Thames Water nightmare

[lisa1977]

I had a nightmare woth Powergen, now an even bigger head ache with Thames Water.

To cut a long story short I wrote to them 'special delivery' to inform them I was moving back to mums & gave them the address to send my final bill.

They then took it upon themselves to close my mums account down & set up a new one in my name at mums address (my new temporary address)

Despite several telephone calls to them to try & sort this mess out a whole new account had to be created for my mum, & It took 5 additional phone calls to them to request what I wanted in the 1st place - my final bill !

It was eventually sent & it stated that my account was in credit £1.43. I called them AGAIN to check, double & tripple check this was correct & the lady I spoke to infomed me that yes it was correct & she refunded the £1.43 back into my bank account.

A week later I got a letter stating that £155 was DUE NOW !

So I called again... & was informed that I DIDNT owe anything & to ignore further requests. I then demanded she updated the system to ensure I didnt get any further letters regarding this. she assured me she had done this.

I got home last Friday to aletter that read "£155 DUE NOW..PLEASE PAY IMMEDIATLEY OR COURT ACTION WILL COMENCE"

I was sooooo angry so again got back on the phone to them.. Everytime I call I am shoved on hold for at least 20 mins while they ploughed through my notes, trying to get a drift of what has happened. I asked to speak directly to the manager who I flew off the handle too..I couldnt help but lose my rag as depite calling sooooo many times I was given wrong info & now could end up in court as I owe this £££. Imagine if I had done what the previous lady had said & ignored all letters!

The manager on the phone confirmed that £155 was due in the next 5 days or Court Action would comence. I was forced to set up a payment plan there & then to start paying this balance off. They wouldnt even put my account on hold while I spoke to my ex flat mate so I could arrange payments etc.

Should I be liable for this £155 when I have a FULL & FINAL BILL that states my end balance was £1.43 in credit ??

I have written to them to make an official complaint via email & special delivery & I just dont know what else to do ? How can they do this ?

Any advice would be great !

Cheers for reading my essay !

[lisa1977]

sorry my memory is bad..i didnt realise I had already posted the 1st stage of this mess..please feel free to merge threads..but please put updates one at bottom - thanks

[AnimalMagic]

Hi Lisa,

Thames Water are pretty useless. Don't worry about them taking you to court, it is extremely unlikely and you have the ideal defence - a statement saying they owe you money

Don't use the telephone, ensure everything is in writing. I would write back and demand they explain the 155 charge in writing. If they can justify it, then by all means pay it or come to some arrangement. But if they cannot prove it, then refuse to pay. If you go to court, you could also demand a transcript of the telephone conversations to prove what has been said.

I have threats of legal action from 7 years back and they have yet to take me to court. In my case I live in an apartment and back in 2000, our management discovered we could get a discount as we have our own sewage works, so we only have to pay TW for water supply. A form letter was distributed to all residents, however for some reason TW lost my application. It took me four years and 30 odd letters for them to agree the discount even though the other 16 residents had been on the same discount for those four years! However they still wanted me to pay for 2 years in which they didn't supply me with the service, even though they had numerous letters in this time trying to sort this out! .

In the end I sent them a bill for the 30 letters and told them that with interest their debt would be cleared sometime in 2008. I received no reply. I have been adding interest on the outstanding debt each year and deducting their bills. They have been threatening me with legal action for 7 years, but have yet to go to court. I prepared my defence and counterclaim back in 2004