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

jonny2510

The service from First Utility is awful. By far the worst of any of the utility providers I've ever had to deal with.

It's now been over 3 months since we sold our house, and we're still awaiting our final bill, despite submitting closing meter readings on the day we sold the house.

Call centre staff seem clueless, and give incorrect information. When trying to make a complaint, they avoid escalating to provide a complaint reference at all costs. When (if) you are finally lucky enough to get a reference, the team who deal with complaints are next to useless, promising call backs which never appear, final bills which never appear, and email confirmations, which you guessed it, never appear!

(They also tried increasing our monthly direct debit to £100 per month, for an empty house with no gas or electricity use, with an account that was (and always had been) in credit - but that's another story!)

scaredofdebt

I was with EDF before FU and was paying £85 a month for gas an electric, according to USwitch the fixed deal with FU would be around £30 a year more but it was fixed so I changed.

When I left EDF I was £200 in credit had been with them for 18 months.

I've now been with FU for a year but I am apparently in debt to them by £500!

I've checked the bills and they see to be correct, I've been paying the same as I did with EDF so not quite sure what's gone wrong, I know the winter was a bad one but it still seems excessive, I'll have to go through the bills with a fine tooth comb.

In future I will be manually working out figures using unit rates etc as not sure if I can trust uSwitch in future, or maybe it's the utility company.

(I've been paying the same DD amount with FU since I joined but recently increased it to pay off some of the debt before winter hits)

Usage is broadly the same, we've actually had a new combi boiler fitted that is supposed to be more efficient as well.

troubrs

I moved to First Utility just over a year ago & had very few problems. I monitor my usage a lot more closely than I used to and noticed that they were somewhat overcharging me in terms of the amount of my direct debit (yes I know I'd get this back if I'd overpaid anyway) so I reduced my direct debit online to 'use up' the surplus payments - no problem. I've just decided to stay with them this time as for a longer fix (2 winters vs 1) the cost is around £2/month more than the cheapest provider I could find. The customer services lady was very helpful and has amended my DD to the amount I think it should now be. I think FU are fine if you monitor your usage & manage your DD, they are a bit inclined to increase it by more than they need to, that's the only issue I've had! So overall happy face here

Patcrocus

Moved to FU a couple of years ago. There were a few teething problems but these were easily sorted by customer services. It's a simple process to send meter readings each month and the exact amount of fuel used is paid for two weeks later.

soulsaver

Atrocious - Their DD failed in July - only knew after I got a red letter from them threathening to stop supply. They say the DD was returned from my Halifax a/c.
I pointed that I wasn't now with Halifax and they had taken the June payment form my Santander ac where the DD was still in existence.
'Ah... ' they said - 'pay by debit card and we'll take the next DD from the right ac .. but need a new DD.'
So... they've then failed to produce bills for August & September.. I emailed them 20 Sep to say where are the so called 'monthly' bills?
Got the 'We're doin a new billing date change...' email reply rubbish.

Now the bills are available on line dated August(????) but clearly issued after Sept 23th (date of their reply).

No DD taken August or September. Clare in CS today (after a 20 mins wait (on hands free)) '...don't know what's happened....' 'will get back...' 'will need to talk to finance..' 'cant do it now...'No, You can't talk to finance' '...no cant tell you when it will be sorted out' '...cant promise to ring back today....' blah blah blah

Chuffin' rubbish. I hadn't noticed the August missing DD so,now I feel nearly £300 worse off than I thought. AND I'm missing my cash-back in the 123 a/c.:mad:

jaybeetoo

soulsaver wrote: »

Got the 'We're doin a new billing date change...' email reply rubbish.s

They changed the billing dates in August without giving notice so the volume of calls and emails to their help desk increased dramatically. If they had given people plenty of warning with an explanation of what was being done, why it was happening and when it would happen, they would have avoided a lot of grief.

I do find if you use the contact form on their web site they do eventually respond and I've had a couple of issues resolved this way. It can take a few days for them to reply especially if they are very busy.

TangoGolf

I am interested in taking advantage of FU Fixed May 2015 package because it seems cheapest for me. I will be coming from British Gas. With BG I pay by DD every month just for the energy I use by sending them a meter reading every month and then they email me an accurate bill and a week or so later take the exact money by DD. Can anyone just let me know if FU offer exactly the same set up--I don't really want to go down the fixed DD route based on a yearly estimate of what I may or may not use. Thanks to anyone in advance.

eekiedee

Hi
I was thinking of switching to FU but the comments here have put me off. :T

VillanUK

Its a shame they don't have someone from FU on these forums to offer help, im sure they read them.

From what I have read I have decided against using them, so thank you to all the posters for valuable feed back.

FU if your reading * cough * Why not see if you can get someone on these forums to help your reputation and help customers

carlaj

I've been with First Utility for a year now on their isave v3 tariff, and its all gone smoothly. Its been consistently the cheapest tariff I could be on all through this year.
You have to submit your meter readings at the end of each month online and then you get a bill for actual usage which is debited a couple of weeks later. Different to most suppliers who usually estimate a fixed direct debit amount and then you have to make sure this is realistic or you build up big deficits or credits. In my previous experience other companies over-estimate your usage so you end up in credit with a battle to get the money back if you want to switch. No such problem with first utility, you pay for what you use each month. I suppose this is harder if you aren't good at budgeting for bigger bills in winter.
They have a simple tariff with daily standing charge and unit charge, no discounts or tiered tariffs. You operate the account online, I've not had to contact their customer services at all.
My tariff is about to end and I'm comparing for a new fix. I'd like to stay with first utility but it depends what's on offer in December for a 18-24 months fix.