Symbio Energy receives warning from Trustpilot over ‘threatening’ response to negative reviews and Ofgem confirms £100,000 fine
Symbio Energy has landed itself in hot water with the review website Trustpilot for the way it responds to negative reviews about its customer service and energy billing.
How not to react to bad feedback as an Energy Supplier
The issue was brought to Trustpilot’s attention by MoneySavingExpert.com who had received complaints from Symbio customers on its forums about the way the energy supplier was reacting to their negative reviews.
Angry customers regularly complain about poor customer service or other issues from whatever company has earned their ire but, in this case, Symbio energy has resorted to responding to complaints by accusing complainants of cyberbullying and putting a link to a BBC news story posted in February where a man was sued by a legal firm for posting a negative review.
Most of the complaints revolve around energy billing issues with many claiming that customer meter readings were ignored in favour of higher estimated readings instead. Complaints about poor customer service are also common.
A Trustpilot spokesperson said: "We expect everyone to be a respectful contributor to our platform. Amongst other things, our guidelines for consumers and businesses require everyone to 'play nice'. Where consumers or businesses act in a way that is threatening or is perceived to be so, we treat this as a breach of our guidelines and take steps to put a stop to it.
"In this instance, we have taken swift action, sending a formal cease and desist letter to the business demanding that all responses contravening our guidelines be quickly amended. As we investigate the business's profile further, we have also placed a consumer alert to warn every one of our latest actions. Should a positive response from the business not be forthcoming in the next week, we will take further action."
Also read: Covid-19 has changed the relationship between Energy Suppliers and their customers forever
Excuses?
According to MoneySavingExpert.com, Symbio Energy initially said that it was company policy not to respond to Trustpilot reviews, however after being challenged it then claimed it was the victim of ‘corporate cyberbullying’ and that many of the reviews are not from ‘genuine’ customers.
A Symbio spokesperson said: "The amount of calls we receive where customers seek to leverage bills, discounts and evade liabilities by threatening poor reviews or complaints [sic]. There is a published complaints route for [complaints, such as] the ombudsman’s, litigation and [energy regulator] Ofgem. Cyber trolling is not in our opinion a socially acceptable route."
It also blamed the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for its customer service failings as much of that is handled from an office in Goa, India.
This is not the first time Symbio Energy has reacted to criticism in a negative way. In March, the company lashed out at the energy regulator for threatening to fine it £100,000 for late renewable obligations payments. In response the company accused Ofgem of being institutionally racist and of abusing its power.
On May 5th, Ofgem decided to confirm its proposal to impose a financial penalty of £100,000 on Symbio Energy Limited (“Symbio”) for its failure to comply with Standard Licence Condition 33 of the Electricity Supply Licence. How Symbio will react to this remains to be seen.
Also read: Symbio Energy accuses Ofgem of abusing its powers
How an Energy Supplier should react
Receiving a negative review for your services is tough to take sometimes, especially if you’ve taken action and made investments to improve.
However, a customer has every right to leave negative reviews and provide criticism if they feel aggrieved and a company has not delivered good customer service.
Also read: How to Improve Consumer Trust in Energy Suppliers?
Further Reading
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