Help with United Utilities

martin0642

Hi folks, this is a bit of an odd one so i'm hoping someone may be able to give some guidance as to what I should do next (or even just assure me i'm doing the right thing to start with). There are no debts involved here (yet!!).

Ok - so I mved into a flat 2 and a half years ago, rang UU and gave them a meter reading, set up my direct debit and all seemed fine. The meter is one of three, outside the house on the pavement. The covers (which are tied down on one side) have the flat numbers painted on underneath.

All seemed well until it came time for my second bill - when they tried top increase my payments dramatically. From about £16 per month to £48 per month!! It was then I realised they had the wrong meter serial number on the bill. So I contacted them to explain this and ask to have the bill changed. Eventually they agreed to sending an engineer out to check which meter was which (you'd think they'd know, it's not exactly a new build?!!!)

So I take a day off work - just to sit in and turn a tap on and off. Once. Unfortunately the information form that check never made it to the billing dept and the fiasco continued. I eventually got them to change my bill back to the original billing amount but noted the serial number was still wrong. I contacted them several times about this, mostly by phone (oops) and surprisingly...they arranged another engineer visit. Not one that works for them of course - just another one of their many contractors. Another day off work - another days annual leave wasted. This one did at least pass the information on but sadly the serial number remained unchanged.

Long story short - I wrote to them complaining about the sheer amount of time i've spent on the phone to them - trying to do their job for them. as well as wasting two days annual leave - or potentially the £190 i could get doing consultancy working for those two days. Finally I spoke to a wonderful woman in their complaints dept who assured me that she had cleared all my bills and worked everything out from my start date, based on total water consumed against my total paid so far...and that the serial number had been changed and all bills cancelled. Sadly this didnt include the direct debit for the latest fiasco bill and £9.60 (first months installment for the coming year - other months were to be about £19 a month) came out of my account anyway. So I cancelled my direct debit as they dont seem responsible enough to deal with it.

Phoned the nice lady again (i admire her tenacity in the face of incompetence) and explained all this - she promised to chase it up - having already offered me £35 refund and a £50 compensation cheque for the inconvenience. A laughable amount given the time i've wasted...mostly telling them information they should already know..like where their meter is and what its connected to.

THis brings us up to the end of last year - since then...nothing. No refund (whis may well be voided by my bill now anyway) and no compenstion cheque. I'm not overly fussed about the compensation as I find it a fairly ludicrous amount anyway given the time i've wasted..but I appreciate the gesture at least.

I will now write to OFWAT and their Chief Executive as a next step.

So my question is really this- do I have any legal recourse to deal with their staggering incompetence?

I have now wasted so much time - with so little result - that I really want to force their hand to get something done. I'm not after a huge payout or anything...I just want to pay the right amount for the right meter without hassles. I would also like some compensation now as frankly - 2 years of this is way more than enough and at the very least I would like a reasonable compensation for losing precious holiday time just to turn a tap on and off!

Any clues anyone? Or am I currently doing everything I can reasonably do?

Cardew

Apart from knocking your head against a brick wall a few more times, I think you are doing everything you can.