Help with Southern Water!!!

croakey

Currently having issues dealing with Southern Water and would appreciate any assistance/advice with how to proceed with these clowns.

I'll try to keep it short but include everything thats important.

Back in 2009 we begun renting a property close to where we now live, obviously we have 2 water Direct Debits, one with SouthEastern Water (provider) and Southern Water (Waste).

All was good upto December 2010 when we were contacted by Southern Water informing us we had several hundred pounds of credit on our account and that they would be issuing a refund and amending our DD's to avoid this large credit accumulating again.

All well and good so far...

July 2011 we moved from this property to our current home (this time purchasing), when we moved i called all of our providers to migrate accounts and generate final bills for the previous property. Southern Water were the only ones who couldnt migrate the account and instead the chump in the call centre insisted we had to open a new account.

September 2011 a letter arrives from Southern Water stating that we owe them £290 as an unpaid bill, obviously my partner decides to call them to enquire as to how/why/when/where this occured. What happened on the phone i dont honestly know, but i arrived home to her in tears and she told me what had been said - in short they were borderline abusive down the phone and demanded card details to process the payment.

So now i'm involved - i contacted them and they informed me that they had no liability as the water meter readings were provided by SouthEastern Water and advised i contact them. Which in due course i did, SouthEastern stated that they had no issues with the account and that it must be Southerns error.

So back to Southern Water and this time i get through to someone who at the time appeared to know what he was talking about, upon looking through the account he identified a point where meter readings (they had taken) was inaccurate and showed a usage of 1m3 of water for a quarter. He said that this could be a reason why, but also noted that the new tenants had received a large rebate under "leak relief" soon after moving in. He promised me he would contact SouthEastern to get them to investigate the matter and that he would get back to me in due course stating that it could be a week/a month/ a period of months dependent on who busy they are.

So this brings us to yesterday when i received a message from them requesting a phone call, which i did, the following call was probably the worst example of customer service i've ever received (Yes Sammi @ SouthernWater if you're reading this... get a new job!). I was informed by the delightful customer service advisor that our account was being forwarded to a debt collection agency. Obviously this came as a shock as i was still waiting for them to get back to me in regards to the discrepancy, rather than listening to me she decided it was wise to shout over the top of me and proving time on time she didnt know what she was talking about.

After much pushing i finally spoke to a very helpful senior member of staff who agreed that this was unacceptable and would investigate the issue and place the account on hold.

Much to my amazement he rang back within 20 minutes having spent some time reading into it all, the outcome was as follows:

1) Southern Water have admitted they reduced our Direct Debits to a level that has created this defecit
2) That they hadn't got back to me as they had promised (infact he commented on the low activity on the account)
3) By refusing to migrate the account we ended up with 2 accounts, one in defecit and one in credit to the tune of £80.

So now i'm in a predicament, he tells me the most he can do is credit me £20 to the account reducing the final debt to £190 (£290-80-20). But this doesn't sit right with me, 18 months down the line they are pursuing me for a debt created by their incompetency (they admitted that the accounts had been paid inline with their DD requests).

So...

where do i go from here?

anyone got a decent contact in the organisation?

Thanks as always

Cardew

From what I understand, you are not disputing you owe the money, but feel that £20 compensation is insufficient? and presumably you want more compensation?

I wasn't aware that water companies would/could migrate accounts as the water meter serial numbers are different, and there can be different charges for different properties.

If you feel that no progress can be made with Southern Water then you can contact the Consumer Council for Water http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

croakey

Thanks for such a prompt response.

I dont dispute there is a defecit on the account - number unfortunately don't seem to lie. What i am disputing is my liability for this debt, it in essence being created/managed by Southern Water , in good faith i have allowed them to control direct debits and they've always been paid.

I've found an email address for a contact on MSE so i've fired him an email (joel @ southern water).

I'll be onto the CCWater organisation as soon as i'm done dealing with another cretninous organisation (Jobcentre+)

Cardew

Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears you are disputing liability on the grounds that they fixed the DD at an incorrect(low) level?

Making a mistake in DD level is not grounds for waiving a bill.

Without trying to be facetious, they had initially made a mistake by setting the DD level too high and gave you a large rebate in in December 2010; could you not argue on the same grounds that you were not entitled to a rebate?

Mistakes on bills(both ways) can be rectified until 6 years have elapsed.

That is not to say they won't make a higher 'goodwill' payment than the £20 offered.