Shell Energy website down, leaving customers unable to pay or check their bills

(AFP via Getty Images)

Shell Energy’s website is down, leaving people unable to pay or check their bills.

Visitors to the firm’s website were not even shown an error page or other notification, but found themselves unable to access anything at all.

Shell Energy is owned and operated by parent company Shell and offers gas and electricity to homes in the UK. It also offers broadband services.

On Twitter, the company said it was aware of the problem and was “working hard to resolve” the issue. In another post it said it would be “back up and running shortly”.

In response, Twitter users noted that the outage had been lasting for some time, that the company was yet to give any indication of when it would be back online, and that they were relying on it for important tasks that Shell Energy requires of them, such as submitting up-to-date meter readings.

The outage comes amid spiralling fuel costs in the UK, which in turn has led to increasing frustration with energy suppliers.

As with much of the industry, parent company Shell has reported record profits over the last year.

That in turn has led to increasing criticism of energy firms, and a burgeoning “Don’t Pay” campaign that encourages customers to refuse to pay their increasing bills.