Was forced into Shell Energy when Pure Planet folded (they were very good), and Shell have been underwhelming.
Trying to get a meaningful response about a new smart meter failing to communicate 6 months ago followed by an email a week ago saying it’s now working, curiously it’s always managed to report back for each months bill (it’s still not showing on the IHD or website) and now this months bill is failing to show up.
Have they just over extended and cant cope with the demand I wonder?
I think I can still switch to the same energy cap tariff elsewhere, so any recommendations?
ta.
Similarly with shell after green went belly up and I find them less than perfect.
With shell following a house move. No issues except the lacklustre response on the couple of occasions the smart meter has stopped communicating. First was electric and gas, second was gas only. No help either time, essentially ‘sorry we can’t do anything because it’s not communicating with us’. Not too sure that is their problem specifically but they don’t cover themselves in glory with their customer support.
As above no help with the smart meter when it stops communicating. Mine had a firmware update which stopped it from sending data and took a power cut to get it going again.
Shell are looking to exit that part of their business so don't expect great service https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/shell-considers-exiting-uk-german-dutch-energy-retail-businesses-2023-01-26/
I recently moved to Octopus who have been great so far and have some cool features if you are into that e.g. IFTTT.
Try asking around friends/family for a referral link where you can split £100
Generally the same experience, but... They do allow you to manually set your DD and amend this each month which is better than some providers.
She'll from Pure Planet (PP).
Smart meter was installed by PP. H<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">ave to unplug and restart the meter every few days.</span>
we also got moved to shell when PP went bust.
Both our gas & elec smart meters are communicating with shell to send them our usage, but only the gas meter is communicating with the in home display. Tried calling shell , they dont seem to care, or even understand what the issue is, they essentially said tough luck, it might start working at some point.
So now I use the hugo app on my phone to see my elec usage (albeit not in real time, but 24 hours delayed).
Shell are useless.
Interesting other people on Shell are having issues with my smart meters - since installation my IHD has never connected to the meters, thought the meters themselves seem to send data to Shell perfectly OK. I also got a 'known issue with no predicted fix date" when I contacted them.
PP > Shell, same here.
It's an odd question really, you only ever have to deal with utility companies when something goes wrong. I press a button (or tell Alexa) and the lights come on. I can't say as the gas hob is a particularly pleasing shade of blue since being switched. The only thing that changes is the masthead on the bills and whether the impenetrable accent on the support desk is Bangladeshi or Glaswegian.
Like others (there seems to be something of a pattern here) I received an email from Shell saying they'd lost contact with the smart meter and I would have to start submitting manual readings. I replied suggesting the somewhat radical alternative of them fixing it. It started working again a couple of weeks later.
In short, Yes.
I helped my dad though an issue with them last year. He moved to them because they quoted him a fixed price tariff that was a very good deal. Then the next price update his prices went up...
Naturally he complained as he signed up for a fixed price tariff. After many weeks of back and forth where they denied any wrongdoing we managed to get an actual transcript of the sales call. Sure enough, they language during the sale flicked from 'fixed price' to 'fixed term tracker' about 2/3 of the way through the sale. Total increase in money my dad would have to pay as a result of their deciet - just over £1.3k. Their offer of 'compensation' was £50. Which when pointing out how much out of pocket he was after this increased to £120.
One offgem complaint later and the reward was increased quite a bit (but still not taking into account the amonut my dad was out of pocket).
What Shell ended up doing following the ofgem ruling was still wrong.
We're with Eon. When our smart meter stopped working for the gas it helpfully stopped the flow of gas. Phoned up Eon, had a gas engineer round in the morning to check the street side, which was fine. Eon around later that day to replace the meter.
This was around September last year.
Hmm, also Pure Planet - Shell. I haven't got a smart meter, don't see the point, so the only thing I find crap about them is they insist you use an app and when you open it it just opens the website. Apart from that, meh.
I tried to switch using one of the switch websites a little while ago and it said something like, there are no switch options at this time. So I lost interest.
My frustration was when getting a refund if the credit on my account. The credit was utterly draft as previous provider, green, had been fine are getting it back and a few months before going belly up they did a thing where any additional credit top ups they gave an extra 10% credit for..I kicked the **** out of that some what. Anyhow when it came to getting the credit beck from shell it took me over 2 months, a threat of ofgem complaint and a request to come off direct debit, but I did at least finally get it. Oh and their customer line seems to have a fault. Five times at least in that saga the handler tried to call me to check I was happy but the call would cut off when I tried to connect, so I had no option but to spend an hour in the call queue if I wanted to speak to them. Poor . Think I might get on and transfer myself! Hint, if anyone has a referral and wants to make some money....
Shell Energy have been perfectly acceptable here for the last 5 years or so. We are on a pretty cheap, fixed price dual-fuel deal.
Main difference - I refused a 'smart meter' installation. I take a manual meter reading once a month and submit that via the App on my phone. It all seems to work perfectly well and I've had no need to contact them.
My experience is the same as @JAG : no smart meter, monthly reading submissions, all works well with Shell...
Like others (there seems to be something of a pattern here) I received an email from Shell saying they’d lost contact with the smart meter and I would have to start submitting manual readings. I replied suggesting the somewhat radical alternative of them fixing it. It started working again a couple of weeks later.
@Cougar just out of interest do you have the dates the contact was lost? I had an email on 5th December telling me contact had been lost and another on December 20th saying it had reconnected.
My first experience of shell energy was the backdated demand (and well past the backdating limit it was too) for about £1500.
The eventual amount they received from me was £0.
They were essentially trying to charge us for next doors electric use. Backdated by around 3 years. Their basic position was "we're right, you're wrong, pay us money, or else we send the bailiffs."
They're utter shysters.
Oh yeah, that's a point.
I checked my account the other day as the direct debit kept going up and the numbers didn't feel right. I went through the 'please refund my balance' process - bearing in mind I've only been with Shell since everyone went pop at once maybe 18 months ago - and it was about £1200 of my money that they were sitting on.
@Cougar just out of interest do you have the dates the contact was lost? I had an email on 5th December telling me contact had been lost and another on December 20th saying it had reconnected.
Probably. Let me check.
... guess what?
Email on the 5th of December saying lost contact, another on the 21st saying they were receiving data again.
Shell were utterly incompetent in dealing with our request.
We needed a specific meter setup, admittedly somewhat unusual, and it took them 4 months of weekly phone calls to not deliver anything at all, with me doing all the legwork and learning far more than I wanted to about the process.
Every contact was met with "That request will take 10 days" and reset the wait, before they repeated their previous reply, warranting a challenge that guess what, took another 10 days.
All they wanted to do was book a smart meter replacement - we could not have a like for like meter so this was useless. In the end we had action within a few days of me raising an official complaint which included timestamps of all my requests and their failure to deliver, with a 24 warning of escalation to the ombudsman.
Looking to move to Octopus when we can!
Pure Planet to Shell here.
No smart meter; the tech works fine for submitting readings, etc.
I feel for anyone with issues, it's always a nightmare having to deal with big providers of anything.
That's the crux really, save costs by keeping customer service staff numbers low and paying them little. It takes an age to get to speak to someone and they likely haven't been there long and aren't perfectly clued up on the processes, so just when the customer needs help it's really hard to get it!
They've been fine for me over the last 4 years or so but going from the experiences above that's because I've been lucky enough to have nothing go wrong and so far I've declined to have a smart meter.
Email on the 5th of December saying lost contact, another on the 21st saying they were receiving data again.
Thanks for checking. Sounds like the problem was at their end and not with the meter which is good to know.
Aye. Or more likely some ephemeral middleman which means they can shrug it off.
I attempted to reduce my Dads DD to something acceptable after they were asking for £600 pm , when I tried it they said be aware you will be in debt and it’ll be your fault. At the time he was sat on £500 credit.
I wanted to switch into meter readings only and hit the button to do that, last two months they’ve charged him £640. Every time I contact them I wait 10 days for a response.
went onto shell from first utility who were never a problem.
Green to Shell. Shell have been trying to strong arm me into getting a smart meter for a good few months now. Each time they get told where to go. They even contracted an external consultancy to try and force me into it. They got short shrift too but the emails & texts started up again imploring me to book a smart meter fitment as my old, perfectly functioning, meter 'requires' to be replaced. I send my readings and pay by DD every month, so their only motive for coercing me into a smart meter is power and control as they can't currently cut me off remotely. They and their obscene profits can do one.
Hearing good things about Octopus. Anyone switched to them?
Right, so I’m not alone then. And more importantly, I’m moving.
As all the tariffs are the same currently, its customer service that wins
I don't want to be fighting Shells sub standard customer service should something go wrong.
Who’s good to move too on that front?
@shinton - thanks for that link, interesting reading and would explain any lack of investment despite the propping up claim in the article.
Octopus is looking good so far.
Well according to citizens advice, EDF rank best on customer service, octopus 5th and shell not in the top 20
Well I pulled the pin on a Octopus switch 1830 on Sunday and due to be transitioned Wednesday.
Website is easy to use, really straight forward email. I am moderately optimistic at this stage.
Will be interesting to see if the move kick starts the proper insight smart meter readings as apposed to just the end of month bill readings, but not that bothered if they don’t.
Just for balance I've been with Shell since Green energy went bust (whenever that was) and I've not really had any issues with Shell. Since then I've had solar panels fitted and wanted to switch to Octopus which is now possible again. I made the leap on the 4th Feb which has been pretty flawless to be honest (other than gas meter not sending smart readings or Octopus not getting smart readings). I've even managed to get my refund through, so I can't really complain about the service from Shell.
