News
Water retail market news – But this is not the entire picture !
The latest water retail industry news released to day by the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) apparently shows the best and worst performing water retail companies.
These are the results from October 1st 2019 to 31st December 2019
The worst performing water retailers are:
The best performing water retailers are:
A total of 812 complaints were received by CCW which is slightly down on the previous quarter period.
Water consultants H2O Building Services say this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Graham Mann Senior Partner at H2O says
“We like other water consultants very rarely send complaints to CCW as we tend to resolve our complex issues direct with the water retailers.
For example, we lodged hundreds of complaints over the last 2 years which do not form an part of the CCW complaints figures. I would suggest that numbers are probably double those of CCW.
The scary part is that our water audit project managers are skilled at spotting errors and dealing with often complex water and waste water billing issues.
There will be thousands of none residential customers who do not have the expertise to spot incorrect charging or have energy consultants who check their bills but do not possess the expertise in house to deal with complex billing issues and charges.
Often these bills are paid in error and even if they are corrected further down the line paid overcharges disappear into a void never to be repaid, that is until a water audit expert dives deep into the historical water and waste water billing history.
There is a false misconception that if a none residential customer switches water supplier that the newly appointed water retail company will raise the correct charges and this is not always so”
A case in point is a pool and leisure company were having their bills validated as a part of the gas and power bill validation process.
The water and waste water bills were passed for payment on a large ill conceived consolidated bill, the format of which was extremely difficult to audit even for our team with years of experience.
They switched water supplier in the belief they would reduce their bills and be charged correctly. Two out of four sites were overcharged in excess of £100,000!
A portion of the overcharges will come from the new water retailer and the balance will be repaid by the previous water retailer and the whole process can take up to 6 month or more.
Welcome to the deregulated water market says Graham Mann.
If you want to ensure your water, waste water and trade effluent charges are correct, then appoint a water bill validation expert
Get in touch info@h2obuildingservices.co.uk or call us on 0845 658 0948