大象传媒

Three years ago they miscalculated my budget plan twice and I had to write to them twice about their mistakes. No apology, and they suggested I move to a new address when I initially rang them up.

The fine should go to the benifit of the customers in some way, not to any other sauce.

I am a Southern Water customer but have had no cause to complain unless unbeknown to me, I have been charged more than should have been the case. I am therefore relatrively unbiased but it seems to me that if the company has behaved badly to the detriment of its customers, a fine will only make matters worse in that the poor old customers will now have to pay the fine as well, adding more to their misery. It makes no sense to me at all.

If the officers of the company who were responsible for the problems cannot be punished in some way then the regulator should leave the matter alone and lobby the Government to change the law, so that such wrong doers can be held to account in the future.

I am also a Southern Water customer and charges have constantly gone up while the service has not improved. There is no redress against these monopolies except via the regulator who appears to be asleep or inept and in this case this announcement is the first indication of overcharging and misrepresentation allthough details shetchy at the momment so don't know whether I have been affected as up till this point the story has had a very low profile, additional information required and Southern Water should have a statutory requirement to apologise to their customers, explain what went wrong and what they're doing to rectify the situation. Water is one privatisation too far and should have stayed in public hands.

In July I received a bill from Southern Waters claiming that over 3 month I had used about 1,000 liters of water a day. This is quite amazing as the UK average consumption is 160 liters a day. It is even more amazing as I am a single person, there is no garden to hose, never wash my car at home, hardly ever shower (I visit a Spa daily). A crew turned up but found no leakages. Matter still unresolved.

The misreporting part does not seem to have changed. Southern water cut most of Marchwood Hampshire off for nearly 3 hours on Xmas eve. It was apparently due to a mains burst in Tavells Lane, however this burst had happened a day earlier and been fixed with work being completed that morning, I had been down the lane to check in case leak had reoccurred butt all ok. Had left call back on Southern and they got back to me after just over an hour, when they were told information being given out was incorrect basically told sorry but water would be back on when possible. When informed that ruined our Xmas arrangements and would be contacting Ofwat to complain and would be seeking compensation for interruption was informed that they didn't dictate when they had bursts, that I was stuck with them as supplier no matter how unhappy I was with their service and to try water every half hour to see when it came back as they were too busy to contact people when they had fixed the problem.
So according to them they fixed a burst in less than three hours and without any evidence of water vehicles on the lane.
This doesn't matter as according to them there is no guarantee of continuity of supply or notification of supply interruption as we are a captive market in this private monopoly. This is in spite of the huge increases in water costs. Why isn't the transmission separate from the suppliers as with Gas, Electric and soon BT. Ofwat don't seem to be willing or able to sort these firms out so either they should be nationalised or split up or fines on share dividends. Will be interesting to find out what actually happened on Xmas eve and why they felt they had to misrepresent what actually happened. It probably was due to work on original burst not being completed correctly but that remains to be seen

SW owe me 拢73, this is an accumulated over payment and they are refusing to pay it back. They argue that this money is needed to pay the next quarter's bill. As this amount has been in place for a year, and the direct debit continues at the correct level this argument is incorrect.

I have telephoned once, written twice, complained to Ofwat, and still no 拢73.

The 拢20m fine was as a result of this behaviour, so clearly they have not learned the error of their ways. Further this faliure to repay is in breach the direct debit guarantee.

No but if I lived in the region I might consider getting an alternative supplier

Bob

My wastewater bill for 2007 was 拢381. For 2008, Southern Water want 拢423, 拢42 or 11% more! It's a rip off. These guys are just passing on the cost of the fine. That's a disgrace!

Over the last 4 years my wastewater bill has risen from 拢135 to 拢194 (44%), none of my circumstances have changed throughout this time. I gave them a ring .. the operator was quite astonished to hear this increase. He said that he would have to get his supervisor to phone me back and explain my bill. In other words probably think some rubbish up to justify that kind of increase. This has to be a trend in prices, each year it has been going up by 拢15-20.

...Not happy! Still, i'm poised to pass a few choice comments to the southern water people when or if they phone!

I would like to add my disgust at the rise in Southern Water bills.My wastewater bill has risen from 拢276 to 拢304 a rise of 拢28. Allowing for the supposed 1.5% reduction for misquoting, this means an increase of 12%. Southern Water say they have increased their bills by 9.8%. So why are their maths wrong? I am old enough to remember when this charge was included in your council tax bill. When it was separated we were told that our council tax bill would go down. What a joke. It has been reported that 26% of our coucil tax goes to paying for their pensions. How much of our wastewater bill goes towards paying for southern water employees penisons I wonder?

If only there was a way of switching supplier. I had so many complaints, not answered by Southern Water. Even the Managing Director will not reply. When I eventually complained to The Consumer Council for Water, I got a letter saying that they had not recieved my correspondance. REASON..If they admit to having recieved post, they have to pay 拢30 per letter in compensation, for any letter not replied to within 10 working days. So it seems they have made it a policy not to answer letters!!!