Add your feedback on energy supplier Shell Energy (formerly First Utility)

malbro

Moved to FU in November 2013 and so far account is running fine with a reduction in the direct debit after four months. After NPower and Scottish Power this is a breath of fresh air, I am still getting emails from ScottishPower regarding a complaint I made over six months ago telling me they are looking into it, as if !!!

gatita

Glenn, I also have a switch date of 4th September........ I am keeping everything crossed that the change over is smooth! I have given in my meter readings to F.U. have tried to do the same with Scottish Power.......... surprise surprise I cannot give a meter read, message I get is:" forbidden error 404". I have calculated I owe them very little if anything at all, so I have stopped my direct debit. They can send me bill.
I have had so many problems with S.P. that I will be glad to leave them.

I have to say I only changed to F.U. because of the price, but am trembling at the thought of possible problems ahead as they have a terrible reputation.
I will report back good or bad!
Glenn, let me know how you get on ok?

POLAR_BILL

gatita wrote: »

Glenn, I also have a switch date of 4th September........ I am keeping everything crossed that the change over is smooth! I have given in my meter readings to F.U. have tried to do the same with Scottish Power.......... surprise surprise I cannot give a meter read, message I get is:" forbidden error 404". I have calculated I owe them very little if anything at all, so I have stopped my direct debit. They can send me bill.
I have had so many problems with S.P. that I will be glad to leave them.

I have to say I only changed to F.U. because of the price, but am trembling at the thought of possible problems ahead as they have a terrible reputation.
I will report back good or bad!
Glenn, let me know how you get on ok?

I too had forbidden error 404. I had also cancelled my direct debit after they took £90 a day before my transfer to FU leaving me in credit almost £300. Set up with FU in less than 6 weeks and elected to pay by variable direct debit. They say an e-mail will be sent when they require meter readings. So far, so good.

gatita

Polarbear and Glenn.............Have just looked again in my account with F.U. tonight, and it seems to be going according to what they said! am still keeping everything crossed,
will let you know if I actually change on the 4th, likewise it would be good to hear how you get on.

mopots

Scott44 wrote: »

Has anyone been notified they have a major issue with billing?I haven't had a bill since May,despite logging monthly readings.'we have no definite resolution date to the issue at this time' was there last reply and attempted to calculate my bill manually but its not the correct tarriff.

Yes I had a problem from May, they changed to a new date for running bills. It is now sorted, had 2 months on one bill and August ok. They now want to up my DD by £16 a month as I might owe them £54 by Feb next year!!! Only other issue I had was last year when I changed bank accounts and they couldn't get the DD set up so took about 7 months so owed them over 1k. Had to change to fixed DD instead of variable so have lost my nice cheque in February now. It does take a while to get through on the phone but at least it's not a 0845 or more expensive rate. They vary regarding email, either reply quickly or not at all!!

DAC1977

These are a nightmare of a company, don't switch!!!! I have been with them for a couple of years and even though I am locked in I have had enough and I am going. Just to let you know how bad they are, I'm willing to pay £60 to go!!!

1. Not long after you join they will want to put your direct debit up. Explained that I didn't need to, they said I did, so compromised and after 1st year they owed me! Took over a month to get that back.
2.Start of second year for no reason they stopped taking my direct debit and I only noticed after three months by which time I owed them over £200.
3. Not long after that wanted to put my direct debit up, told them I didn't need to and they put it up anyway without my permission. Spend hours trying to get through, which eventually did and explained that I was well in credit, but they said I needed to build up a surplus for the winter months. Explained that they had already refunded me at the end of last year and as the tariff was the same and not increasing it was very unlikely that my direct debit wouldn't cover the bill seeing as they refunded me. Eventually they lowered my direct debit again.
4. Today I have checked my account and realised that they haven't been taking my direct debit AGAIN! My last payment taken was February. They have taken payments in April of £150 showing as credit card but I have no knowledge of these. No one has contacted me to see why I have not made a payment (they have my email, home number, mobile number and obviously address as I had to confirm them all through security). Now I have a bull for over £300!!! Ok so knowing what they are like I should be checking my account more often, but the direct debit is fine, they have all the details and yet they haven't been taking the money.
Spent 35 minutes on the phone waiting to speak to someone, they confirm everything is in place and they have all my details! They then say they will put me through to someone in the credit control office to sort the matter out. I get put through to a voicemail AARRRRRGGGGH. Needless to say, I certainly left a message. Please for your own sanity, to save yourself time and money making phone calls and to make sure you don't end up like me with a massive bill, AVOID THESE COWBOYS!

gatita

Well knock me down with a feather, as they informed me the switch over
happened today! I honestly can't believe it. Fingers crossed it continues to run smoothly.

MSSS

Dear All

Simple...avoid like the plague. Terrible company, terrible customer service.

Little_Wren

I've just discovered that the £42 I was expecting from Topcashback.com for switching to First Utility has been declined. I switched partly because of this cash back and I can't find out why I was declined. I've never been a First Utility customer before, I switched both fuels, I've started paying direct debits to them!
How many other people don't get the cash back they expect?

POLAR_BILL

I changed to 1st utility through the cheap energy club and had an e-mail this week to say my £30 cash back should be in my account in 2 weeks.