. Just a case of, your last reading is A, your current is B, you've used C and we've deducted D from your account balance. Simple - as it should be. There is just no justification for the totally confusing bills that Symbio issue.

Given they owed almost £1m and only cleared half of that by the deadline of Oct 31st, unfortunately, I’d have said a return to over estimated bills was inevitable. Despite what they claim, they tap into the customer base for a rolling interest free loan. I hadn’t realised their obligations to Ofgem and as such the rolling loan now makes sense.

I had exactly the same issues. Grossly over estimated bills from January onwards. Despite what they claim, they are effectively taking an interest free loan from their customer base to keep the company in business. They can dress it up how they like. It’s irrelevant if they reconcile the bills the following month because they just over bill again thus keeping a rolling interest free loan. it took two months of constant badgering to be finally moved to a fixed DD. Once that was done I didn’t care how much they over-estimated by. I had raised a query with the ombudsman over the billing fiasco and they readied a complaint should I wish to proceed. I thought everything was sorted until May/June whereby I was allegedly more in debt then I was expecting to the tune of an extra months DD. On querying it, it transpired that even though I was on a fixed monthly DD, because the bill was generated less than 5 days before the DD was due to be taken they didn’t take the DD. They offered £5 compensation by way of apology but wanted to take two months DD in June. I told them where to get off. With appalling customer service, bills that you need a Maths degree to follow, and I do have one and still struggled, inability to follow through on any agreements, constant gross over-estimation, the missed DD was the final straw and I proceeded with complaint to ombudsman. Prior to getting to that stage I had to quote Symbio’s own complaints procedure to them to get any sort of response. Their final offer to me was £25 goodwill and to waive an exit fee. The offer was derisory given the time it had taken to get things sorted and the continuing ineptitude. Also, the whole thing has dragged on so long (5 months) I was already in the final 49 days of my contract and therefore there were no exit fees to pay and therefore nothing to waive. Anyway, upshot is, ombudsman found in my favour. Ordered an apology and a goodwill payment. Symbio appealed but were told the decision stood. This week I received the goodwill payment. I promptly left an honest and truthful review on trustpilot. The next morning I received an email from Symbio with an apology. This was followed an hour later with an email from trustpilot saying Symbio had replied to the review. On reading the response they have accused me of not following procedure and of cyber bullying. The company is a complete joke.