Fighting with Southern Water

Jo*_2

Ok guys i have a possible end to all this. I have just received an email advising me that they will credit me £515. This is roughly what i had expected but i am a bit unsure about it, going on how they worked it out.

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"I can confirm that I have now calculated your allowance based on the usage of 3 cubic metres recorded between 8 October 2008 and 19 November 2008. I have given the allowance form the date you moved into the property to the date the meter was exchanged.

I can confirm that I have credited a total of £164.81 for water, and £260.23 for wastewater to your account, a cheque for £425.03 has been requested and you should receive this within the next 10 working days.

Your account currently has a credit of £514.94 on it, however once this cheque has been sent you will be left with a credit of £89.90, once your next bill has been issued any credit remaining after that can also be refunded."

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Is it worth me asking them to find out the amount that the person who was actually paying for my consumption, paid..? or should i accept this? I dont really wanting them to look into it fully and then finding out that i'd be worse off

deanos

If you think its about right i would accept it, i doubt they would tell you anything about the other persons bill because of data protection

Jo*_2

I'm not surprised by that really. But they were paying for MY water. Doesnt that mean anything? I mean, they dont have to give me any of their personal details

But i do think its about right and will probably just accept it

ugrsrt

I am also experiencing problems with Southern water. I recieved a bill for over £200 for a one bed flat that rarely gets used after asking around I felt confident this was far too high. I rang customer services and they agreed this was high. They got me to check my meter and to my shock after clearing the condensation it was less than what my start reading was for when I moved into the flat. Twice I asked and was told this start reading was manually read only for a supervisor to tell me it was estimated. How do you estimate a start reading for a new occupant???

Their suggestion was to essentially guess what I had used based on 4 weeks readings. Now I use the flat infrequently sometimes more often, sometimes less. Now I could vacate the flat for 4 weeks and they would have to bill me for 0 units but obviously that is inconvienient for me and highlights the ridiculous logic behind this idea. I equally don't want to use more water than usual and end up paying for their mistake.

I am supposedly waiting for a meter reading to be taken which I've already had to rearrange once since they left a card saying they couldn't gain entry. This is despite the meter being located well outside the block of flats and therfore not requiring my presence. To make matters worse I have now recieved a letter threatening legal action if the bill is not paid within 10 days!

Jo*_2

Hmm sounds nasty. While my stuff was going on, they said they "put a block on my account" which meant that i'd not receive any bills or junk mail. You could ask them to do the same for you til its resolved

Have you written to them since this threatening letter? Sounds like you should send them a nice letter It got me somewhere, after phone calls did nothing