Affinity Water - didn't switch to metered billing 4 years after meter installed

joseph80

My mother recently had a stroke which has resulted in me helping her with her finances and looking over her bills, etc. 

I have discovered than in Feb 2021, she had a meter installed (which I pushed her to do as she lives alone in a large 3 bedroom house so the RV would have most likely been more than her actual usage charges). 

Fast forward 4 years and her bills are still showing as non-metered charges!

I've gone through her paperwork and can see that she was supposed to have contacted them to ask them to switch her to metered billing which unfortunately she didn't do (and I'm kicking myself now that I didn't get more involved back then).

However, the paperwork also states that if she doesn't contact them to switch over, it would automatically happen after 2 years (so that should have happened in Feb 2023).

I've contacted them and they are looking into it (and have been for many weeks). I have insisted they backdate and adjust her bills accordingly for 4 years (back to when the meter was installed), or begrudgingly would accept 2 years (as that is when they were supposed to have done it automatically, but didn't for some reason).

Am I missing anything here. It seems ridiculous that this has happened. She must have overpaid by many £000s. 

Do you think I should push for 4 years backdated/correct or just 2?

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Thank you

Green_hopeful

 I would push for the billing to be based on the metered usage. They know what she has used. They have quite a bit of leeway. It might be worth trying the vulnerable customer team. They are more likely to be sympathetic with your mum’s situation. Be nice as you can but persistent. 

joseph80

Green_hopeful said:

 I would push for the billing to be based on the metered usage. They know what she has used. They have quite a bit of leeway. It might be worth trying the vulnerable customer team. They are more likely to be sympathetic with your mum’s situation. Be nice as you can but persistent. 

Just to give an update on this. They have agreed to backdate it based on metered usage from the 2 year mark (i.e. 2 years after the meter was installed when they were supposed to have automatically switched her) which has given her a very nice credit indeed (which is being refunded to her bank account).

I tried pushing for the full 4 years to be backdated, but did not get anywhere with that. I could have taken it further but it was a little difficult to justify as letters were sent to her encouraging her to switch in the periods in between. 

We're happy enough with this resolution, but could have done without the many MANY phone calls and live chat sessions to resolve it!

QrizB

Thank you for the update, that sounds like a reasonable outcome.