"Threatening Letter" from Severn Trent

trisontana

I received two letters today from the above water company . The first one started off with "Unpaid Water Services Bill" , Amount overdue is £15.30. Our records show that, although you have usually paid your water charges by now, the above amount remains unpaid . Please arrange to pay immediately"

I thought what the hell is going on (or words to that affect !). I pay by direct debit and, after checking my bank account on line, I could see that the last payment was made on March 15th. The second letter said "thank you for arranging to pay by direct debit, It will start in April"

After a phone call to the company I managed to get to the bottom of the story. Severn Trent (unlike gas and electric companies) set up direct debit accounts that only last for one year, and then a brand new one is started. The £15.30 was a shortfall on the last account. I was then told that this will be absorbed into the new account when that starts next month. So nothing to pay .

So why go to all that trouble of frightening people into thinking that they have to pay this money, and why don't they explain that there is nothing to do and the shortfall will be taken care of automatically? I did point this out to the person I spoke to, and he said that he will put it forward as a "suggestion". I would have thought they should have realised this before.

webmasterpolo

They probably did, but they don't care, and your suggestion probably goes in the bin the second you put down the phone.

I had a simialir letter from Scottish Power, although I've never been their customer they sent me a final demand for money, told them where to go and then complained to MD, got £25 cheque as an apology. They made an error and for some reason never bothered with an other notices, straight to the red you must pay or we are sending round the big boys.

Seems to be industry standard to not care about the customer.

-Web

IvanOpinion

To keep costs as low as possible, which is what we all want, these things are usually 100% automated and have very little if any user intervention. That is all very well when it works (which is the majority of the time) but sometimes something just goes wrong or it comes across a set of circumstances that has not been catered for. No matter how hard the developers try to get these things right there are just somethings that slip through the net. Then when it is noticed it may take anything from 3-6 months to get a fix put in place.

It is not meant to frighten people however for some reason people seem to panic when anything related or to do with money is mentioned. Simply call up the company, ask them what has happened, they should explain and put a process in place to get it sorted (that does not mean to say it will not happen again, they may have to wait for the fix to be applied) ... irrespective of how old the account is, believe it or not, that may be the first time a human has ever looked anywhere near the account.

The alternative is to have thousands upon thousands of people lined up in workhouses analysing every account then people wondering why their bills have gone from £100 per month to £100 per week ... the answer would be to cover the extra staff. It is how a company handles problems that is the key .. not the fact that problems occur.

Ivan

trisontana

I would have thought that this situation must have happened before.I imagine a lot of people have pay their water bill to ST via this method. If they are only running the Direct Debits for a year then starting new ones then you will either get a surplus or an overspend on most accounts. If there is a underpayment then I imagine these "demand" letters are automatically generated.

Why don't they have the same system as the other utility companies where the direct debit just carries on every year regardless , with the under or over-spend being carried forward without any letters having to be generated. It must cost more money to set up a new DD each time. As to ringing the company . I did that. I had to hang on for 15 minutes (on a 0845 number) which was a waste of my time and money for something which is not my fault.

Don't forget that I am talking about Severn Trent who have just been found guilty by OFWAT of fiddling the accounts, and have been ordered to pay back about £8 to all their customers. I think that their whole accounting system must be in a mess. One final thing . My overspend for the whole year was £15.30 . So why have they upped by monthly payments from Just under £20 to nearly £26. That is an increase of £72 a year . I don't think the water charges have gone up that much.

trisontana

After being assured not to take any action regarding the £15.30 and that it will be taken care of by the direct debit, today I received a red demand for the amount. The letter says "If we do not receive your payment by return , we will take further action to recover the amount owed. This may result in you having to pay court costs".

I naturally hit the roof and phoned them straight away. I had to hang on for 10 minutes on a 08457 number before someone answered . This time I have been told that everything will be sorted out and that I will get a call from a duty manager. Lets hope it is sorted, and I don't get a call from a debt collector.

IvanOpinion

trisontana wrote:

I would have thought that this situation must have happened before.I imagine a lot of people have pay their water bill to ST via this method. If they are only running the Direct Debits for a year then starting new ones then you will either get a surplus or an overspend on most accounts. If there is a underpayment then I imagine these "demand" letters are automatically generated.

Why don't they have the same system as the other utility companies where the direct debit just carries on every year regardless , with the under or over-spend being carried forward without any letters having to be generated. It must cost more money to set up a new DD each time. As to ringing the company . I did that. I had to hang on for 15 minutes (on a 0845 number) which was a waste of my time and money for something which is not my fault.

Don't forget that I am talking about Severn Trent who have just been found guilty by OFWAT of fiddling the accounts, and have been ordered to pay back about £8 to all their customers. I think that their whole accounting system must be in a mess. One final thing . My overspend for the whole year was £15.30 . So why have they upped by monthly payments from Just under £20 to nearly £26. That is an increase of £72 a year . I don't think the water charges have gone up that much.

Every utility companies system is different .. you do not buy these systems off a shelf, they are all hand crafted using hundreds od man years of development. Under/overspend being carried forward from year to the next may suit YOU but may not suit someone else ... everybodies situation is different. If there is a credit left at the end of year many people want it back, others like to let it ride (reducing their payments for the next year), others don't care .. if there is an debit then the company will be looking to get the money in as quick as possible. Who knows how their systems work (I have been involved in the devleopment of several of these systems but not ST) ... in ALL that I have been involved with the onus has been to try to get the estimate as accurate as possible ... these big utilitiy companies do not want you contacting them .. that costs money and is a drain on profits. Ask them how the instalment has been calculated .. maybe they have factored in another anticipated (as yet unannounced) price rise ... maybe they have a system that tries to get money in earlier .. who knows. What you will find however is that if you contact the call centre and say you are not happy with £26 and are only willing to pay (e.g.) £22 they will probably say 'OK'.

After being assured not to take any action regarding the £15.30 and that it will be taken care of by the direct debit, today I received a red demand for the amount. The letter says "If we do not receive your payment by return , we will take further action to recover the amount owed. This may result in you having to pay court costs".

I naturally hit the roof and phoned them straight away. I had to hang on for 10 minutes on a 08457 number before someone answered . This time I have been told that everything will be sorted out and that I will get a call from a duty manager. Lets hope it is sorted, and I don't get a call from a debt collector.

Don't get annoyed about this, in this day and age of computers it is going to happen. Your original situation kicked a set of events into play .. they are just playing out .. what is most important is that there will now be a narrative on your account telling ST that you have been in touch because something is wrong. You have done exactly the right thing. The letter should also say somewhere that 'if you have already paid or made arrangements to pay then please ignore this letter'.

Ivan

trisontana

I think I have every right to be annoyed about this. The whole company seems to be incompetent. What if this same red demand had been sent to someone else, such as an elderly pensioner? I can see them panicking and thinking that they are going to be hauled off to court. I am afraid that this sort of behaviour on the part of ST is just not acceptable.

As for saying that a note will be put onto my account saying everything is now sorted. I was told that had been done the first time round. It still didn't prevent them sending out that red demand.

Mark7799

Put your complaints to them in writing - this will have more effect and (hopefully) ensure things get recorded properly.

IvanOpinion

trisontana wrote:

I think I have every right to be annoyed about this. The whole company seems to be incompetent. What if this same red demand had been sent to someone else, such as an elderly pensioner? I can see them panicking and thinking that they are going to be hauled off to court. I am afraid that this sort of behaviour on the part of ST is just not acceptable.

As for saying that a note will be put onto my account saying everything is now sorted. I was told that had been done the first time round. It still didn't prevent them sending out that red demand.

You are missing what I am trying to say ... in computerised systems these things happen. It may be that the billing and the debt follow up are two totally separate systems. As soon as something fails a rule in a computer says 'pass this to here and send a letter out in 5 days unless a payment is received'. The thing is that the operator that you talked to possibly has had a look and seen eveything is OK and not realised that on some other system there is a 'red letter demand' about to go out. They put something on your account to say you phoned and everything is fine (or maybe they tried but there was not enough time to cancel the letter) .. so when the time comes the other system then triggers the letter. This sort of thing happens with just about every company.

It is a sign of the times and our dependency on computers. It has happend, it is happening and it will happen tomorrow as well ... not unless trillions is spent on updating all the systems in the UK which is totally and utterly unfeasible. Thats why I say don't let it annoy you .. the people at the call centres will do their best but they have very limited authority and can only take limited actions. They expect such calls and are trained (to the best of the companies ability) to handle them in a specific manner .. your problem may be slightly different. I had the (dis)pleasure of sitting in listening to a call yesterday (on a spare ste of headphones) from a very irrate customer who had a problem totally of their own making (although they would believe it was their own fault) and how the girl managed to keep her cool I do not know

If this is still not resolved then Mark is correct, put it in writing with dates and times .. you may have the right for it to ananoy you but don't let it .. this is just part of 21st century living.

Ivan

trisontana

I see your point, but another worry of is that the information about my receiving a red demand could find its way onto some credit reference agency and affect my credit score. Just remember this problem is none of my making, but I have had to spend time and money on telephone calls just sorting out a mess created by Severn Trent. It's a pity that they are in a monopoly situation and I have no chance of switching to another provider.