Symbio Credit still outstanding

  • Timscotland's Avatar
    Level 1
    I am one of those customers who didn't like what I saw with Symbio and abandoned ship before they went under actually leaving them in May 21. When I left I had a credit of £411.25.

    At various points Symbio said that I should receive my money back soon, but never did. So in September I threw my toys out of the pram and shortly after received a reply from the "Quality Assurance Team" that would a) get my refund and b) get compensation for the delay. Never did...

    So Symbio goes, E-on appointed and ... No change. I am now over 11 months since I left Symbio and it has been 6 months since E-on was appointed and still nothing!

    What do I have to do to get my money back? It might help pay for some of the new electricity prices...
  • 6 Replies

  • PeterT_EONNext's Avatar
    Community Team
    Hi @Timscotland I'm sorry to hear that you've had trouble getting your credit back from your Symbio Energy account.

    Both past and present customers of Symbio when they ceased trading will have their credit protected, so if you didn't receive this back from Symbio (although this seems a little odd as your account would've closed around 4 months before Symbio ceased trading) You'd need to get in touch with our customer services so an Energy Specialist can look into this for you.

    It would be best to get in touch via email or Facebook/Twitter, as what you will also need to do is send a copy of your final bill from Symbio (which will help with your query)

    You can email at hi@eonnext.com - contact details for Facebook and Twitter can be found in my signature below.

    Thanks - Pete 😊
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  • meldrewreborn's Avatar
    Level 91
    @Timscotland

    Since you left Symbio well before the Company went under I fear you might be treated are a creditor of the failed company and, if so, likely to get little from the liquidator. Its not clear if there is a time cut off for customer balances for customers who left Symbio before the collapse.

    I've looked at the OFGEM website and its very unclear what happens in these situations. Given that Eon Next is now the "supplier of Last resort" for customers who were still with Symbio when it went under, you will have to start with their customer services (as you probably already have). I presume you actual supply is not with Eon next.

    Peter above says that your credit is protected, but clearly something is wrong because you don't have your money back. It will have been for the Administrators of Symbio to notify Eon next of the appropriate balances. Its also possible that because you will not necessarily have set up an account with Eon Next, they've done little to get your money back to you.

    Eon next don't bear the cost of refunds in these situations as the credit balances paid out by them are recovered from some sort of central fund, which then collects the cash back from all customers with an electricity account via their standing charge.

    I would suggest doing as Peter above suggests giving as much detail as possible.

    give them a couple of weeks and then be ready to make a formal complaint. This isn't a normal situation but Eon Next should be able to sort it within 2 weeks.

    Yours isn't the first non payment of Symbio credit notified to the forum, but the other person had multiple accounts and might have been treated as a trader/business and thus not eligible for the credit.
  • Timscotland's Avatar
    Level 1
    Hi @Timscotland I'm sorry to hear that you've had trouble getting your credit back from your Symbio Energy account.

    Both past and present customers of Symbio when they ceased trading will have their credit protected, so if you didn't receive this back from Symbio (although this seems a little odd as your account would've closed around 4 months before Symbio ceased trading) You'd need to get in touch with our customer services so an Energy Specialist can look into this for you.

    It would be best to get in touch via email or Facebook/Twitter, as what you will also need to do is send a copy of your final bill from Symbio (which will help with your query)

    You can email at hi@eonnext.com - contact details for Facebook and Twitter can be found in my signature below.

    Thanks - Pete 😊


    Thank you Pete I shall follow up once more and see where I get to this time. I should have mentioned that I have had three attempts so far to no avail.


    Thanks again.

    Tim
  • Timscotland's Avatar
    Level 1
    As you can probably guess when someone starts shouting in public I have tried most routes already.

    Three time with Eon (on the phone) 1st time just phobbed off. Second that I would get a call back shortly and the third that there was a special department that deals with my kind of issue and they would be in contact in Feb...

    I also hit the receivers who said that this was part of what Eon was responsible for and I should pursue that route.

    Basically I will try as Pete has suggested and if that fails I'll head for the small claims court and see who wants to play :)

    Thanks for the thoughts,

    Tim
  • meldrewreborn's Avatar
    Level 91
    @Timscotland

    As I said before give the a call and then a couple of weeks. Then make a formal complaint. The small claims court is very much a last resort and is likely to take months if not years to resolve.
  • Mstty's Avatar
    Level 1
    Hi,

    So you left Symbio before Ofgem stepped in to provide the supplier of last resort (Eon Next)

    If this is the case I am not sure you are protected by the SOLR process.

    That doesn't mean you are not protected by another Ofgem process but my first call/email would be to Ofgem to clarify how and who this should be handled by.