Thames water lied to me. Bills went from £44>£85>£114

Futue

I had a plummer come out in 2024 and when he needed to access the stopcock on the road he noticed it had a broken lid and was full of years worth of mud.
January my bill went to £85 so I contacted Thames water. After call disconnects after 45mins i got through The lady was rude. Said they would fix the lid to the meter and kept changing the facts. I remained polite and calm and she said she would send an engineer. A short while later I got this letter

"Our engineer visited your property on 28 January 2025 to read your water meter. The engineer recorded a meter read of 1611. I have promptly updated this reading in our records"

June I spotted an engineer try to get a Reading and he said it was read Dec 3rd but he has no idea how as its full off mud!

Today I checked and my bill has jumped again to £114. 

"I called and got the nicest person. She told me the last meter reading with picture was September 2021....all after that are full of mud. They did try with a device once but these are inaccurate"
So Thames water letter was a lie as the engineer stated "unable to read due to mud. Needs new lid and cleaned out"

Im disabled so cannot read it myself even if I got it cleaned out

Ive asked to escalate to a manager and will update when he calls.

Thoughts and advice?? My first post so go gentle.

Brie

Hey there - are you on the water company's priority service list?  This would mean that you are registered with them as disabled and they should be more helpful.  Doesn't always work of course but worth a try as a first step.

Then I would suggest that you lodge a complaint with them.  Polite but firm.  Factual.  Preferably written in chronological order so it's easy to understand.  I tend put these sort of things in point form with the date starting each line. 

Keep track of each and every phone call you need to make, who you talk to, what department, what date and time. 

Frankly it does sound like they are simply ignoring you so far so you may have to be very firm with them.  And hopefully they will pull a thumb out and get something done. 

Futue

Team leader called me back with a more combative attitude. I remained polite.
TW: They did take a reading and we have a photo.
ME: Can I see the photo?
TW: Actually its very unclear....because of mud.
TW: Im going to check if thats our responsibility. 

Ive requested it is cleaned out and I can view the meter with the engineer present. They have booked the first available appointment...Sept 1st. I will update then.

Noticed my bill suddenly dropped to £50.......just before they called me.