Paying by standing order

Watercompanyvictim

mmmmikey said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

mmmmikey said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

Hoenir said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

Hoenir said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

I've never refused to pay and indeed still pay weekly but now they have sent my account to a debt collection agency with all the costs that comes with that because and I quote "this is not their desired method of payment". 

Sounds as you are in constantly in arrears and not adhering to the contractual terms and conditions. Causing the water company unneccessary additional administration. You are beating yourself with your own self made stick. Solution is easy. Switch to direct debit. No amount of ranting is going to help you achieve anything. 

Been paying standing order since the start. 65 payments gone through without any problems at all. You are allowed to pay in installments so paying by direct debit would not change anything as utvwiyjd be the same amount paid on the same day to the same account it's just they would not have direct access to my bank account. 
The amount and date are not even in question just the method. 

You are a business and as such agreed to the contractual terms. Breaching those terms allows the other party to seek a remedy through the Courts. Unfortunately doesn't apply to me / I'll do what I want counts for absolutely nothing.  I'd imagine that the Water Company has now reached the point of having no other course of action. 

There has been no breach hence why 65 payments and 20 months of payments went through without a hitch. If there was a breach they would have corresponded with me from the first payment and 20 months ago. 
No contract has been agreed and it used to be united utilities which I also paid by standing order for 10 years without any problems. 

Two more examples of not unreasonable but quite possibly false assumptions. 

Firstly, the fact that they didn't contact you when you first paid by standing order doesn't necessarily mean that it was acceptable to them. They quite possibly just made a business decision (at that time) not to hold you to the T's and C's because whilst they still had the processes and systems in place to manage standing orders there was very little to be gained by doing so. That does not mean that they cannot enforce the T's and C's now if they choose.

Secondly, although you may have not formally signed a contract document that doesn't mean that no contract exists. You don't sign a contract when you buy, for example, petrol from a petrol station but that doesn't mean that a contract doesn't exist in a legal sense. It's likely that you are deemed to agree to the T's and C's of supply purely by virtue of being a customer and using the supply.

Not a false assumption but the fact that you paid by standing order for 10 years without problems is irrelevant. What matters is the payment methods that are in place now.

It may not feel like it, but folks here are trying to protect you from yourself. The more you dig your heels in and refuse to co-operate with the water supplier and debt collector the higher the risk that you will end up paying more charges and ultimately have your supply cut off. If you don't heed the advice you're being given here and end up paying un-necessary charges you will have nobody but yourself to blame.

The water company have investigated  and apologised. 
They have removed all fees and have said this sort of thing should never have happened with a reliable payer. 
Fingers crossed the nightmare is over. 

That's good news  

Yes I'm very relieved to be honest.