Shell Broadband offer via MSE - avoid avoid

ripple34

Having taken out this offer which is sold with a £50 cashback, I have now cancelled it within 14 day cooling-off period. And I advise anyone here considering the offer not to bother.

The main red flag was that none of the literature, contract etc stated ANYTHING about the £50 cashback. So I emailed to ask about this on 9 August. I still have had no answer to the email.
I then called and the call-handler had no idea what I was talking about, nor were they really interested but fully focused on making me repeat the reason for my call three times, then in dominating the call when I started to get angry about this incompetence. 

Second red flag was when another MSE post scotching  my plan to leave at the end of the 12-month contract period  - it would be very difficult because the tech Shell use is unique to them and so very hard to transfer. 

I called Shell again and cancelled my order and was assured by the handler that I would receive email confirmation. 
Four days later I'd heard nothing. So called today. Today's handler tells me no cancellation had been actioned. 
Now, we're already more than halfway through the 14 day cooling off period. So if I had not pursued it, funds would have been taken in another week (I still won't be surprised if there still is a payment lifted out of my account so I'll be keeping an eye on it).

But almost more worrying than this is the laisse-faire attitude of MSE:
'I'm sorry to hear you've not received your email from Shell confirming your cancellation of their product, hopefully you will receive this soon.
 
If you have a complaint you’d like to raise with a specific company, you can use Resolver (a free and easy complaints site which MoneySavingExpert works with).
 
MoneySavingExpert isn’t able to play a role in your complaint and so unfortunately we're not able to forward this for you, but hope this helps and feel free to keep us posted on your progress."

I wasn't contacting MSE to ask them to resolve it, I was contacting them so there was a paper trail of my cancellation since at that point I had no idea if I would have the request actioned before the 14 day period ended. 

Point is - do not think that because MSE is promoting an offer that it is in anyway backed by them or supported by them. 
Presumably they simply take a fee from Shell (and others) for promotion. MSE really ought to be more transparent about the affiliates who pay them. 
Even the smallest independent gardening blog is transparent about their affiliation payments. 

Very disappointing. 

Please do beware of this deal. 

MSE_Chris

Hi Ripple34,

I'm sorry you've had to make this post about your recent experience with Shell Energy Broadband. I just wanted to check if your broadband package has now been cancelled successfully? 

Most of our links are affiliate links and these are indicated wherever you see a link followed by a * or where it states that it's 'MSE Blagged'. This helps us keep running the site for our users and you can find more info on how the site is financed here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/moneysavingexpert-finance/#revenue

For the promotional information relating to our Shell Energy Broadband deals, you can find these mention on Shell's page here (which is found in on Shell's basket page): https://www.shellenergy.co.uk/info/broadband/promotion/terms under the section 'Shell Energy Broadband and Phone Product Charges via MoneySavingExpert.com exclusive - 12 month only'. I'm not sure if you emailed us or Shell Energy on this, I assume Shell as you mentioned a call handler, but I'm disappointed you never received an answer on that.

I'm not too sure what you mean about transferring after 12mths. Are you referring to the router Shell provides? If so, this is usually returned to the provider should you leave and a new one provided by your next provider. If i've missed the mark here, do let me know.

Hopefully you've now managed to cancel as you originally requested, but if not, do let me know and we can try and escalate this for you with Shell.

Thanks,
MSE Chris