Thames Water tirade of incompetence

edwarddebuse

I wanted to share a rather annoying and ongoing issue I've been having with Thames Water, in the hope of educating others about how things tend to go and how incompetent Thames Water is able to be. I'm also hoping there might be others out there who've had something similar and can tell me what to expect next.


I had a water meter fitted to my very small house a few years ago, enjoyed a satisfactory reduction in bills compared to my rated bill, and was happy. Over time I developed a suspicion however that my water meter had been connected to the wrong house, but my bill was never objectionable, so I never pursued it (inspecting my own water meter and turning off the stopcock in it never affected my house, only my neighbour).

Fast forward to this Christmas just gone, where I receive a letter warning me of abnormally high usage, and then on Christmas eve a bill for approximately £1200 for a 6 month period (normally say, £40). The readings and the numbers all match, on my meter, the reading is accurate. Has to be a massive water leak somewhere, not that I can find any sign of such a thing. But at this point my suspicion the water meter isn't even connected to my house, becomes quite important, and a pretty iron-clad escape clause.

I get in touch with Thames Water who let me know the account will be put on hold, they won't charge me a penny until they've investigated and sent people out and verified my suspicions. First week of January they pull £1200 out of my account, cause a ton of bill payments to fail and bounce and charge me money, on top of overdraft charges, and reach the point of approximately £100 a week in charges. I spend January pretty poor. Thames Water are very apologetic on the phone about breaking their promise to bill me but inform me nothing can be done until someone has been out to check the meter, which wasn't till mid Jan.

So men come out and check the meter and confirm yes it's definitely the one on my account, and yes it definitely is NOT connected to my house. They go away and I await my refund. Another week passes and I ring Thames Water and they're very apologetic but inform me they can issue no such refund until the investigation into my account has been completed, which won't be until May at the earliest. I remind them that I am accruing approximately £100 in bank charges, that I will be billing to them in full, and that I will extend that to the cost of credit card cash advances if it comes to that, in order for me to still have cash by then.

At this point they seem to get a little nervous, and inform me that I can get the money back immediately by filing an indemnity claim with my bank, an indemnity claim that Thames Water will fully comply with. I do this, and they're right, I get all of the money back in 24 hrs and finally the bank charges stop accruing. So at this point all I have to do is put together a bill for all my bank charges they have to pay me, send it off, and sit tight till they've finished twiddling their thumbs in May.

Except, they sent me a bill this weekend just gone, for £1200. A bill that says I'm overdue paying that £1200 since December. A bill I am required to pay immediately, or else (I already deleted my Direct Debit with them when I filed my indemnity claim, as they've proven they can't be trusted). And so now I'm completely exasperated. Given their previous history, I'm now expecting them to pursue me all the way to the courts for this money, until May, when they get their heads out of their !!!!!. They couldn't help me on the phone today as 'all their systems have gone down', so that'll have to wait, but I no longer have any reason to believe their assurances.

Anyone else ever travelled this road? Been hounded for a bill from Thames Water you knew was false, but their left hand didn't know what their right hand was doing? Any tips to shut them up till May?

macman

If you knew from 'several years ago' that the meter was not connected to your supply, and did nothing about it, then you've hardly helped your situation.
If switching off the stopc*ck didn't affect your supply, then you didn't have a suspicion-you knew that the meter was wrongly allocated.
If you break your payment schedule, then the full amount does become payable in one lump sum.

edwarddebuse

macman wrote: »

If you knew from 'several years ago' that the meter was not connected to your supply, and did nothing about it, then you've hardly helped your situation.
If switching off the stopc*ck didn't affect your supply, then you didn't have a suspicion-you knew that the meter was wrongly allocated.
If you break your payment schedule, then the full amount does become payable in one lump sum.

To be fair, when the water meter was fitted, they did exactly the same, turned the stopcock right off, didn't seem to affect my supply, but the workmen were satisfied that was perfectly alright. Bottom line though, whatever it metered, wasn't my water, so it's not for me to pay. And I didn't break any kind of payment schedule, my normal bill was around £40 settled in full every 6 months, until a sudden bill of £1200 in December, which they promised repeatedly would not be charged to me, and repeatedly broke that promise. Money I don't owe and money they continue to promise I won't be charged. Yet do.

Gothicfairy

I am not really sure what you are looking for here :

You say you knew the meter was wrong and did nothing so what were you expecting ?
The DD came out as it is automatic as you must have known and it is taken 7 to 14 days after the bill is produced and unless cancelled it will come out even if the account is being looked into as that is the system the bank / water company have set up.
A human has to actually cancel it and normally they leave that down to the customer as it can effect their credit set up if they do it.

You have another bill because the system sent it out, the account is showing as in arrears and that is what happens.

A cross supply should not take that long though so I suggest you go through that route rather then the other options as you did know there was a problem way before the water company and as such are at fault too.

You need to take readings from the meter connected to your property and work out your own adc and from that you can look at the back billing situation.

Gothicfairy

Oh and how do you get £40 every 6 months ? standing charges normally come to about that alone without water ?

edwarddebuse

Gothicfairy wrote: »

You say you knew the meter was wrong and did nothing so what were you expecting ?
The DD came out as it is automatic as you must have known and it is taken 7 to 14 days after the bill is produced and unless cancelled it will come out even if the account is being looked into as that is the system the bank / water company have set up.
A human has to actually cancel it and normally they leave that down to the customer as it can effect their credit set up if they do it.

They promised me the DD would not come out, that payment would not be taken. I didn't think they would break their promise, but they did. Had they advised me to cancel the direct debit I would have done that.

Gothicfairy wrote: »

A cross supply should not take that long though so I suggest you go through that route rather then the other options as you did know there was a problem way before the water company and as such are at fault too.

You need to take readings from the meter connected to your property and work out your own adc and from that you can look at the back billing situation.

I knew there was maybe problem, but given their workmen thought it was fine, and I initially trusted their verdict, and the bills were fine, I chose to leave it. In hindsight a mistake, certainly, but the water company are the ones at fault for fitting the supply to the wrong house. I am fairly sure there is not a water meter connected to my supply at all, having found a stopcock the workmen missed, in the most logical position for my house. It's unreachable without specialist tools though, but bottom line there's no water meter on it.

So in the meantime, I have to put up with Thames Water continually breaking their promises to me. Regardless of whatever I did, their incompetence here is surely clear?

Gothicfairy

They might have promised you something but if I am honest if it were me I would have cancelled it anyway to make sure as customer service reps are not always the most honest anyway.

But that aside..no they should not break their promises but I am afraid that unless you speak to someone in the Cross supply / cross complaints dept no one else can really promise you anything really anyway.

You need to move forward though and first thing is a letter to the cross team giving your meter readings over a week or two and asking for this to be dealt with.

After that letter they have 10 working days to reply and once replied you can either accept what they say or go through CCW or OFWAT to take it further.

But write first and see what they are willing to put down in writing.