Shell energy broadband - any feedback from recent joiners ?

Rob_Wills

ALL ISPs seem to have their own strange way of invoicing which appears to always favour them by overcharging;  similarly with ALL consumer utility charges. 

The government fail to protect the consumer due to many of the individual MPs, especially Ministers, having a vested interest in the profitability of big business.

chrb

I switched one week ago to the "Superfast fibre". The switch process itself was flawless - signed up via MSE, 2 weeks later received router in post, got the "Your broadband service is now live" email, plugged in router, set up wifi, and it all worked first time. It's fast - 65mbit down/19mbit up.

To answer some questions...

Gehngus said:
It offered £150 cashback on or around 3 months after signing up.

It's a bill credit, not cashback. It's probably applied 3 months from switching rather than from signup? And then it will appear on the next bill after that date, which will be another 1-3 weeks. So it's potentially: sign up date + 2 weeks (before switch) + 3 months (service) + 3 weeks (next bill) from the signup date before you see the credit on an actual bill...

Gehngus said:
The bill ranges from £22 to £27 per month, I don't have a phone so make no calls. Not sure why it changes so much?

It's confusing, but it appears they may be calculating bills on a daily basis. So my first bill (after one week of service) is for 34 days at £29, instead of the £24.99 that I expected. If they are billing based on days, then the bills will range from a low of 28 days (February), up to 35ish days for the first bill (1 week + 1 month advance).

The other odd thing is that the monthly amount of £24.99 appears on the bill as a charge of around £36.99 with a "Promotional Discount 12 (Sept 20)" of £12 applied. I guess it doesn't matter so long as it's just a billing oddity.

JJ_Egan said:
Did you sign up via Shell or MSE ??

For people who are wondering how to check - look at your "Welcome to Shell Energy Broadband" email that you receive after signup - at the top it mentions moneysavingexpert, and further down confirms monthly charge (the "Monthly price", "Promotional Discount", and then "Total monthly charges"):

Welcome to Shell Energy Broadband
Hello Dave,
Thanks for placing your Shell Energy Broadband order through moneysavingexpert.com.
....
Your order                                      Monthly price
Superfast Fibre Plus 12
(this includes your line rental) £36.99
Promotional Discount 12                 £12.00
Minimum Contract Period: 12 months
...
Total monthly charges £24.99
(excludes call costs) (this includes VAT)

youravinalarrrf

For the benefit of customers signing up to Shell's Fast Broadband the following information may be useful on your go live date and save you wondering what's going on when you find you can't connect to internet.

It appears Shell are currently sending out incorrectly configured ZyXel AMG1302 routers which require a factory reset before they will correctly log you on to Shell's network and connect to the internet!

If you receive a ZyXel AMG1302 Router, and no there is no connection after 30 minutes. Please perform a factory reset.

To do this:

1.   Turn the router over and locate the pin sized hole at the back of the router. 2.   Place an item into the pin sized hole, and hold down for 10 seconds. 3.   It will take around 5 minutes for the reset to complete, once finished, all the WLAN, DSL and Internet lights on the front of the router will turn green. 4.   You’re ready to surf the web and enjoy your Shell Energy Broadband service!

Please keep your router turned on for the first 10 days so we can stabilise your broadband speeds. Your speed may fluctuate a bit during this time, but that’s normal.

bricksandmortar

I'm just leaving them after a 12 month contract.

1. Weird billing (always a few pence above or below the monthly amount)
2. Weird router (a Technicolor model that bizarrely enough has a hardware incompatibility with my old Motorola phone and which also seems to drop connection to my lightbulbs and printer for no obvious reason)
3. No problems with customer service

Leaving because there is always a better deal available elsewhere at renewal time (such a waste to have all these new routers made tor 12 months use...). Would have considered staying if I had a different router. All the data comes down a BT line anyway!

bungeejump

Shell have just emailed me today to say they are making some changes to their pricing and terms from 1st September and I can leave without any charges in the next 30 days which I will be taking full advantage of.

I will be ringing them tomorrow first thing. Yipee. As someone who switches reguarly to take advantage of the introductory offers I can say that never have I had such a bad broadband company as Shell. Speed is bad. Router is bad. Service is bad.

They also run a scam where if your line speed falls below their low minimum and you complain to them they test the line and tell you there is a fault and you need an engineer to fix. They will then charge *you* for the engineer visit to fix the fault with their equipment. The first time they stung me for £80. The second time I refused to pay, made a complaint and the problem was fixed in a few days without an engineer vist, as it was the first time. Just the first time the engineer had been requested and when he turned up there was no fault.

Shell broadband is not worth the hassle of a few extra pounds you might save.

Madmel

Just putting my 10p worth. Joined Shell from Post Office, so not by choice. We live rurally and there was no fibre at all here and only 2Mbps download speed. Finally 2 years after it was first promised, FTTP was put in. As I was on a rolling contract with Shell, I gave notice. They have lied to me about returning "their" router. It was never theirs, it came from Post Office in 2014. They tried to "fine" me £35 for not returning the router even though one of their operatives told me not to bother. I returned it on 9th July but have still not received the upfront line rental that I paid in early May.

Don't use Shell Broadband. A couple of very helpful people on here posted me in the direction of Cuckoo Broadband and Sipgate, both of whom seem to be really helpful and who pride themselves on their customer service. I am now paying less per month for 50x faster broadband than I did with Shell.