Thames Water Misinformation Complaint

peachsun

Hi All,

Looking for some advice on if I should bother escalating my Thames water complaint to the CCW as they have led me to believe this is the only way I can escalate further (not sure if this is correct through). Sorry this is a bit of a long one! 

Basically, my partner and I lived in a rented flat for 9 months. On moving out I contacted Thames Water for a bill (they hadn’t sent me any communication the whole tenure) and spoke to a nice customer service agent who confirmed I had a smart meter and the bill was £480 but as a goodwill because they had not attempted to contact me would reduce it to £430. I did think that was high but being a first time renter was just going to accept it and move on. For context, we had trouble with the boiler and hot water the whole duration of the tenure and didn’t have showers for more than 5 mins each as water would go cold. We also both worked full time (not from home) so were not in the flat much. 

Following this conversation, the customer service rep sent me a letter outlining that following our conversation he had checked the average usage for 2 people and ours was way over that and because we had vacated the property already he would amend our bill to £170 and investigate further with the next tenants/landlord. This was signed off with his name and on headed Thames Water paper etc. Obviously I was delighted and thought what great customer service. Then came the amended bill which I paid. Fast forward a few days and another bill arrives.... for the original £480 (reduced to 430 as goodwill). I was confused. I assumed there had been some sort of delay in the system so phoned up expecting it to be a quick resolution... boy was I wrong. Spoke to multiple customer service reps with no clue, passed from pillar to post, cut off, told to email evidence of the first letter to an email address that didn’t exist... you get the gist! The line they were taking appeared to be ‘you had a smart meter so the original bill still stands’. Despite me being sent a letter explaining why my bill had been reduced and being sent the reduced bill which I paid. 

I then sent a complaint to their billing department and after not hearing back I sent another complaint via resolver so essentially I started 2 different complaints. I have in the last couple of days been contacted over the phone by the same complaints person regarding each complaint to basically tell me there is nothing they can do, no explanation as to why I was send a reduced bill, implication that the customer service rep that sent letter was not authorised to do so (not really my problem!) and when I say I’m not happy and want to escalate further am told to contact the CCW. On both conversations the complaints person told me he would follow up with an email. He did so, but the email literally says ‘I confirm that I spoke with you today. If you want more info about complaints procedure click this link’ and then when I click the link it says ‘page doesn’t exist’ so I can’t even be sure of what the internal complaints procedure is! Nothing he told me over the phone in response to my complaint is put in his email. I sent my complaints in via email in writing so I would at the very least need a written response I believe.

Before I go any further I just wanted to see if anybody had any similar situations and what you think my chances are? I’m at the end of my tether because honestly it felt like an open and shut case to me but clearly not.

Any advice gratefully received, thank you!

Cardew

Did you or the letting agent tell them the date you occupied the property? Check the dates on that bill. If not, as often happens, your original £480 bill could cover the previous occupant's consumption.

The terminology of 'smart meter' can be confusing as there are two types. I have a so called 'smart meter' that simply allows a meter reader to walk by my house every 6 months and take a reading remotely without looking at my(internal) meter. The other type of smart meter is where the meter transmits readings regularly to the water company.

Either way it would appear that the original bill will have been based on meter readings and length of time in flat(for standing charges). Did you check those meter readings?

peachsun

Cardew said:

Did you or the letting agent tell them the date you occupied the property? Check the dates on that bill. If not, as often happens, your original £480 bill could cover the previous occupant's consumption.

The terminology of 'smart meter' can be confusing as there are two types. I have a so called 'smart meter' that simply allows a meter reader to walk by my house every 6 months and take a reading remotely without looking at my(internal) meter. The other type of smart meter is where the meter transmits readings regularly to the water company.

Either way it would appear that the original bill will have been based on meter readings and length of time in flat(for standing charges). Did you check those meter readings?

Thanks for your response. It’s definitely for the correct time period as this is listed on the bill so it is only for the 9 month period we were there. 

Honestly I don’t know what type of meter it was (which is embarrassing!). We looked in the flat and outside and couldn’t find one and on our inventory when we moved in there were gas and electric readings but no water reading, this only really came to light when we moved out. Don’t know if this makes any difference but it is an old block of flats. 

The line of complaint I was going with was more down the route of ‘you sent me written communication confirming my bill was reduced and you’ve then decided to go back on that without explanation’. As I’m no longer the tenant there it gets a bit tricky  

Cardew

I think you have sufficient grounds to forward your complaint to CCW. I would telephone them first as they can often solve disputes informally; and water companies will sometimes concede rather than get involved in a formal dispute. 

Make sure you copy any formal letter to Thames Water to prevent them handing the matter to a Debt Collection Agency and thus affecting your credit record.

Prior to April 1990 water meters were not used for billing, so if your 'old block of flats' was built before then they wouldn't have had meters. There is normally a problem in retrospectively metering old blocks of flats as often(usually) two or more flats share the same common water supply e.g mains supply pipe runs to flat No1 and then on to flat No2 etc rather than a separate mains supply to each flat.

peachsun

Cardew said:

I think you have sufficient grounds to forward your complaint to CCW. I would telephone them first as they can often solve disputes informally; and water companies will sometimes concede rather than get involved in a formal dispute. 

Make sure you copy any formal letter to Thames Water to prevent them handing the matter to a Debt Collection Agency and thus affecting your credit record.

Prior to April 1990 water meters were not used for billing, so if your 'old block of flats' was built before then they wouldn't have had meters. There is normally a problem in retrospectively metering old blocks of flats as often(usually) two or more flats share the same common water supply e.g mains supply pipe runs to flat No1 and then on to flat No2 etc rather than a separate mains supply to each flat.

Thanks Cardew, really appreciate the advice. My worry is about the credit issue so hopefully the CCW can help me wrap this up! 

peachsun

Just thought I would post an update on here... I took this further with the CCW and it was finally resolved a couple of weeks back. Thames Water honoured the original low bill and gave me £100 back as goodwill gesture so in the end I only paid a really minimal amount which I am really pleased about. Obviously a hugely frustrating and protracted complaint procedure and they really do try their luck with fobbing you off so just thought I'd share my resolution story Definitely worth always taking it further! 

Cardew

Glad it worked out.

I think many of the problems in these CoVid times is that staff are working from home and don't have the authority to make decisions. They don't want to consult their manager so, as you put it, they will fob you off.

As a matter of interest did CCW solve this informally or did it take a formal complaint?

peachsun

From what I understand it was a formal complaint. I spoke with the CCW a couple of times on the phone clarifying what happened, the agent I spoke to actually wasn't too sure I'd get a favourable outcome but lo and behold I got an email from the CCW outlining all points of the complaint and Thames Waters response and the conclusion.