WARNING re switching to current Shell top deal.

JaneHenery

I did this on the 26th of June, from Plusnet. I was given a 13th July switch date. 13th arrives, no switch. However it appeared on the 14th. Excellent. Lots of faffing to change Alexa over but I got it done. On the 15th I receive two emails from Plusnet welcoming me back since I'd cancelled the switch. I did no such thing and told their customer service rep so. He said that 'it had been done through the website'. Not by me, says I. He tells me to contact Shell. I do so, which costs, as they NEVER have the online chat on and they don't have a freephone number, and get told that a BT engineer needs to do 'something' (why? No-one seemed to know) and it will be done on the 19th. I now have no phone line. I wait patiently for the 19th, still no phone line. However now there is a message telling me that it will be connected 'tommorrow'. Tomorrow comes, still no phone line and it's gone back to an 'order has not been completed' message. I leave it a couple more days then phone Shell again. I run out of mobile credit, on hold for fifteen minutes, so get to speak to no-one. Another couple of days go by. During this time I send Shell two email messages, the second one a formal complaint, because I can't get through on the phone, which COSTS, I'm reminding everyone. Anyway, long story short on the 28th of July, 15 days after I should have switched, I suddenly lose my internet. No internet and now a completely dead phone line. As I have no other source of internet I was left literally with no way of accessing anything to fix this, and I only had £4 credit on my phone. I phone Shell and this time, for a wonder, get a good customer service operator. He has me undoing plug sockets and what have you then my phone credit goes, again. Fortunately, being a good lad, he rings me back, otherwise I'd have had to go off on foot to a Tescos for more phone credit to pour down the ever-gaping maw of Shell. 

Very long and miserable story short, it turns out that the cancellation way back on the 15th that Plusnet sent two emails for, not Shell, WAS a cancellation and I'd never really been switched. He told me straight I'd wait another two weeks for a new switch. I told him to forget it and cancel the whole thing. He actually apologised. Which was the first I'd had. So I was left with no service and no mobile phone credit. I had no idea what to do and then realized Plusnet was a free phone line so I thought 'I'll phone them and see if they will still give me the 'don't leave us offer' they made of £18.99 a month. A fiver more than what Shell was SUPPOSED to be giving me but I was desperate, and fed up. So I get through to Plusnet (they are freephone, to their credit) and he tries to sell me all sorts of confusing fibre deals while I am struggling to say sane. BUT I discover then that my phone and internet has been connected with them ALL along. Despite me getting Shell broadband I was still getting Plusnet. He had me plug my old router in to prove it, and sure enough... So I have been paying for Plusnet at £35.93 a month and he won't give me any kind of refund or backdate it as "it will have to be a new contract", and this despite the fact that when I spoke to them on the 15th they did NOT tell me that both my phone and broadband was still with them and that actually the switch HAD been cancelled. I did re-sign up but I have just got a deal with someone else because frankly I was as underwhelmed with Plusnet's handling of it almost as much as I was with Shell's so I am about to cancel it. 

I'm now at least £70 out of pocket for what will be two months of broadband at a ridiculous rate that I switched to avoid, plus about a tenner in phone calls. I'm going to try and get some compensation from Shell but as they don't belong to any compensation scheme I'm not sue how I'll fare with that. I don't have a clue how I could claim compensation from Plusnet even although I feel they are almost as much at fault as Shell for not being clear about what was happening at their end. I would just warn anyone switching to this deal that if it doesn't transfer straight away, or you get weird cancellation notices or strange mutterings about BT engineers, bail and bail fast. 

QrizB

This sounds more like a problem with Plusnet, than with Shell. In your position I'd complain to Plusnet.

Flintly

Which number did you call for Shell? I’m pretty sure it’s free, at least I’ve never been charged for it, and I have spent many hours on the phone with them. The number starting 0330 is the one I use, think it just counts as a normal landline so should be included in your normal mobile minutes.

Flintly

Flintly said:

Which number did you call for Shell? I’m pretty sure it’s free, at least I’ve never been charged for it, and I have spent many hours on the phone with them. The number starting 0330 is the one I use, think it just counts as a normal landline so should be included in your normal mobile minutes.

Actually my apologies, it’s closing in on 30yrs since I used a PAYG phone, and had forgotten how they work, duh, ignore me!