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Thames Water over charge major leisure company and refuse to refund overcharges – Thats customer service!

The water audit department within H²O Building Services completed final checks having completed a national water cost reduction project for a leading national pool and leisure company, the trade effluent charges which apply to the waste water charges for the swimming pools were checked and it was discovered that Thames Water had set up the charges incorrectly years ago. The charges that are applied to sites with swimming pools are a standard tariff which 45% of the volume discharged is classed as trade effluent at a standard fixed rate allowing 10% for evaporation, leaving 45% charged at the standard domestic waste water rate. This method of charge was agreed between the Senior Water Consultants at H²O Building Services and Thames Water some 12 years ago as Thames Water needed advice on an agreeable charging mechanism for swimming pools, since this time Thames Water adopted and maintained this charging mechanism across the board for trade effluent charges for swimming pools.

However the charging mechanism (which is standard) was set up incorrectly years ago on 12 of this clients sites, we applied for a refund of the overcharges having received an email from Thames Water “I apologise that the previous consents were set up incorrectly, this has now been corrected” fine you may say however Thames Water refuse to backdate the refunds further than the date they were notified of their own overcharging stating ” This is our policy and we cannot deviate from it”

This is just another example of a water company blatantly overcharging and refusing to refund, although “they maintain the right to back charge up to 6 years where it can be proven incorrect charges have not been applied”

This situation is rife within the water industry which appears to be a law unto its own, this case alone the estimated overcharge is between £ 30,000 and £ 50,000 – Customer Service, we don’t think so!