Shell Broadband: £35 charge for non-return of returned router.

youravinalarrrf

Check in your box packaging/paperwork. Somewhere in it you should find a Royal Mail Tracked 48 prepaid peelable returns label addressed to:-

Returns Processing, Net Lynk Direct, One First Avenue, Minworth, Birmingham B76 1BA.

dawntrader

Many thanks I don't have a lable but worse case I shall pay the postage.

KSIyer

So, my Shell BB contract ended on 7th January. And yesterday, Shell FINALLY refunded the £35 charge for their router which I never used. The router was returned by the end of January & the tracking shows that too.

So, just 2 weeks short of 6 months. They owed me £20+ as a refund for the rest of January. Then took another £14+ from me in April & then the refund yesterday. I had to call them at least once every month to ask them where my refund was.

Utterly disgraceful.

I know that MSE does a big service by blagging all these deals for the public. But this kind of behaviour by Shell is going to ensure that I'll never go back to them.

SSmith99

Shell took over Post Office Broadband. Shell Broadband kept making me anxious by sending me letters saying I hadn't paid the monthly fee when I had, and when I contacted them, they said it was mistakes due to the extra customers when they took over Post Office broadband.
I was getting fed up with them expecting me to accept their mistakes when I didn't want Shell to take over my broadband.
When I moved house my 12 month contract was also up, so I assumed that once I paid my last month, I wouldn't hear from them again. Yet they're still making me anxious by sending me bills. This time for an old router.
People who had a router from the Post Office many years ago with Post Office written on it, were told they didn't have to send back the router after their contract was finished.

Now if you leave Shell, they harass you with bills for £35.00 if you don't send back a years old router with Post Office written on it, even if it's falling apart and needed renewing anyway.

When I studied law I thought that the law can't be retrospective? How can Shell make up new rules about people being fined if they don't send back a Post Office router? I'm sure if they were taken to court then they would be banned from harassing old Post Office customers.

bettz

SSmith99 said:

Shell took over Post Office Broadband. Shell Broadband kept making me anxious by sending me letters saying I hadn't paid the monthly fee when I had, and when I contacted them, they said it was mistakes due to the extra customers when they took over Post Office broadband.
I was getting fed up with them expecting me to accept their mistakes when I didn't want Shell to take over my broadband.
When I moved house my 12 month contract was also up, so I assumed that once I paid my last month, I wouldn't hear from them again. Yet they're still making me anxious by sending me bills. This time for an old router.
People who had a router from the Post Office many years ago with Post Office written on it, were told they didn't have to send back the router after their contract was finished.

Now if you leave Shell, they harass you with bills for £35.00 if you don't send back a years old router with Post Office written on it, even if it's falling apart and needed renewing anyway.

When I studied law I thought that the law can't be retrospective? How can Shell make up new rules about people being fined if they don't send back a Post Office router? I'm sure if they were taken to court then they would be banned from harassing old Post Office customers.

We're going through this problem right now we had an old post office router that shell wanted returned to them even though it wasn't there router to begin with.

fabfor

Beware of Shell! They increased the price of my BB in July but stated:

"We hope you like it here at Shell Energy but you have the right to choose to leave us within 30 days of receiving this email, without any charges".
I chose to leave, then was told I'd have to pay early termination charges of £41.68 stating:
"After reviewing your account, unfortunately you do not fall under the Variations, to leave the contract without any termination charges."
I'm arguing that my decision to leave was based on their 'no charges' statement and that I hold them to that. Can't get a response since in spite of frequent reminders... Never again.

LandOfConfusion

bettz said:

We're going through this problem right now we had an old post office router that shell wanted returned to them even though it wasn't there router to begin with.

Shell took over Post Office's broadband & telephone service so technically it's now their router I'm afraid. That said it can't be hacked or modded like some of the actually very good Plusnet / BT Homehub routers and is pretty terrible WiFi wise so not really a loss.

fabfor said:

Beware of Shell! They increased the price of my BB in July but stated:

"We hope you like it here at Shell Energy but you have the right to choose to leave us within 30 days of receiving this email, without any charges".
I chose to leave, then was told I'd have to pay early termination charges of £41.68 stating:
"After reviewing your account, unfortunately you do not fall under the Variations, to leave the contract without any termination charges."
I'm arguing that my decision to leave was based on their 'no charges' statement and that I hold them to that. Can't get a response since in spite of frequent reminders... Never again.

The only way they can get around that is if you agreed to the now quite common CPI+x% term. If that is the case and you don't want to pay the early termination charge then I'm afraid for the time being you're stuck with them.

Of course if you're out of contract or didn't agree to that term then send their head office a letter via recorded delivery informing them of your wish to leave as the price is going up. And if that doesn't work then personally I'd just sign up with another ISP, terminate the direct debit and let them take me to court.

Alternatively you might want to roll the dice with Ofcom although be warned, the last time I had to do this I found them a bit disorganised and they in effect tried to force me to sign back up with the ISP I had just left and had a dispute with, even though my contract had thankfully ended.

fabfor

Thanks for that, Land. I thought that the omission of "unless..." from their statement that I was free to leave granted me permission to leave without penalty but that's just reasoning - not the law, apparently.

Madmel

I wish I had read this sooner. I was moved from Post Office to Shell. I stayed on their standard tariff because FTTP was being put into my village and I wanted the flexibility to move away quickly. I gave notice on 18th April, service was terminated on 19th May. Nobody asked for my router, which dated from 2014. I received a letter asking for it back so I rang up. The guy said they didn't want an 8 year old router so bin it. Thankfully I didn't because the threat-o-gram £35 letter arrived next. I didn't have a bag to return it, so I rang again and was sent one. To cut a long story short, I had to phone again with the tracking number, then again to chase them to remove the £35 charge. When I said I had sent it back, the guy said he trusted me and would refund it!

Shell still owe me line rental paid upfront. A final bill came dated 2nd August showing a credit balance. They told me it takes 10 working days to process a refund. Their website states that refunds are paid into your bank account even if you have cancelled the direct debit. Today is day 11 and much to my surprise (insert sarcastic emoji) nothing has been received. I have just finished a 40 minute conversation with them telling me that the only thing they can do is to raise a cheque which will take another 10 working days.

TL:DR never use Shell. However cheap they are, it's a false economy. They lie, lie and lie again. 

fabfor

Finally got a response from Shell agreeing that I was free to leave without penalty so I'm glad I contested this. And yes, blatant lies via letter post about contacting me with offers - that simply never happened.