Frustrated broadband customers face poor service and rising costs

theguardian.com:

When Annabel Miller* took up the offer of a new superfast broadband plan with local and international calls for £40 a month from Shell Energy, she thought she was on to a good deal.

Within six months, however, she had suffered an 18-day broadband outage due to the wrong router being sent to her London home, a series of incorrect bills for more than she was due to pay, and even problems with her house alarm. When she tried to complain, she says she received confusing and frustrating responses.

“It appears Shell Energy decided to use an initial tactic of not responding to complaints, then dismissing them and closing them,” she says.

“I had a number of emails claiming they had been resolved and closed, despite not having received any responses. The strategy was to confuse and distort facts, and ignore my complaints,” she says.

This will have a familiar ring to it. Communications regulator Ofcom announced that the company was the most complained-about broadband and landline provider for the final three months of last year.

It said it was concerned about the continued high volume of complaints, most of which were about faults, service and installations. “It remains important that Shell and other providers continue to work to ensure that consumers receive the level of service expected. As always, should we identify specific concerns with how our rules are followed, we will consider whether it is appropriate to take formal action,” it says.

Miller’s problems started soon after signing up last year, when a router that could not connect to superfast broadband was sent to her, resulting in a loss of internet services for 18 days.

Bills between March and June were incorrect, not taking into account a preferential rate that she had been