Am I asking too much from Shell Energy?

RogerBareford

kroggy said:

Thanks @TheMilkmansDad and @QuizB for your replies.

So basically Shell Energy do not give a damn about customer service so best to ditch them as soon as possible.

If the answer to 

1. Do Shell Energy  bill every customer on the 7th of the month?

is No then why are they being so difficult?  I have had this done by every Energy company I have been with and that is some number.

Am I asking too much?

I just want to enter my reads into my 3rd party energy app and for the bills to match the app in terms of dates. 

What annoys me is that their telephone staff said they could do it, I will do an SAR for the phone calls and I think I will take it to the ombudsman as I gather it costs them £350.  

I will also head over to Trustpilot and leave them a negative review, I might even do a youtube video showing all the issues customers have with them.

As my late mother used to say "don't care was made to care"

Why not use another app that the billing cycle can be adjusted or use a spreadsheet to do the calculations which you can setup however you want?

I think you just wasting your time by trying to fight them into a different billing cycle when at the end of the day it makes no difference at all.

RogerBareford

kroggy said:

As a result of these issues I have four months of energy being disputed, I asked they they issue two bills, one up to the tariff change and one thereafter, instead they have produced a single bill which is so complex that I would need a top 3 auditing firm to comprehend and again it has gone past the reads by 7 days.

I think your exagerting how complicated the bill is. If you post a copy on here with all your personal details removed then someone will be able to explain it to you so you can understand it and then learn how to understand bills in the future.

I

kroggy

Robin9 said:

kroggy said:

Thanks @TheMilkmansDad and @QuizB for your replies.

So basically Shell Energy do not give a damn about customer service so best to ditch them as soon as possible.

Am I asking too much?

If you don't like the way Shell don't do things  -  have a look at SP or Edf or BG or   ......     you might then wish for the devil you know. Octopus appears to be the exception.

How much would you be prepared to pay for this bespoke service ?  

I do get that, but I do not think it is a bespoke service, the answers suggest that Shell Energy do not invoice all customers on the same day.  

I have never had a problem with a plethora of energy companies I have had over the years, even the worst companies that I dealt with could do this simple thing.  

I moved in on the first of the month, so why is it such a big deal for my readings to be provided on the first of the month?

Why does Shell Energy need to add 7 days of "estimated reads" which it rounds to my detriment?

I am not sure why people on here jump to the defence of a company that is shafting people, maybe they enjoy being shafted, all I want is to set it up and forget about it. 

So far every bill has had a mistake and the way they split the bill up is madness.  Even when I got them to issue a bill they issued a bill with an estimate for the period I had provided reads. 

They also took a direct debit when they had agreed they would not take it until both parties had agreed all was well.  Luckily my bank sent me an alert that they were taking 4 months money so I had until midnight to put money into my account.

This is why I want individual bills, because Shell Energy's has made a total botch of this.

I could audit the first months and look to move forward  but to have to do an audit every month is not acceptable to me.

So I will get another deadlock letter and take it to the ombudsman.

All I am asking for is a bill that reflects the reads I provide, reads that are aligned with the date I moved in and that do NOT include an estimate for an extra 7 days, why should I pay for 37 days of energy when I have used 30?

Why should I have to have a monthly audit because Shell Energy are so incompetent or so crooked that they pull this scam on people.  For one person it might not add up to much but for thousands of customers I guess they are making money.

I have been incredibly patient with Shell Energy and now it is clear why they are so cocky, they know I can't jump.

Well I can make it cost them £350 for ombudsman and I will not now move my broadband to them which I was seriously considering doing.  I have other ways to hurt them with investor relations so in the end there will be a price to pay.

I am not clear whether you are saying Octopus are any good?  

victor2

 ...

Why should I have to have a monthly audit because Shell Energy are so incompetent or so crooked that they pull this scam on people.  For one person it might not add up to much but for thousands of customers I guess they are making money.
...

Not really a scam, because the next bill will be from the last reading they billed to, be it estimated or otherwise.

[Deleted User]

To the OP, initiate a switch to another supplier (if you can).  If you are hell-bent on getting the bill generated on the 1st of every month you will need to work out the switch time (number of days) for your chosen supplier and then work forwards as it were so that the switch date is on the first of the month.  I moved to Eon Next on 1st October 2021 (that being the switch date) and monthly bills generated to my reads on the 1st of every month thereafter

RogerBareford

kroggy said:

Robin9 said:

kroggy said:

Thanks @TheMilkmansDad and @QuizB for your replies.

So basically Shell Energy do not give a damn about customer service so best to ditch them as soon as possible.

Am I asking too much?

If you don't like the way Shell don't do things  -  have a look at SP or Edf or BG or   ......     you might then wish for the devil you know. Octopus appears to be the exception.

How much would you be prepared to pay for this bespoke service ?  

I do get that, but I do not think it is a bespoke service, the answers suggest that Shell Energy do not invoice all customers on the same day.  

I have never had a problem with a plethora of energy companies I have had over the years, even the worst companies that I dealt with could do this simple thing.  

I moved in on the first of the month, so why is it such a big deal for my readings to be provided on the first of the month?

Why does Shell Energy need to add 7 days of "estimated reads" which it rounds to my detriment?

I am not sure why people on here jump to the defence of a company that is shafting people, maybe they enjoy being shafted, all I want is to set it up and forget about it. 

So far every bill has had a mistake and the way they split the bill up is madness.  Even when I got them to issue a bill they issued a bill with an estimate for the period I had provided reads. 

They also took a direct debit when they had agreed they would not take it until both parties had agreed all was well.  Luckily my bank sent me an alert that they were taking 4 months money so I had until midnight to put money into my account.

This is why I want individual bills, because Shell Energy's has made a total botch of this.

I could audit the first months and look to move forward  but to have to do an audit every month is not acceptable to me.

So I will get another deadlock letter and take it to the ombudsman.

All I am asking for is a bill that reflects the reads I provide, reads that are aligned with the date I moved in and that do NOT include an estimate for an extra 7 days, why should I pay for 37 days of energy when I have used 30?

Why should I have to have a monthly audit because Shell Energy are so incompetent or so crooked that they pull this scam on people.  For one person it might not add up to much but for thousands of customers I guess they are making money.

I have been incredibly patient with Shell Energy and now it is clear why they are so cocky, they know I can't jump.

Well I can make it cost them £350 for ombudsman and I will not now move my broadband to them which I was seriously considering doing.  I have other ways to hurt them with investor relations so in the end there will be a price to pay.

I am not clear whether you are saying Octopus are any good?  

They arn't charging you any more than your using. If they estimate the readings wrong then next month they will just use the correct readings and it will correct itself. They won't charge for the same period twice so you will get billed from when the last bill was raised so probably the 7th of one month to the 7th of the next month from what you are saying.

No matter what readings they put on the bill it will correct itself over time when actual readings are provided so just provide an actual reading just before the 7th each month and everything will be fine.

I would also suggest you don't take them to the ombudman because you seem very confused about that is going on and don't really understand how energy bills work. So all they will say is that your complaint doesn't make sense and will not side with you.

Your best bet is to just get help from someone who understands energy bills and can explain them to you so you can understand.

Are you going to post your bill on here like i sugested above?

pochase

Sounds to me like you are just going to raise a complaint to cause them cost, even so you have heard there is nothing wrong.

If many people think like you, that will cost all of us money in the long run, as it will increase the operating costs of the energy suppliers, and this cost is part of the cap calculations and will increase the energy cost.

kroggy

RogerBareford said:

kroggy said:

Thanks @TheMilkmansDad and @QuizB for your replies.

So basically Shell Energy do not give a damn about customer service so best to ditch them as soon as possible.

If the answer to 

1. Do Shell Energy  bill every customer on the 7th of the month?

is No then why are they being so difficult?  I have had this done by every Energy company I have been with and that is some number.

Am I asking too much?

I just want to enter my reads into my 3rd party energy app and for the bills to match the app in terms of dates. 

What annoys me is that their telephone staff said they could do it, I will do an SAR for the phone calls and I think I will take it to the ombudsman as I gather it costs them £350.  

I will also head over to Trustpilot and leave them a negative review, I might even do a youtube video showing all the issues customers have with them.

As my late mother used to say "don't care was made to care"

Why not use another app that the billing cycle can be adjusted or use a spreadsheet to do the calculations which you can setup however you want?

I think you just wasting your time by trying to fight them into a different billing cycle when at the end of the day it makes no difference at all.

The App is not the issue, the issue is that I moved in on the 1st of the month and I want to be billed monthly from the 1st to the 1st

HOW HARD IS THAT?

If Shell Energy billed the whole Country on the same day I would be fine but replies on here suggest they don't.

What I am facing is this

I read the meter on the last day of the month and provide Shell Energy with those reads

Shell Energy take those reads, they either ignore the reads at the beginning of the month or they take the read to the end of the month and bill me for an extra 7 days, it is a complete f'ing mess.

I have to recalculate the bill based on actual reads and get them to credit me because they are using these estimated reads on the subsequent bill for a period they should not have billed for.

I really do not think it is too much to ask to have your bills match the day you move in and for the bill to run by calendar from 1st to end of month.  They do not take the DD until about 10 days later so it is not like my last supplier who gave a 1 day window to get the reading in, print the bill online and issue the Direct Debit.

I have had bills from all of the big 6 and many of the small players because I got into switching.  I don't think any have it perfect but I think SSE probably had it best, they had a 4 page bill for Gas and Electric, I am getting 6 page bills from Shell and the last was 7 pages 

They have a page with only one third of the page with anything on it (it has tariffs) then another page with less than an eighth of the page with anything on it. In fact it is mostly their logo and footer with just a strip of data.

The tariffs for each energy could be accommodated on on the actual invoice page, so that would eliminate one page and I am sure that the page with one strip could be added to the first page summary

The invoice for each energy only needs about 30% of the page they both have huge red blobs that say 

Having trouble

understanding your bill?

Click here for help

This bill is based on an

estimated meter reading.

Click here to submit

a meter reading

Clicking does nothing and they are on both pages.

There are all sort of superfluous things like a Gas Safe logo and a load of waffle about Corgi and Gas safe, I don't need to be told this every month on my energy bill.  I am not aware of Shell Energy doing boiler work or selling cookers, I know British Gas do service but even if Shell Energy do there is no way I would trust them after this experience and I will not use any of their Petrol Stations ever again.

The bill says 

"If you have a smart meter or if you submit a meter reading every month then we will send you a bill based

on your actual energy usage."

That is a lie because they add 7 days

I do not understand why when given reading for a specific period why they add these extra days, it is because they are slow and incompetent?  Is it a whim of the Shell Energy staff member to add 7 days or is it company policy to make their bills illegible and complicated?

kroggy

RogerBareford said:

kroggy said:

As a result of these issues I have four months of energy being disputed, I asked they they issue two bills, one up to the tariff change and one thereafter, instead they have produced a single bill which is so complex that I would need a top 3 auditing firm to comprehend and again it has gone past the reads by 7 days.

I think your exagerting how complicated the bill is. If you post a copy on here with all your personal details removed then someone will be able to explain it to you so you can understand it and then learn how to understand bills in the future.

I think you mean exaggerating, the bill is only complicated because they insist on adding this estimated week.

You have clearly made up your mind to blame the victim and take the side of Shell Energy, so no thanks I will not spend hours redacting and uploading a bill only for you to attack me further.

I have asked others and they go glass eyed when looking at the bill, the layout is the layout, I am not going to get Shell to change that, all I want is for the bill to run from 1st of month to end of month, I moved in on the 1st of month, I asked to be billed from 1st of month to end of Month and Shell Energy said it would be no problem.

It is clear that email is just a waste of time because by the time they reply a new bill has been sent and there is a whole new inaccurate bill of diarrhea to deal with.

What makes it diarrhea?

When I get the next bill the start of the bill will be an estimated read, so it will either need to be corrected or Shell Energy will be stealing from me.

At the same time they will add another 7 day period with an estimated read and the whole cycle will start again.

So previously all I ever needed to do was take a photo of my read which the 3rd party app converts to a read, I could submit that read to my supplier and I would get a bill for what I submitted.  NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

I really do not understand why this is so hard for Shell, so I have to conclude they are doing this to deliberately provide estimated reads so they can make money in rounding or whatever.

The abrasive and borderline hostile attitude of Shell Energy Staff just makes things worse.

I have had energy companies with call a centre in South Africa, India and the Philippines, I would always prefer a UK call centre but at least some of these were friendly and courteous with a willingness to help or with the ability to escalate to someone more experienced.

I think this is another area where Shell Energy fails, there does not appear to be a senior person to escalate to or a CEO's office, the staff seem almost willing for you to take to the Ombudsman.

Strange way to run a company and over time it will ruin their reputation.

Obviously they do not give a damn at the moment because we can't jump (yet) but I will dine out on telling my circle of their shortcomings and word will get out. 

pochase

Have you started the formal complaints process and asked them to open a complaint for you? You can not just take it to the Ombudsman.

Only after you have done so and waited 8 weeks or get a deadlock letter you can go to the Ombudsman.