Shell Energy is a medium-sized energy supplier with 100% renewable electricity tariffs and lots of energy-saving technology for customers to buy for their households. Its green credentials seem good, but how does it measure up for customer service, value for money and complaints handling? Let’s take a look at Shell Energy reviews to find out 'is Shell Energy any good?'.
Pros
Cons
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⚖️Shell Energy reviews
Customer service, value for money and billing are all important things to bear in mind when considering switching energy providers. For example, do you want fast and efficient customer service or is an economical tariff more important? Here we break down Shell Energy reviews to help you weigh up these different factors to help you decide if Shell Energy is the right energy company for you.
In March 2019, First Utility rebranded to become Shell Energy. This was just a name change, meaning all tariffs, prices, billing systems and even customer service agents stayed the same. This means older First Utility reviews are also relevant to a Shell Energy review.
Shell Energy reviews across the web
Online reviews sites are the best place to find Shell Energy reviews by both past and present customers. On these sites, Shell performs quite well.
Recent Shell Energy reviews on Trustpilot are generally very positive, with 72% of reviews giving a great or excellent score. In fact, it currently has 4.1 out of 5 which is a great score for an energy supplier of its size.
While these reviews suggest more customers have positive Shell Energy reviews than negative ones, it still implies that this supplier has room for improvement.
An area of particular disappointment on Which? was ‘helping customers understand and reduce their energy usage’, with the supplier getting an average score. For a company that has a 100% renewable electricity fuel mix and sells a number of energy-saving technologies, this is an area it can definitely improve on to boost its green credentials and improve its customer experience. With the exception of 4 out of 5 stars for bill accuracy, Which? has given Shell Energy 3 out of 5 stars in its other categories.
| Bill Accuracy | Bill Clarity | Customer Service | Complaints Handling | Value for Money | Overall Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4/5 ★★★★☆ |
3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
63% |
Based on a survey of 193 Shell Energy customers in September 2020
And on the Citizens Advice survey for April to June 2021, Shell energy is mid-table at 11 out of 23 suppliers. Citizens advice rates suppliers on five areas. Overall, it scored 3.1 out of 5 stars.
| Complaints | Ease of Contact | Clear Bills | Ease of Switching | Customer Guarantees | Overall Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
2.6/5 ★★★☆☆ |
3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
5/5 ★★★★★ |
3/5 ★★★☆☆ |
3.1/5 ★★★☆☆ |
For the period April to June 2021
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📞Shell Energy customer service
A major part of any energy company is its customer service. This refers to the helpfulness of call centre agents when customers ring with questions or problems, the user-friendliness of the website so customers can find what they are looking for, and also the amount of time the company takes to answer the phone and respond to emails.
So does Shell Energy have good customer service? Let's find out.
Shell Energy reviews for customer service are mixed. Some customers praise it, stating the call centre staff are efficient and helpful and its website is easy to use. Others, however, go as far as to say that the service is so bad that it’s basically non-existent.
Despite these mixed comments, the Shell Energy reviews show that overall, more customers have had a positive experience than a negative one. In Which?’s annual customer satisfaction survey, customers awarded Shell Energy three out of five stars for customer service. In Shell Energy reviews left online, the majority of customers report professional service:
Absolutely brilliant service today, every question I had was promptly and professionally dealt with. Paul
A trend we did notice in Shell Energy reviews for customer service, however, was that customers report waiting a long time for the supplier to answer the phone. In fact, according to Which?'s most recent survey, Shell Energy has an average call wait time of 4 minutes and 6 seconds. This is pretty slow - a number of other companies answer in less than one minute - but is above the average across all providers surveyed. It's worth mentioning, however, that several major energy companies with a high call volumes, such as EDF and British Gas, report faster average call wait times than Shell.
Even worse for Shell Energy, while over five minutes is quite slow, a number of Shell Energy reviews mention waiting even longer!
Trying to contact them is...a very time consuming and frustrating experience: 20 minutes to obtain a reply on my first call; over 40 minutes in a second call on which I gave up. Anonymous customer
However, in the Citizens Advice audit for April to June 2021, they noted that the average call centre wait time was 3 minutes and 23 seconds. This is based on data supplied by Shell Energy. That being said, the average response time for social media messages was just 42 seconds and 73.2% of emails were responded to within 48 hours.
While the actual customer service provided by call agents appears to be satisfactory, Shell Energy does not seem to be the easiest or quickest supplier to get in touch with by phone, but taking a moment to get in touch with them on Facebook or Twitter is much faster.
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💸Value for money
Again, Shell Energy reviews are a bit mixed when it comes to pricing. In Which’s survey, customers gave the supplier three out of five stars for value for money, with just 22% saying the provider offers ‘excellent’ value for money. A number of customers online do report saving money with Shell and note that tariffs are reasonably priced, especially for the 100% renewable electricity they include.
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In our own investigation into Shell’s prices, we found that its variable standard tariff comes in slightly under Ofgem’s energy price cap. When compared to other providers, this is pretty middle of the road - it's cheaper than some of the larger providers but in line with what other companies are offering. You can probably find a cheaper deal if you look around a bit.
Despite this, according to Shell Energy reviews, some customers have not been happy with the price of their bills. The principal complaint is focused on bills increasing when First Utility rebranded to Shell Energy in March 2019.
Today my father received notice that his bill would rise by £110 due on 12th Dec, I called them and spoke to a lovely lady called Jo, all sorted with in 5 mins to the original price quoted. Lisa C
In reality, bills should not have changed. Tariffs and prices were all kept the same after the rebranding, but with a number of customers reporting the same problem, it implies that there was some change in this regard. In general, most Shell Energy reviews report happy customers in relation to price. It’s not the cheapest provider, but the majority of customers consider it good value for money.
🧾Billing
Like customer service and value for money, Shell Energy performs well for billing in Which’s annual survey, receiving four out of five stars for both bill clarity and bill accuracy. According to Which?, 73% of customers rated the supplier as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, which sounds good but falls below the average across all providers surveyed, which was 78%. This said, customers seem generally happy with their Shell Energy bill.
There has not been any problem with my energy supply or bills. Roseline
In earlier studies, Citizens Advice have awarded the supplier highly in this regard, reporting that 90.2% of customers received at least one accurate bill a year. Shell Energy reviews online also report a positive experience with billing.
However, taking all of this into account, billing has been one of the biggest reasons for complaints to Shell in the past. Shell has stated that this is because its bills can be a bit complicated to read and it’s continuously working to make them simpler and more user friendly. This is reflected in a number of Shell Energy reviews, but not many. If customers are complaining about billing, however, they do not seem to be sharing this dissatisfaction online.
Shell Energy smart meter reviews
When conducting a review analysis of an energy supplier, we do not usually include smart meters as a separate section. However, when reading Shell Energy reviews online, we found a great number of customers report difficulties with their smart meters, so we felt the need to mention it here.
Problems focus on smart meters fitted by other companies not functioning with Shell’s systems and generally Shell Energy smart meters not working correctly. If correct readings are not being transmitted, this could explain some of the issues Shell has with billing.
Flipping useless! I had a smart meter installed almost 7 months ago which doesn't even work! Anonymous customer
As the government continues its smart meter roll out scheme and encourages consumers to fit one in their household, we hope Shell can sort out these problems soon!
If you’re thinking of switching to Shell Energy and already have a smart meter, it’s worth checking if the supplier can support your smart meter before making the decision. You can
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📱Shell Energy app
The Shell Energy app is available for both Apple and Android devices from the App store and Google play store respectively. The app is well received by users of both platforms with Apple users giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars and Android users rating it slightly lower at 4 out of 5
Most commentors pointed out the simplicity of the app was appreciated, though some users had issues with logging in or having it sync correctly with their smart meter. Shell has been quick to respond to any negative reviews of the app offering to help solve the issue the user faced.
For a detailed description of what you can do on the Shell app, as well as other ways to manage your Shell Energy account, check out our Shell Energy Login page.
📶Shell Energy Broadband Review
Some people might not know that Shell Energy also supplies broadband services, but they began offering broadband back in 2016. Whilst you don't need to be a Shell Energy customer to take advantage of the service, though from time-to-time they do have bundled offers if you take out broadband and energy from them. So, what do Shell Energy broadband reviews say about the service? Let's take a look and find out.
On the popular broadband review site 'broadband.co.uk', gave their Shell Energy Broadband review 2 out of 5 stars in each category:
- Satisfaction
- Customer Service
- Speed
- Reliability
The Shell Energy broadband reviews from Broadband Genie faired a little better with 3 out of 5 stars. Whilst they commend the cheap deals, UK based customer service and discounts on filling up at Shell petrol stations, the vague fair usage policy doesn't sit well in the eyes of reviewers at Broadband Genie.
The Shell Energy broadband reviews from customers is very mixed. Negative reviews complain about the customer service and download speeds not living up to what they were promised. On the other hand, happy customers praise the providers value for money with many making significant savings since switching from Virgin Media, BT and Sky.
It's also worth noting that in August 2021, 450,000 Post Office Broadband customers were transferred to Shell Energy Broadband. It stated around the time of the takeover that ex-Post Office broadband customers would have access to a range of new benefits such as savings on fuel and access to the Shell Go+ loyalty programme.
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📢Complaints handling
Having your complaint handled efficiently and professionally (if you ever have to make one) is another thing you want from your energy supplier. Therefore, the next step in our Shell Energy review is taking a look at its complaints data. The supplier aims to resolve complaints as quickly as possible, ideally the first time a customer reaches out. If this is not possible, it tries to resolve the issue in ten working days.
Need to complain to Shell Energy? Find out more about the process and the relevant contact details in Selectra’s Shell Energy contact page.
Data from the Shell Energy complaints performance table, show that over the past year complaints are down significantly, though the performance of resolving complaints has been stable in terms of percentages.
| Quarter | Number of complaints received | Number of complaints received per 100,000 customers | Number of complaints resolved | Number of complaints resolved per 100,000 customers | % resolved at day +1 | % resolved at eight weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter 3 - 2020 | 29,328 | 1,858 | 28,672 | 1,817 | 47% | 93% |
| Quarter 4 - 2020 | 32,451 | 1,850 | 34,608 | 1,973 | 41% | 90% |
| Quarter 1 - 2021 | 29,809 | 1,652 | 32,174 | 1,783 | 38% | 87% |
| Quarter 2 - 2021 | 27,509 | 1,528 | 31,923 | 1,773 | 43% | 91% |
We will probably see the number of Shell Energy complaints increase slightly over the next six months as customers from bust suppliers are transferred to Shell Energy as part of Ofgem's Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) regulation. This can be expected due to the logistics involved with transferring a large number of customers, along with customers dissatisfied with being forced to move to a different supplier.
Read our guide to find out why energy suppliers are going bust in 2021.
According to the Energy Ombudsman, 23 Shell Energy complaints per 100,000 customers were escalated to this service in Q2 of 2021, down from 28 in Q1, with 419 Shell Energy complaints coming through on their end in total, down from 510 in Q1. Data from the Ombudsman can give us some hints as to what the source of these complaints is.
From April to June 2021, the biggest reason for Shell Energy complaints taken to the Ombudsman was billing, particularly disputed gas/electricity usage, disputed account balance and estimated bills or readings. Around 15 out of the 23 complaints received per 100,000 customers were down to billing. Smart meters also featured as one of the top complaint types. 93% of Shell Energy complaints to the Ombudsman resulted in a financial award.
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Complaints FAQs
How do I make a complaint to Shell Energy?
If you need to file a Shell Energy complaint, the easiest way to do so is by contacting the supplier on 0330 094 5800 or via its online complaints form. Shell Energy will aim to solve the issue as soon as possible.
I am unhappy with the way Shell Energy resolved my complaint - is there anyone else I can contact?
If you are still unsatisfied with the resolution, you can then request a “deadlock letter” from Shell Energy. This letter serves as written confirmation that Shell was unable to resolve the issue. You can then refer your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman. If the provider declines to issue you a deadlock letter, you can still refer the complaint to the Energy Ombudsman after eight weeks have passed since you first raised the complaint.