SIX hundred and SIXTY THREE rotten quid!

squeaky · 12 August 2009 at 8:20AM

Hi all,

The story is long - and my main question is at the bottom if you'd like to skip there...

Back when I had my water meter fitted I expected that my water bills would reduce by a lot since there's only me and my cat Sally here. Of course I have some tropical fish too, but they don't drink a lot, honest

So I was a bit disgruntled to find that my first metered bill was barely thirty quid less than my previous un-metered one.

So I got a whole lot meaner on my water usage. You know the drill - don't wash hands / clean teeth under a running tap but turn it on, get wet, turn it off, do your thing, turn it back on to rinse. Only two flushes a day (mostly). Planned my meals not just to use my food up with no wastage but also planned to use different pots and pans so that I only needed to run my dishwasher once, at most twice a week; and so on.

My next two bills were way higher! Prices going up? Well yes. Not the price per cubic meter, so much, because that price gets on comparison sites - but the standard daily charge had climbed a fair old bit.
The BIG problem though was that according to the meter I'd been using two cubic meters per week. Living alone? And being frugal? Twice the previous usage rate!

Complaints got me nowhere and it was a real struggle to pay them off. Had to do it in instalments.

And the bill that just landed on the doormat almost gave me a hear attack.

£663.46

And the usage worked out to THREE cubic meters per week!

AHA! You say - you've got a leak! No I darn well haven't

All taps, connections and overflows were checked each time I got a bill. Meter not moving.

So I rang them up and got a fair old run around but finally decided that yes, history of usage showed a bit of an odd change! Then I went through the rigmarole of answering a whole bunch of questions AND doing their poxy meter tests for them.

As if they didn't know from my answers to three zillion questions that *I* didn't have a problem - THEY DID!!

House stop !!!! off at 0910 meter reading = 473.71

Checked at 1045 and the meter reading = 473.80

Hm... I finally noticed that in the center of the meter was a round black disc. And on that disk was a small black needle. A black needle on a black disc down a deep dark hole. Good eh?
And yes, this little needle was ticking round very slowly.

No signs of water sitting in the bottom of the well thing.

So I turned off the meter stop !!!! and the little black needle stopped ticking round the little black disc down this deep dark hole.

Put my hand down there and felt around the base of the meter.

GOTCHA ya burgher! WATER.

So now, at last, they are finally going to come and check / repair my meter.

Then they're going to send me a form to fill in and I'll have to take two readings a week apart so that they can use this rate of water consumption to recalculate my bills.

Which leads me to my question:-

Which of the lovely links in the sticky up top would be the best one(s?) to contact to help me deal with Anglian Water, please?

Gothicfairy · 12 August 2009 at 11:33AM

Errmm Sorry I think I missed something. What did you want to "deal with"

Sounds like there will be a meter exchange(or repair) and then they will rebill you based on you avarage daily consumption.
So that means you should get a refund.

So the above sound like it is being dealt with. They would not have known about the problem if you had not done their poxy flow test (which is for you not them as you are the one with the high bills and if you had said you were unable someone would have come out to do it, because they have to. However that takes up to 5 days so clearly it is better if the customer can do it there and then) and gone through their questions to work out what you should be using.

What else did you want them to do ?

squeaky · 12 August 2009 at 11:49AM

Yes you did miss a couple of things.

1. The answers to all the questions that asked me clearly pointed to it being the meter at fault.

2. When I complained earlier they weren't interested. (In fact point blank refused to come and check my meter)

3. As I said, I've been really struggling to pay these excessively high bills and had to pay them off in instalments.

4. The last bill darn near gave me a heart attack!

I thought they were supposed to have some sort of system in place so that any bill that significantly differed from previous usage history could be checked before sending.

My last bank statement closed in the black. At last. First time since I had my last bill.

I don't just want my money back - I want to nail them to the wall for refusing to check my meter and for causing me grief and worry for more than a year and a half now.

All my bills have climbed over the past year (as have everybody's in the credit crunch), so my regular basics such as gas, elec, water, phone, rent, council tax have increased by a total between them of £70 per month. My "pay" has gone up by £4.
So I can't clobber them for my persistent overdraft while I adjusted to get my budget back in line - but a water bill that netted out at £40 per month instead of under £20 certainly didn't help!

For a bet they'll only offer me a refund on what I've paid. I want more. I think I'll do better if I have help - IF one of those links above would be able to help me.

So... can they?

olly300 · 12 August 2009 at 7:06PM

Ask Anglian Water have sorted this issue out then you won't get very far complaining.

If they muck up refunding your money back then the steps are:
1. Complain in writing to Anglian Water (do it via your own email address or in a letter and keep copies)
2. Wait for their response
3. Complain to the Consumer Council for Water

There is actually no point complaining to the Consumer Council for Water now as Anglian Water are dealing with it. If they weren't all the CCW does is give the complaint back to them to deal with.

Unfortunately the Water Companies are a monopoly and have some laws on their side which screw consumers.

Gothicfairy · 12 August 2009 at 9:05PM

I would say No.

I don't think the links will help. You will get a refund and will get the meter sorted out.

They are not to know that your situation has not changed and you are really using more water.
They have no right to refuse to flow test your meter and if a customer advisor told you that then they are wrong but clearly you can test your own meter so maybe you should have done it before ?

I understand the need to blame the company but only you will know how much water you should have used and it sounds like once you did complain they agreed and got it sorted.

You might be able to get a gesture of goodwill but at the moment that stands at around £25

Nothing personal but that is just my view..Call the water company and ask for a manager call back and see what they say.

squeaky · 12 August 2009 at 10:35PM

Thanks for that.

SIX hundred and SIXTY THREE rotten quid!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free