A Tale of Two Bills (Three Valleys Water)

Member Name: Lucille

Product:	Three Valleys Water
Date:	16/05/01 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The water is clean

Disadvantages: Don't seem to be able to get the bills right, Don't have any choice over who delivers your water

I really don't know what I have done to Three Valleys Water, but they are obviously trying to drive me slowly mad.

When we first moved to this house we were supplied by North Surrey water, the same water company that supplied us at our previous address. It took many phone calls before our account was sorted out. They didn't have us registered as paying the water bill here, but our previous house had two different accounts with both us and the new people being responsible for the water there. I was told that the problem was because we had gone from unmetered to metered water, but surely we can't be the first people to have done this. After three months and a lot of phone calls things were finally sorted out.

Then in October North Surrey was merged with Three Valley Water. I thought that they couldn't do any worse than North Surrey, so I was pleased, the fool that I am!

Firstly in March I received a bill still from North Surrey Water, which I thought was odd. It was only £27, which seemed like a very small amount of money for nearly 8 months of water. (We had missed the last water bill because they had spent so long setting up the account). However, on closer examination I discovered that this was a bill only for the standing charges of water and sewerage removal; there was no charge for my actual consumption. I rang the office and explain this, and the person I spoke to said it was an error and could I read my meter. I explained that I didn't know where the meter was but if she could tell me where it was, I would read it. She said, "if you don't know where your meter is, we won't know". But North Surrey must have fitted it when the house was built! Then she said she would get somebody to read my meter and send out another bill.

This second bill did arrive, this time from Three Valleys Water. On this bill they had charged me for my consumption of both water and the removal of sewerage. They ha
d also charged me the standing charges for both of these services. Fantastic I thought, now we are getting somewhere. However, when I looked at the direct debit payments I had made, they had not brought forward the right amount of credit to the bill. It appeared that I have been charged the standing charges twice. Once through the first bill, and once on the second. When I worked it out the difference was £27, and as £27 was the totally of the first bill, the error was plain to see.

Stupidly enough they had also put the standing charges per day onto the bill. Because the bill appears to be for a short space of time, (between the first and second bills), the charges are for £2.02 a day for clean water and £1.45 a day for removing the sewerage. This would lead to a yearly water bill of £1266.55 before consumption! This is obviously ridiculous.

I have written to Three Valleys Water this time and sent back all the bills to try and find out what on earth is happening with my water account, so I will update this opinion when I get a reply. However I am not impressed with them. If they were our gas or electricity company we would be moving supplier, but as they supply our water we have no choice.

However, we have found out that it's not just us that Three Valley Water are annoying. Our neighbour only moved in to his house eight weeks before us. Despite many phone calls by him, he is still to receive a water bill! He says he is going to leave it now until they realise they haven't received money for the water at his property.
I really hope they sort this out as soon as possible, and that the merger of the two companies makes Three Valleys Water more efficient. All I want is for them to do is send me a bill that makes sense, that charges me for all that I have to pay for, but gives me credit for all that I have paid out. I really don't think that is too much to ask.

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