Is 'Shell Energy Broadband / MSE Blagged 'really such a good deal?

rooftop

Hi All
I'm long time big fan of the website and Martin but feel I need to chip in with a concern about the MSE Blagged  deal in the recent newsletter (12 August 2020).
See https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/tip-3796
I'm a current customer with Shell Energy Broadband and my phone line and broadband had been down for over 72 hours.
I have sent an hour on the single telephone number with no answer.
And sent an email to the single email address 24 hours ago with no reply.
There is no means that I can see to report the fault via an online form or via a online chat or dedicated number to report faults.
Doesn't look like such a great deal from where I am sitting. Or are my expectations too high? Or am I an exception?
Just wondering....
Thanks
Pete

rooftop

Also I'm no expert @ShellEnergyHome social media team but I think you are wrong to sell a 'Virtual Assistant' (a basic knowledge base with a search tool) as a WebChat team (which I would take to be humans in front of a web browser). 
Now that is a real 'Blag'.
  

rooftop

Whoah. My son has just taught me that typing Can I speak to a Human into a Virtual Assistant activates the WebChat.
I owe the @ShellEnergyHome team an apology. Could be clearer thought right guys?

rooftop

... and I have to eat a little more humble pie now.
I have just spoken to a tech support agent at ShellEnergy and he was really helpful and patient and my problem has been reported to OpenReach.

So I guess I should say to anyone looking at the MSE / Shell deal....
- long wait times possible on the phone (45mins plus) to report landline/broadband problems (pandemic related?)
- you could, as I did, take the sales option on their single contact number and then request a call back. When they called me back I explained I was not after sales but support and they passed me through. At least I was not charged to wait for the support team this way. 
- type 'can i speak to a human' into their virtual assistant on the contact page to bring up webchat online
- but note the webchat team for landline/broadband is not available on the weekends 
Hope this helps

physicist_2

I joined Shell Energy Broadband back in late February when they were offering the best price for standard broadband, and am not at all impressed with the service. There is no status page and it is very difficult to report outages as noted above. I did get some communication via @ShellEnergyHome on twitter but after presumably automated responses asking for account details the first time I got no further response and gave up because 30 minutes later my broadband was back on, and when it failed again later the same day got a message that they were running intrusive tests and to contact again if it didn't come back on but it immediately restarted so appears to have been something under their control.
I've tried speed checking my line in the hope of getting out of my contract early but direct speed checks always give a very high initial speed but you can see in the graphs very obvious throttling down to low speed on upload tests, and the wifi router provided is useless, signal strength is often higher from my neighbours BTHub and Virgin Media routers that from my own ShellBroadband WiFi connection even in a detached house. I'm ditching them at the first available opportunity,

mohammed1111

physicist_2 said:

I joined Shell Energy Broadband back in late February when they were offering the best price for standard broadband, and am not at all impressed with the service. There is no status page and it is very difficult to report outages as noted above. I did get some communication via @ShellEnergyHome on twitter but after presumably automated responses asking for account details the first time I got no further response and gave up because 30 minutes later my broadband was back on, and when it failed again later the same day got a message that they were running intrusive tests and to contact again if it didn't come back on but it immediately restarted so appears to have been something under their control.
I've tried speed checking my line in the hope of getting out of my contract early but direct speed checks always give a very high initial speed but you can see in the graphs very obvious throttling down to low speed on upload tests, and the wifi router provided is useless, signal strength is often higher from my neighbours BTHub and Virgin Media routers that from my own ShellBroadband WiFi connection even in a detached house. I'm ditching them at the first available opportunity,

I had issues with their broadband and it appeared to be a oversubscribing issue that they didn't want to admit, apparently "their" network that actually belongs to talktalk and openreach hasn't been affected by the increase in demand. After 5 months and a complaint to the ombudsman I'm rid of them. 

Supatramp

From what I've read here, I wouldn't touch Shell with a bargepole!

MattMattMattUK

Supatramp said:

From what I've read here, I wouldn't touch Shell with a bargepole!

If you avoided every broadband supplier that people had complained about on here you would not be able to get broadband.

JJ_Egan

Agree but judged by the confusion from Shell  they are on my don't bother list .