Water bill !!!!-up

crank_girl

I recently received my annual water statement and was surprised to see that my monthly payments had been amended to £88!

It seems that the water board decided to stop my direct debit payment last March so I've not been paying for ages. When I contacted them they very kindly agreed to lower the dd payment to something more manageable and offered to investigate why my account was allowed to get into arrears without them contacting me. That was over 4 weeks ago and I suspect I won't be hearing from them again.

Is there anything I can do with respect to the direct debit agreement? Are they not obliged to notify me when a change is made?

withabix

So you didn't notice that you hadn't been paying monthly direct debits for your water for the last 14 months?

What about your 6 monthly statement from UU (assuming you are on a meter)? Did you not get one of those?

crank_girl

ps. The title would read c0ck-up if the swear filter hadn't gone all Mary Whitehouse on me. It looks much ruder than it should!

crank_girl

withabix wrote: »

So you didn't notice that you hadn't been paying monthly direct debits for your water for the last 14 months?

No. I check my statements for things that shouldn't be there, not things that should.

What about your 6 monthly statement from UU (assuming you are on a meter)? Did you not get one of those?

I'm not on a meter.

Cardew

When you sign a direct debit you authorise the company to take varying amounts out of your bank account.

They must however notify you in advance if the sum to be taken changes. They don't have to notify you with a separate letter, the 'annual water statement' you received will suffice, provided it was received before the first increased payment is due to be taken.

In fact for gas/electricity/water, notification of the new DD on a quarterly/annual bill is the normal way to be notified with many companies.

deanos

crank_girl wrote: »

Is there anything I can do with respect to the direct debit agreement? Are they not obliged to notify me when a change is made?

They did notify you when you got your bill, at the end of the day you owe the money and it has to be paid.

crank_girl

deanos wrote: »

They did notify you when you got your bill, at the end of the day you owe the money and it has to be paid.

Is it just me or is it a bit chilly in here?

I don't have issue with paying my way, however I do think it unfair that payment arrangements were amended leaving my account massively in arrears. It seems to contravene the direct debit guarantee and I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and if they were able to successfully negotiate with their supplier on that basis...?

The Direct Debit Guarantee

• If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed
• If an error is made by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid
• You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by contacting your bank or building society. We also recommend you notify the organisation concerned.

deanos

You said you have rung them and they have lowered the payment so what do you need to negotiate and how have they contravened the direct debit guarantee ?


The Direct Debit Guarantee

If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed

They did notify you on your bill

If an error is made by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid

There was an error but they don't owe you anything, you owe them money

You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by contacting your bank or building society. We also recommend you notify the organisation concerned.

Self explanatory

crank_girl

deanos wrote: »

You said you have rung them and they have lowered the payment so what do you need to negotiate and how have they contravened the direct debit guarantee ?


The Direct Debit Guarantee

If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed

They did notify you on your bill

If an error is made by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid

There was an error but they don't owe you anything, you owe them money

You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by contacting your bank or building society. We also recommend you notify the organisation concerned.

Self explanatory

They notified me 10 months after it happened. That doesn't seem like good customer service or fair practice.

deanos

But you said they stopped payments in March last year

Cardew

Crank-girl,

It seems more a case of an error in their accounts that stopped payments than an 'amendment' to your DD.

Under the terms of the DD agreement they would be quite within their rights to take all the missing payments in one lump sum(as long as they notified you in advance)

Instead they increased the DD payment to enable you to pay back your debt over some months - and notified you in advance of that increase.

So I cannot see how they have breached the DD Guarantee in any way; and you have not lost anything financially. In fact had you invested the DD payments they did not collect, you would have made a small gain!

Given that the water company made a mistake, what do you think should happen?
Presumably you want some compensation?