Thames Water meter readings and bills issue

CrochetingFanatic

Good morning. I'm looking for some advice and support regarding thames water bills.

Back in August I got a new water bill. I'm on a meter but hadn't sent in a reading for quite sometime being overwhelmed with work and stuff.

So I decided to get on top of it. My reading was quite a bit lower than the estimated. Easy I thought I'll just update them all will be fine.

No it wasn't. First the reading put my £500 in credit I got the usual blah blah we will use it for the next bill. Okay. But they still wanted to put my direct debit up? That's when I said. No the account is clear give me my money back cancel my direct debit and I will pay the next bill as it comes.

This took days to sort out and ended up having to be escalated as I then randomly got a bill for £800 a few days later. Eventually a week or two later my balance said £0. Excellent I thought and each month I've saved some money separately to pay the bill when it comes in.

Sorry this is so long.

Now my new bill comes in January they estimated I used quite a bit more than I did. Fine I thought I will send them a new reading easy. 

Nope.

The new readings where logged it said thank you for your readings. But never made it to my account profile. I spoke to customer service as my bill is due. Asking for a a new one based on actual readings. He tells me I have never submitted a meter reading since 2020. I had to send a screenshot of my account to get him to admit I have.

Then he takes my meter reading and issues a new bill. Which is £25 higher!

I asked him what was he doing I used less than the estimated how can the bill go up? He says well ive taken it back to 2020. Why? My balance was clear and sorted in August I even got a refund. He won't say just that thats the way its done. 

I've escalated the problem but I'm still not sure what on earth is going on. £272 for six months now he "adjusted" my bill.

Woodstok2000

Ask Thames Water to send you a breakdown of all the usage charges, bills and payments over that period.

In the mean time Can you see online all your account details, readings and payments, going back to 2020?

MattMattMattUK

Download copies of your bills from the site, as well as all the meter readings showing on the site and double check the numbers, so it on a spreadsheet so you can send it to Thames Water if necessary.

CrochetingFanatic

I can access bills and the meter reading from 2020 but the payments only show up for a year and it says I can only request up to to years.

Im baffled as to why 2020 I've been a customer in this flat since 2006 and had the meter installed shortly after moving in.

I'm quite frustrated as in August they said the account was clear.

MattMattMattUK

CrochetingFanatic said:

I can access bills and the meter reading from 2020 but the payments only show up for a year and it says I can only request up to to years.

You should be able to get the payments from your own bank statements.

CrochetingFanatic said:

Im baffled as to why 2020 I've been a customer in this flat since 2006 and had the meter installed shortly after moving in.

Thames Water were pretty good at reading meters up until the lockdowns, so a lot of people got a last read in late 2019 or early 2020 but then found that meters were not read for up to three years, none were read in 2020 after the lockdowns started and most were not read again until 2022. As you have found out some of those reads were quite different to estimates, people who had higher historical usage had overpaid, those who had historically lower usage faced higher bills to catch up.

CrochetingFanatic said:

I'm quite frustrated as in August they said the account was clear.

Rather than looking at "clear", work out what the actual position is from the meter reads and billing periods. Use the reference periods for standing charges and then set out the unit rates in the correct periods so you can calculate everything properly. 

middlewife

you have my sympathy - I've spent about 12 hours so far trying to make sense of my bills since 2020, as MattMatt says lots of accounts were either wildly over or under estimated. My usage has varied from 3 cubic meters - I'd have died from dehydration (!) to 148 cubic metres. If you use the WhatsApp feature at least you have a written record of what was said. I'm currently waiting for someone to telephone to arrange an appointment as I can't read my meter and absolutely do not trust TW, who have the worst customer rating. They have refunded money which should have been kept, failed to increase DD when bills went up and behaved totally unpredictably. All other energy companies work on an opt out of increased bills whereas TW seem to operate on an opt in to increased bills, that way you can really get into arrears, good luck with it all.

JuicyBrat

We had a similar issue with TW. We had smart meters installed 5 years ago and opted to submit monthly meter readings and have a bill generated to which TW agreed. What we weren't told, and have since discovered, is that although we have been submitting monthly meter readings, we aren’t actually billed per month! Furthermore, the customer advisor informed me that TW takes their own meter readings every 6 months cycle which can result in 2 bills being generated in any particular 6 month period. This happened today. We paid February's bill last week but got a bill today (£45.61) as part of their 6 monthly cycle meter reading system. We are confused and don't understand how TW accepts monthly meter readings, produces a bill every month but we’re not actually paying for the month! The CS suggested to avoid any further confusion/inconvenience that TW engineers could read our smart meters (remotely) every month, we declined. He did say they will still take their own meter readings in September (next 6 month cycle) which will result in us being billed twice again in the same month!

Wonderingwoman63

Hi,

This makes for very interesting reading. I tried to get a handle on my TW bill during lockdown when we had more time on our hands but it drifted when I went back into work.

When, on 31/3/26, I had my first actual meter reading since May 2021 a credit of over £4000 was recorded. Fortunately I took a screen shot of the account before speaking to TW that afternoon. By the time the call handler had reversed some charges the credit had plummeted to £3200. Having spent in excess of 10 hours on the phone a refund still hasn't been processed in any shape or form.

The incompetence over the refund is too tedious to recount, what I don't understand is why can TW get away with only issuing bills every 6 months and why do they not have to pursue an actual reading by knocking on the door of the homeowner. Our meter is difficult to find and difficult to read - you have to lay in the road, under a neighbour's hedge. But I would happily direct a meter reading agent to the spot and stand guard while he did his job.

Please can something be done to get monthly bills in line with every other utility company and a move towards active payment management using data in the the style of Octopus Energy .

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81994311#Comment_81994311

If you submit a read every month then Thames Water will generate a bill 1-2 working days later, I do this every month for myself, my mum and my sister and it works consistently.

Wonderingwoman63

Hi

@MattMattMattUK

I have been doing readings fortnightly and requested statements but nothing is coming back. I think they have put a block on my account while they are dealing with the refund. Until I get a call back from the 'escalation team' I can't make any progress.

I have downloaded statements and bills going back to 2021 in readiness for my written complaint but I want the £3000 back before I submit this formal complaint so that there is no excuse for delaying the bulk of the refund.

TW's compensation claim says that if you go more than 13 months without a reading you are entitled to £40 compensation then £80 for the 13 month periods after that. However this is only from October 2025 so no one is able to claim this yet.

QrizB

I suspect TW will want to come out and re-validate the meter readings themselves before paying a four-figure refund.