Water Providers

[Deba]

Just had mains water connected to our fields. Waterplus have contacted me wanting to set up a business account. Do I have to stay with them
or can I shop around? If I can, can anyone recommend a supplier?

 

[Goweresque]

Prepare to join a world of pain, where the concept of customer service has been thrown out the window, jumped up and down on a few times and then run over with a tank for good measure. To be replaced with a 'we don't want you f*ck off' attitude to anyone who uses less than a few million litres per year.

You can choose whatever company in the 'business water marketplace' that you like. It's supposed to be competitive. It isn't, they all charge the same, and all give sh*te service. All owned and run by chancers who would sell their Grannies for an extra quid, and couldn't care less about small customers, because they just cost them money.

 

[acorn]

^^^^^
This. X 2

 

[HolzKopf]

Castle Water (Was SE Water) - a joke company. Invoices for trough meters amount to eight printed pages each. Still waiting to go 'paperless' despite several emails since they took over. Invoices arrive days if not a week or so after the date printed on them. No longer read anything. Need a degree in mathematics to check the calculations.

from the FT in 2017:

Castle Water is a privately owned water company that operates out of a 17th-century castle in Scotland. It was set up three years ago by John Reynolds, its chief executive, who is an investment banker and a former member of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. Mr Reynolds is also the former chair of the Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group and author of the book Ethics in Investment Banking

Says it all really....

HK

 

[Wooly]

Ditto


Our water is supplied by Castle Water. They now invoice you in advance for what they think you will use.

There is only one way that is going.............they will eventually go bust having stashed £millions in a unrelated account owned by the Directors.

 

[Goweresque]

Castle Water (Was SE Water) - a joke company. Invoices for trough meters amount to eight printed pages each. Still waiting to go 'paperless' despite several emails since they took over. Invoices arrive days if not a week or so after the date printed on them. No longer read anything. Need a degree in mathematics to check the calculations.

from the FT in 2017:

Castle Water is a privately owned water company that operates out of a 17th-century castle in Scotland. It was set up three years ago by John Reynolds, its chief executive, who is an investment banker and a former member of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. Mr Reynolds is also the former chair of the Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group and author of the book Ethics in Investment Banking

Says it all really....

HK

You are supposed to be able to go on a Pay As You Go tariff with Castle Water. You send in readings (up to 90 days max between readings) and they send you a bill (allegedly). I'm on that tariff, it was working OK up til last summer during covid when they unilaterally stopped billing people, even if they sent in readings. This screwed things up and when billing resumed I was getting a mixture of estimate and PAYG bills. I 'think' I've got it sorted now, but its taken a year and about 24 hours on the phone and several extra points on my blood pressure to achieve it.

Business Water Help | Castle Water

Fast and reliable help for all your business water inquiries. Learn more about how you could save with Castle Water.

www.castlewater.co.uk

 

[Steevo]

I got so fed up with poor customer service I started sending an invoice alongside each email reply for the time taken to reply. They couldn’t organise a water-only drinks party at the garden tap.

 

[Hjcarter]

I've used God for the last few years. Sometimes sends too little, frequently too much (usually in winter).

To be fair though I've not had a bill yet!

 

[Steevo]

I've used God for the last few years. Sometimes sends too little, frequently too much (usually in winter).

To be fair though I've not had a bill yet!

You still pay for it though…!

 

[pgk]

Castle asked me to provide meter number for the previous, 1982, meter when I had bought the land in 2010, without it they could not bill me. Water plus no better, currently have no one billing me for water trough supply in use for 18 months! What does one do?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Castle Water took over billing for our account last year and are pushing all the work onto the customer. I'm expected to submit readings regularly and it seems they don't operate meter readers.

No way am I paying in advance though. I'll change supplier first.

 

[Steevo]

Castle asked me to provide meter number for the previous, 1982, meter when I had bought the land in 2010, without it they could not bill me. Water plus no better, currently have no one billing me for water trough supply in use for 18 months! What does one do?

No point wasting hours of your time helping them fix their own mistake.

 

[Steevo]

Castle Water took over billing for our account last year and are pushing all the work onto the customer. I'm expected to submit readings regularly and it seems they don't operate meter readers.

No way am I paying in advance though. I'll change supplier first.

If the meter got damaged......it's likely they would fit a new Automated Meter Read "smart" meter. Managed to (finally) convince them to replace one here after multiple billing errors.

 

[Goweresque]

it seems they don't operate meter readers.

Thats weird because I definitely get bills from Castle when they have read the meter. Got one only just last month. According to Ofwat water companies have a statutory duty to read at least once every 2 years.

Metered customers and applying for metered charges - Ofwat

A water meter measures the amount of water you use. Instead of being charged a flat rate based on your rateable value, you can choose to be charged according to the amount of water you use by having a water meter fitted.

www.ofwat.gov.uk

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Thats weird because I definitely get bills from Castle when they have read the meter. Got one only just last month. According to Ofwat water companies have a statutory duty to read at least once every 2 years.

Metered customers and applying for metered charges - Ofwat

A water meter measures the amount of water you use. Instead of being charged a flat rate based on your rateable value, you can choose to be charged according to the amount of water you use by having a water meter fitted.

www.ofwat.gov.uk

I had a right set to with our supplier, Affinity (who Castle now handle billing for) because they had our account so far out (in our favour - cost me nearly £5k to catch up). Over 5 years they claimed to have read it 3 times but I know they don't know where the meter is. I asked them for their photos of the readings and all they had was a photo of the road. The meter is inside the field on our side of the hedge. The contract meter readers had been making up their readings.

 

[Wombat]

Business stream are pretty good as they took over all the yorkshire water commercial staff, so actually understand what a water trough is

 

[Oliveau]

Castle asked me to provide meter number for the previous, 1982, meter when I had bought the land in 2010, without it they could not bill me. Water plus no better, currently have no one billing me for water trough supply in use for 18 months! What does one do?

Keep quiet! It's their problem not yours. If they get nasty go to OFWAT.

 

[acorn]

Keep quiet! It's their problem not yours. If they get nasty go to OFWAT.

Ofwat are as much use as a chocolate teapot....

 

[HolzKopf]

You are supposed to be able to go on a Pay As You Go tariff with Castle Water. You send in readings (up to 90 days max between readings) and they send you a bill (allegedly). I'm on that tariff, it was working OK up til last summer during covid when they unilaterally stopped billing people, even if they sent in readings. This screwed things up and when billing resumed I was getting a mixture of estimate and PAYG bills. I 'think' I've got it sorted now, but its taken a year and about 24 hours on the phone and several extra points on my blood pressure to achieve it.

Business Water Help | Castle Water

Fast and reliable help for all your business water inquiries. Learn more about how you could save with Castle Water.

www.castlewater.co.uk

It should be so simple: - the next bill should be the numerical difference in m3 since the last, x cost per m3, plus the standing charge in days. Writ large on a single 'sheet' of paper. Several meters on one page

If there are no more meter readers for rural supplies such as troughs, fair enough, email a reminder once a quarter and have a decent app or website to be able to enter the numbers per meter

Bulb, in all fairness, has a good model for electricity - simple to operate, easy to see

Chr*st knows why Castle are so inept......

 

[Steevo]

It should be so simple: - the next bill should be the numerical difference in m3 since the last, x cost per m3, plus the standing charge in days. Writ large on a single 'sheet' of paper. Several meters on one page

If there are no more meter readers for rural supplies such as troughs, fair enough, email a reminder once a quarter and have a decent app or website to be able to enter the numbers per meter

Bulb, in all fairness, has a good model for electricity - simple to operate, easy to see

Chr*st knows why Castle are so inept......

Maybe the Castle surroundings have them thinking that they are operating in medieval times!