Shell energy broadband - any feedback from recent joiners ?

MSE_Chris

Norman_Castle said:

"We've asked Shell Energy about this £15 cease charge and it's agreed to waive it for all switches made through MSE that came with this £75 bill credit offer. This means you won't be charged £15 should you wish to switch after the min 12 months has elapsed.
I hope this helps reassure you and other users who questioned this charge.

MSE Chris"

Is this £15 cease charge waived for the current £100 bill credit offer?

I'm with plusnet adsl and currently use a talk talk super router hg635, if I switch to Shell fibre can I continue to use the same router?

Hi Norman,
Just to reassure you that it's for any Shell Broadband offer that's taken up through MSE. Shell Energy was due to amend its T&C's to include this but unfortunately, it's had to take a back seat given the recent circumstances. It's reassured again this week that it still applies and that any MSE customer will not be charged a cease charge if they choose to leave Shell Broadband after their contract ends.

On the router front, providers can sometimes ask for their equipment back but you might want to check with TalkTalk to avoid any additional charges but they may have relaxed this given the circumstances but as always, it's best to check:
https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/Returning-your-TalkTalk-equipment/ta-p/2348381

Rob_Wills

@MSE_Chris Has any consideration been given to this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfair_Contract_Terms_Act_1977 - in relation to the "£15 cease charge" or any other conditions in ANY contract with an ISP?  
The logic to me is that the £15 cease charge is a breach of the act especially as it was not prominent when starting the supply from Shell Energy.
From my experience of other ISPs, especially @BT companies, they fail to fulfil the agreed contract EVERY time there is a cessation of service during the contract due to their failings such as trying to cut power on an individual line causing a loss of service. 
Stronger consumer protection is needed as the @ombudsman is funded by BT.

CoastingHatbox

Norman_Castle said:

I'm with plusnet adsl and currently use a talk talk super router hg635, if I switch to Shell fibre can I continue to use the same router?

As it is a vDSL router, it is highly likely that you can.

CoastingHatbox

Today was my 'Go live date' with Shell Energy Broadband, for my second Internet connection. Deal blagged through MSE. The current provider for this line is Plusnet.
The expectation Shell Energy set was that the switch over would happen any time up until midnight, and that tomorrow I should plug in the router they have provided.
So far, the reality has not quite lived up to the set expectations.

• 14:00: Plusnet aDSL goes off-line.
• 16:30: Automated email from Plusnet: "Home Phone - Cancellation stopped", "Thanks for deciding to stay with Plusnet."16:45: I phoned Plusnet's customer service (customer services not taking calls, so I worked my way through the IVR as a customer thinking about leaving). I was advised that the order had been cancelled by the new provider.
• 16:55: I finally find a phone number for Shell Energy and I am advised that no cancellation order has been issued. The switch over looks to be fine insofar as they can tell.
• 18:30: I finally get the HG612 vDSL modem configured (I bricked it, spent nearly 90 minutes unbricking it) and plugged in. Most of the alerts in my monitoring disappear. I update my firewall to push my laptop over the vDSL, lo and behold I have internet. A traceroute confirms a new set of IP addresses on each hop. I check some of those IPs and they belong to TalkTalk. Shell Energy (formerly First Utility) are re-selling TalkTalk.
• 18:45: Speed tests confirm 37.3 Mb/s download and 5.7 Mb/s upload. That's definitely vDSL, although the upload speed could be better. Ping times don't look too bad.
• 19:00: I dial 150 from the phone and receive a recorded message to the effect I don't have a current provider and that I should try again when the switch over is complete.
• 19:45: I call Plusnet, with a concern about getting double-billed and that perhaps the broadband has been switched, but the line itself is "stuck". Plusnet confirm that the transfer both broadband and phoneline have been cancelled by the new provider. The customer service representative confirms that she is baffled by what is happening. She said that she would add a note to the account and advised me to call them back when the phone line looks to be transferred (or not).

I really must say, the customer service I have received from both providers has actually been really good. It's clear the systems they use are somewhat abstracted from reality. I'm obviously a little concerned about what is going on, particularly the remark made at one point that the transfer has been stopped and any subsequent transfer will be subject to 14 days notice.

Other things to note:

• No problems using the service with an "unlocked" HG615 modem and pfSense. The only settings to tweak on the modem are the network settings. The actual vDSL configuration works with the defaults. Bricking it was totally my own fault.
• Setting up the Shell Energy Broadband account - 8 character maximum password length. That's abysmal.

I'll post an update when the situation gets properly resolved.

CoastingHatbox

The Shell Energy vDSL service stopped working just after 2am this morning. The phone line, when picking up the receiver, emits a busy tone. A call to Shell Energy confirmed the outcome of the switch over was 'validation failed'. They are going to re-submit the order which means that the switch over should go ahead in around 14 days time. They suggest in the meantime my service with the old provider should continue. So far that doesn't seem to be the case.

Rob_Wills

Knowing @Plusnet as I do @BT have probably ordered them to cause as many problems as possible for customers in order to keep them on account.  I hope you have cancelled your DD as that will make them solve problems quickly;  you are due a lot of compensation.

CoastingHatbox

CoastingHatbox said:

The Shell Energy vDSL service stopped working just after 2am this morning. The phone line, when picking up the receiver, emits a busy tone. A call to Shell Energy confirmed the outcome of the switch over was 'validation failed'. They are going to re-submit the order which means that the switch over should go ahead in around 14 days time. They suggest in the meantime my service with the old provider should continue. So far that doesn't seem to be the case.

I've just logged into the Shell Energy Broadband portal to be greeted with the message:
"You cancelled your Superfast Fibre broadband (12) order. We hope you consider us again in the future."
Plusnet have logged a fault with their supplier:
"Test Result: Fail - Fault located at exchange (Openreach side of MDF)
Description: FAULT - Dis in exchange"
I get the feeling, if the order is resubmitted with Shell Energy, I'm going to have to take them on in order to get the original MSE discount/incentive.

All in all, very frustrating. Online information about the actual mechanics of the switchover seems difficult to come by. I know the process is called GPL-NoT+ (Gaining Provider Lead - Notification of Transfer, circa 2015/6) and the system used for handling the transfer between communications providers is called 'DCC'. I don't know whether that's a system as in computer system or system as in process. As far as I understand, 'validation' is done fairly early on in the process, so 'validation failed' at the latter stages sounds like an odd result.

Rob_Wills said:

Knowing @Plusnet as I do @BT have probably ordered them to cause as many problems as possible for customers in order to keep them on account.  I hope you have cancelled your DD as that will make them solve problems quickly;  you are due a lot of compensation.

Thanks for the advice. I am not going to resort to cancelling the DD just yet, as I know Plusnet do inform credit reference agencies with account status information.

CoastingHatbox

Bit of an update. The Plusnet aDSL is still down (it worked for about 5 hours yesterday).
Turns out there was a pending cease on the phone line which was due to take effect on switch over day. Plusnet didn't exactly admit that they'd placed it on the account and it wouldn't have made any sense for Shell to do it. In reality, I'm no wiser as to exactly what happened. I've never missed a payment to Plusnet and I hadn't asked them, at any point, to close the account.
I'll be asking Shell to retry the switch next week. I have had verbal confirmation that the MSE discount/incentive will still be applied.

CoastingHatbox

3 weeks / 21 days on and the switch from Plusnet aDSL to Shell Energy vDSL is still not complete. For the duration, there has been no broadband service on that phoneline. The line is still with Plusnet. I've been told that when the service was initially switched, an engineer would have had to disconnect the line from an aDSL port and connect it to a vDSL port. So even though the switch failed, the line has remained connected to a vDSL port with no vDSL service supplied.

The switch has been attempted multiple times and has failed multiple times. The reasons given for failure are:
* Pending cease on the line
* Open fault on the line
* Open port on the line

* Problem porting the number

I've been told that, a port should be successful, if we opt not to take the phone number with us. The order has been resubmitted with a new number and the line should switch over to Shell Energy Broadband on the 8th of June. Assuming that is successful, that would have been a month without any Internet, if it wasn't for us having a Virgin Media connection too.

Based on the limited evidence I have, I can't really fault either Plusnet or Shell Energy. They have both put hours into trying to get this switch working. I just hope that when the switch happens, the retrospective billing is sorted out appropriately with Plusnet (hopefully backdated to May 4th, as there has been no service since then) and that the introductory deal with Shell Energy Broadband is applied as has been promised.

shafeeq

Oh dear i was thinking of switching from plusnet to Shell Broadband, have to think twice now.