Posts under ‘Ofgem’

The Guardian

When will my Shell Energy smart meter become smart again?

A reader’s gas and electricity meters lost connectivity days before the tariff increase

My gas and electricity smart meters became strangely uncommunicative with Shell Energy just days before the 1 April tariff increase.

Shell’s reply to my question about when it expects my smart meters to become smart again seems to suggest there’s a major “industry wide issue” and it is unable to do anything about this. The letter suggests Ofgem is aware of a problem that it is affecting a great many other households. But I don’t remember reading or hearing anything in any news outlet about this. Is this true?
LD, by email read more

“Terrible customer service – I wanted to clarify few items about my bill, but staff doesn’t understand or speak English.”

16 Feb 2022

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

Worst customer service

Worst customer service. Phoned to ask for some assistance and received nothing but rude comments and no help. I used the online complaint form to report but was never contacted so I contacted them and was told they did not have the complaint on file. Repeated the complaint and heard nothing again, have reported to the ombudsman now. Shell did find time to pester me daily for payments including some pushy “credit file will be affected” emails but not to sort their awful customer service. read more

05 Feb 2022

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

On two occasions Shell Energy…

On two occasions Shell Energy threatened my wife and myself with legal action and instructed a debt collection agency to contact us. But guess what? On both occasions we had already paid the bill.

Not happy to put up with this sort of despicable attitude, we approached Ombudsman Services and filed a complaint against Shell Energy. After some time investigating the matter, Ombudsman Services upheld our case. Shell Energy had to provide a written apology for the substandard service, and hey, guess what – they offered to make us a payment of £30 for the worry and distress they had caused – but not as a direct payment , only as an applied credit to our account with them! Ombudsman Services stepped in again and instructed them to make the payment direct to us, and not as an applied credit to the account. This they had to do. Shell Energy’s profits in 2021 were £14BILLION and all they offered by way of a gesture was £30. What do you think of that? I’ll tell you what I think… Shell Energy is the worst energy provider in the world. Thankfully, our contract with them ends soon, and we’ll be glad to see the back of them! Good riddance to absolute bad rubbish. JDP & EJP read more

15 Jan 2022

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

Shell Energy have not got a clue!

Shell Energy have not got a clue! Apart from overcharging their customer service dept is horrendous! They overcharged us…then reimbursed us…then demanded the money again!! Absolute clowns. Do not sign up to Shell Energy peoples!!! Stick with British Gas.

A shower of cluelessness

I needed to upgrade my main fuse and was told by my network supplier that my energy company (Shell) should’ve upgraded the tails when they installed my smart meter. As they hadn’t, I rang to try and arrange them to be changed. After being on hold for 15 minutes I spoke to the first operator who seemed clueless as to what I was asking and transferred me to EV tariff team who (unsurprisingly and after a further hold) also didn’t know what I needed. They passed me back to customer services who (after another 20 minutes on hold) again seemed confused and gave me a phone number for the smart meter installers. I rang them who said any appointment needed to be organised by Shell and referred to them! Nobody but Shell is allowed to touch the meter tails so I’m completely stuck because of their cluelessness. read more

07 Jan 2022

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

Not even worth one star

The worst I’ve ever seen. Wifi drops and won’t reconnect for up to an hour (so far) no matter what I do, you have to stand next to the router for a strong connection, calls made with wifi drop randomly and either don’t reconnect or reconnect and are then patchy and bad quality and you can’t use it for games or calls if another person in the house is doing the same. Absolutely terrible company and I’d advise anyone who’s thinking about getting with them to look literally anywhere else. read more

13 Dec 2021

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

I am becoming ill with the effects of this terrible broadband provider

Please, please don’t sign up for shell energy broadband. It is the most unreliable broadband I have ever used. It’s goes down ever day, and I have lost so much work and time doing rework on the internet that it is stressing me out. We have had 8mths of this nightmare and I don’t think I can take anymore. I have to find another provider no matter how much it costs. I just can’t cope anymore read more

4 Dec 2021

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

customer services is non existent

customer services is non existent never answer the phone or email

STAY FAR AWAY FROM SHELL!!!!

Honestly, if you’re not looking to feed their greed, avoid them! They will use their knowlege and expertise to generate massive final bills and you will get no option to opt out as they can take you to court and cause a CCJ on your name etc.

Dissatisfied with customer service read more

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

27 Oct 2021

Sorry to say

Sorry to say, the broadband is really, really bad. Keeps dropping out have to keep re entering password, locked into a contract.

AVOID AVOID AVOID do not use this…

AVOID AVOID AVOID do not use this company to supply your broadband, we got up this morning to find that we had no broadband service. Having spent around 2 hours on the phone to Shell Broadband to try and get to the bottom of the problem. They say that we have been switched to a new supplier, when I asked who had authorised this switch they couldn’t give me an answer. It certainly wasn’t us…..Furthermore they have also informed us that we will now have to wait for 2 weeks to be reconnected. We have not received any communication from them with regards to this spurious disconnection.
We have the receipt for our account which has been maintained throughout the contact. As we are working from home we now find that we have no broadband access, when I asked for compensation for mobile data, I was told that I would have to fund the extra cost, and that they would look at this disconnection at their leisure. Even though mobile data isn’t really a workable option. We have been given the two fingered salute by this completely incompetent broadband provider.
When will Ofcom start to do the job that they are meant to be doing and dealing with these companies in a robust manner.
I asked to speak with a manager regarding this disconnection and was informed that I will receive a call back within 24 hours. Meanwhile we intend to switch supplier. But it would appear that they are all cowboys. Where are OFCOM.I will keep this post updated. read more

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

27 Oct 2021

These reviews must be fake

These reviews must be fake, I was told last week that it would be 48 hours to get a phonecall regarding getting a smart meter install, I’ve not heard anything. I’m unable to complete a booking online and I have not had a phonecall like promised.

May change my review rating once I get a good service, not off to a good start.

Update: now changed to a 1 star review! Horrendous customer service! Still no call so I phoned and the agent creates a ticket for me, I got an email reply from the smart meter team asking me a load of questions wanting to know what time I set my alarm in the morning, what have I got for my lunch, how many times do I brush my teeth, etc. read more

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

14 October 2021

Cowboys

Cowboys. After 2 years of issues with Shell Energy, Abdullah (head of Executive Complaints) decided there would be no support offered to fix the tariff issued they’ve caused, despite acknowledging the fact that there caused them. His direct report, Aziz exact words were ‘Sorry, its just we’re going through a crisis at the minute so we cant do anything for you… read more

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

10 Oct 2021

Absolute hell to get in touch with

Absolute hell to get in touch with. Virtual Assistant is a waste of time and energy. I am already sorry I transfered to them. When I finally got through the lady was very pleasant and helpful.

Not trueful

I have just changed to Shell through one of their agents who came to my house to discuss terms and conditions. The agent was very polite and pleasant and felt he was treating me fairly. He offered me £50 credit on my bill as a referral from my son, who has also just joined Shell, and £50 to my son. He also said my first payment would be one month after joining Shell. Both offers are untrue. When calling Shell they informed me no such offer should be made. I have made a complaint of mis-selling and awaiting the result. I thought this practice had disappeared, but it appears I’m wrong. read more

Information sourced from Trustpilot customer reviews of Shell Energy published 2 days ago. Published here 30 July 2021

“…needless to say I have paid the exit fee and returned to my previous supplier…”

You would believe that a company…

You would believe that a company bearing the name Shell would be reputable,wouldn’t you? Not this one. I swapped supplier from the one which bears the logo of an 8 tentacle sea creature and boy did I make a huge mistake.

My first bill from these people included 82 units of gas which I did not use and despite numerous emails the response I get each time is “the difference in units has to be more than the industry guidelines” (which in this instance is 108 units) before I can dispute the overcharge. They can also overcharge for electricity without recourse!!!!!!! read more

Extracts from Shell Energy customer reviews posted during the past few days on Trustpilot: “I’m a new customer, however the broadband /internet box already stopped working!”: “I get continuous buffering and sometimes I lose Internet connection…”: Expect hidden charges and sneaky fees when your contract ends.”: “DO NOT LET THEM DO TO YOU WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO ME AVOID SHELL ENERGY AT ALL COSTS” 

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. This article was posted on 24 July 2021. read more

Extracts from Shell Energy customer reviews posted during the past few days on Trustpilot: “My advice if you are thinking of switch to Shell DONT! Unhelpful, fraudulent company!”: “Shell Energy will never supply me with gas, electric or anything else in the future!”

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. This article posted on 27 June 2021. read more

I switched over to Shell Broadband Superfast fibre… the worst decision of my life

More extracts from Shell Energy customer reviews posted during the past 48 hours on Trustpilot: “Rubbish broadband. Sometimes I can’t get WiFi in the same room as the router”: “is advertised as fibre but the speeds are really poor. It’s terribly frustrating when you’re working from home.”: “If you want a broadband that only works 50%of the time then go for shell”: completely unreliable. It is slow, buffers and fails to play internet tv.”: “Disaster, the whole experience was a train wreck, surprised they’re still in business!” read more

Extracts from a Shell Energy customer review posted on Trustpilot: “We are never able to get through to the support team quickly I have been waiting to get through for over an hour before and then been cut off. Our service is very slow. We were sold fibre broadband but this hadn’t been switched on…”: “Overall it’s a shocking provider and I would never recommend them to anyone.”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted in the past 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. This article posted on 26 April 2021. read more

Extracts from current Shell Energy customer reviews posted on Trustpilot in the last 24 hours: “Avoid them! Overcharged me and lied but the Ombudsman sorted it. Shell declined to switch me, then continued to overcharge me, lie to me about switching happening and then threatened debt collectors if i didn’t agree to their terrible, high tariff terms. I let the Ombudsman deal with them and won, they now owe me. Terrible company, highly incompetent customer service.”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted in the last 24 hours 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. This article posted on 04 April 2021. read more

Extracts from current Shell Energy customer reviews posted on Trustpilot in the last 24 hours: “They ripped me off”: “I would not recommend company to an enemy”: “Shell, your customers are HUMANS and we want to talk to HUMANS not machines”: “Awful customer service.”: “Good riddance shell”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted in the last 24 hours 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. This article posted on 30 March 2021. read more

• Daniel Jones

• 27 Mar 2021, 22:15

BRITAIN’S biggest energy firms are set for a £1billion windfall as they hike prices for hard-pressed loyal customers from Thursday.

Around ten million families on standard tariffs — many already with money struggles as a result of Covid — face bill rises of almost £100.

It comes after energy regulator Ofgem raised the price cap on standard variable tariffs.

They are the contracts that most people will be on if they have not switched supplier in the past year or so.

The change will increase the charges paid by a typical family on a standard variable tariff by £96, bringing the average bill up to £1,138 per year. read more

Some extracts from current customer comments posted on Trustpilot: “Terrible customer service. Four attempts to discuss overcharged monthly direct debits… Over an hour wait and no help received. Will be canceling account”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted over the past 24 hours 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. This article posted on 04 JAN 2021. read more