Absolutely atrocious customer service from Shell Energy

“Absolutely atrocious customer service.”:

” …no reply to any emails, phone line disconnects and I haven’t received anything in writing in the post! Awful company.”

25 June 2022

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.

Useless customer service

Absolutely atrocious customer service. I was switched by force due to Ofgem price cap and Pure Planet going bust. I couldn’t get a bill off this useless company for almost six months, despite having a smart meter. Then I got two within a short period of time totalling over £700 where normally I would pay less than half of that. They didn’t get meter readings for three and a half months and imposed a daily average calculated on my usage during the coldest months of the year. Absolute b*ll*nds!

Worst company

I was with goto energy which went bust. I was in the records of moving house so my account was transferred to shell energy for approximately 2 weeks before I moved. Credit balance of over 230 pounds. 5 months of chasing shell for a refund and leaving emails, eventually I had to go to the ombudsman. I had the money paid. Now 2 months later I’m receiving threatening texts from shell demanding payment or my credit file will be impacted. Obviously no reply to any emails, phone line disconnects and I haven’t received anything in writing in the post! Awful company

Absolutely terrible to deal and could effect your credit score!

Absolutely ridiculous to deal with, unfortunately I was moved to Shell Energy when Green went into liquidation and I have had nothing but problems since. Shell arranged removal of an obsolete/disconnected gas meter that they were charging a daily standard charge on at the start of April, despite three phone calls and an email they carried on charging the daily rate of £ .52p per day even though the meter no longer existed. At the end of my tether I took action when the May bill was due for payment by deducting the standard charge for the gas meter from the bill and paid the remainder owing. This still left Shell owing me a small amount for the days I had already paid for after the gas meter was removed from the April bill and a discrepancy on the electricity meter readings that has been on going since the 31st of March.

Today, I had a notification from Experian that Shell energy had put a none payment mark against my perfect 999 credit score dropping it by 78 points for the £8 that I deducted from the £238 bill!

I just want to make other potential and existing customers aware that if you want any sort of service or to feel like a valued customer this is not the company to deal with and if you have an on going dispute with them it could end up adversely effecting your future financial situation if you don’t meet their demands!

Obviously my situation will end up in me taking litigation action and departing from this dismal energy company!

Appalling service and Agents who bend…

Appalling service and Agents who bend the truth
I was transferred to Shell after my previous energy company went bust. Around the same time as I was transferred to Shell, Octopus Energy erroneously transferred my gas supply to them. There are rules and regulations they need to adhere to in terms of timescales to reinstate the supply (apart from having the deal with the Company who took the supplyy without my knowledge and permission) which they not only failed but bent the truth to factor in these timescales which I then found out were not true. Loads of emails, phone calls and wasted time later, they offered me compensation – this was a phone call followed up with an email, I asked for the compensation in the form of a cheque (the other option was adding it to my account – I don’t want them to have any more money than my direct debit). When this did not arrive, I emailed again only to be told they do not offer cheques and have added this to my account. I told them to refer to the phone call (they claim all calls are recorded) and the email from one of their Agents but they ignored all of this and sent a deadlock letter because they are clearly not capable of investigating a proper complaint where they are at fault and have been royally caught out. I have sent a report to the Ombudsman but looking at their rating/track record (and reviews) for efficiency and overall conduct it could take forever to get a response let alone a positive one. This is the worst utility supplier I have had the misfortune to have dealt with in terms of asking me for a review after (allegedly) lying to me and then telling me one thing and making an offer they then rescinded on. Bearing in mind the profits they are racking up which has been in the news, they should invest in training their Agents to be more on the ball, not fib about things to fit their own agenda and provide what they offer.

Not so smart meter – 2

So, on 16 June, I posted a review here complaining about my ‘smart’ gas meter that had stopped being so smart. Sara from Shell Energy replied, ‘I’m happy to confirm I’ve now asked a member of the relevant team to contact you as soon as possible to resolve this with you’.

Here’s the update from more than a week later:

No contact as a result of Sara’ efforts.

Entirety of response to my direct complaint to Shell: ‘If you have any more questions (sic), do take a look at our online Help Centre. There’s lots of useful information to answer your queries, from managing your account to understanding your bill and more. All without having to contact us. You can find all our articles on our website, under Help’. Obviously, the Shell Energy Team member (no name) just couldn’t be bothered even to go through the motions of a reply.

Next contact from Shell, 20 June, ‘It’s time to submit your meter reading. To make sure you’re billed to your actual energy usage, give us a meter reading before Friday 24 June.’ Shell adds the helpful advice, ‘Say goodbye to manual readings. By upgrading to smart meters, you’ll never have to send us a reading again and your bills will always be based on your actual energy usage. You can upgrade free of charge and book for a day and time that works for you. To register your interest and book an appointment click here.’ It’s as if my smart meter installation of 12 May happened only in my dreams, except:

Today, 24 June, when I tried to submit my gas reading online, I was told, ‘You have a Smart Meter in your home which sends us your meter readings automatically. You can view the information that your Smart Meter is sending on your usage graphs here.’

Being a Shell Energy customer really is like living in some sort of parallel universe. It seems my gas smart meter is a bit like Schrodinger’s cat: It’s working and not working at the same time. Time, I think, to say goodbye to Shell and try to get back to some sort of reality.

The above are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted during the last few days on Trustpilot.  Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. Shell Plc CEO Ben Van Beurden openly admitted at the Shell AGM held in London on 23 May 2022 that all is not well at Shell Energy. 

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