Southern Water Avaliações 

EMAIL
sent on 23/05/26 at 09:05 GMT
RE: Billing and payment
Dear CEO Complaints Team,

I am writing to complain about an issue with Water.
I have already raised my issue within your organisation, but I feel that my issue is still unresolved,
hence my need to involve you in helping to resolve this problem.
Here is what happened: Extract from email sent to Southern Water 0n 30.04.26:
Following telephone conversation with your office on the 21.04.26 attached is report from Affinity
Water who confirm that the water usage is not high with the catch-up reading applied. However
consider that your bill is excessive and total disproportionate considering that our household is not
excessive in water usage for the following reasons:-
Affinity Water bill is for water £54.00 but for wastewater the bill is £212.23 and as you can see there is
a considerable difference between the water used and the wastewater covered by your Company
Looking at your bill how can you justify this as we are both under Watersure tariff which should be
capped and at the same time we are classed as "Priority" due to our household circumstances.
Due to our financial situation as a state pensioner reliant on state benefits there are insufficient funds
available to make full payment to your Company and that should be considered for hardship funding.
Alternative would it be possible to split the bill to allow sufficient time in making settlement but this of
course is dependant on whether or not the current billing is justified.
Before giving any consideration in making payment I would need to have a full statement as to why
the standing charges is £212.23 and if this is due to error or omission then I can hardly be held
responsible for this.If your Company is at fault then you should accept responsibility and cover any
shortfall.
Until this matter is resolved payment will be withheld and consider that the current bill is in dispute.
Furthermore I request that a full investigation is carried out with an explanation as to reason(s) for the
excessive bill received.
. This happened on April 9th, 2026
Reduce total cost of waste water payment and explanation as to why that bill was apparently not
capped under watersure entitlement.A written confirmation of the reason for over excessive standing
charge.

Above is a statement sent to Southern Water and to date there has been no resolution by them and now escalated to the Consumer Council.I am disabled and there is only myself, my wife and severe autistic son living at my home and yet billing has doubled and Southern Water have since informed me that future billing will double again.We are on Watersure tariff and it looks as based on usage when this should be capped.

Impatient and ridiculous price increases.

The price increases the past year or so which were advertised around 40% are no where near the actual increases.

With no change to my water usage, or if anything using less, my bills have nearly doubled!

Added to this they give a messily 14 days to pay the bill, which with the prices they are now charging is a sizable amount. If no payment is made on day 15 they chase you, and then again, just totally impatient and no appreciation of their increases or the general state of the world presently.

Along with a lot on here, their practises and billing should be investigated.

Most, if not nearly all in business offer 28 days to settle bills - NOT Southern Water!

Informed by southern water I had a leak under my porch,I informed homeserve in February and they sent plumber on 27 February done some digging and returned 28 feb to Finnish great job,informed southern water of the leak is fixed.in march,april, may they took from my account £570.10 even thou leak has been fixed also I received letter asking for£1094.57 saying pay now, I am 80 years old on state pension.

Incredibly rude customer service. I rang to ask if water supply would be cut off due to pipe cleaning over 2 days bcause I am my elderly mother's prime carer. I was told to 'look on the website" and when I pressed for further information was read out an email I'd previously received giving me only vague information. The agent said water could be off between 8 a.m and 4 p.m. with no apology and told me to fill up a couple of buckets with water! Compassion rating O.

My bills were soaring year on year and I had to fight tooth and nail to convince them it must be a leak. Took 6 months and a complaint to finally get an engineer to check and lo and behold we had a leak. Our bill was reduced from £118 for a household of 3 to £66. SW couldn’t give a damn that all that water was wasted.

How this company is still allowed to operate without Ofwat/government interventions is baffling.

Received my water bill today - despite the fact that their website was down for half the day: 132% monthly payment increase with ZERO change to water consumption and according to their own analysis and readings, I am using 12% LESS than the average household in my area. The math does not add up.

Can someone with a moral compass and authority in either this organisation or at a government level actually read these reviews and do something about it.

Shocking company they have been harassing us for £2000 said we owed them after a month of phone call explaining we do not owe this amount, they have finally sorted it but you have to speak to someone higher up , they now say we only owe £319 and not the £2000 this has caused us a lot of stress and anxiety. If you think they have it wrong challenge them

Contacted Southern Water last week to raise a problem with a broken meter cover. Response was immediate and the promise of a visit arranged. Delighted to report that the man arrived as arranged and a replacement cover fitted. Although a simple job it was very well handled and a good outcome. Many thanks for the swift response.

Besides the constant sewage discharges, the massive price hikes due to zero infrastructure investment over 40 years and huge director salaries / shareholder dividends, and the poor standard of water delivered to our doors, I'd like to understand why Southern Water think their billing practices can be so different to other utility companies. I've never had an issue with other utility companies with regards billing, but with Southern Water - ALWAYS!

5 days ago. An email stating "we are processing your bill and it should be with you soon. Why not pay your bill now?". I guess the answer is because I've not yet received the bill by the means agreed by the company and customer, and it's not due yet! Also, you're processing it i.e. you've not yet sent it.

Today (still no bill received). An email stating "You have not paid your bill yet. It's time to pay your bill. This is a reminder that your bill is due in 7 days".

Why do Southern Water think they have the right to chase customers for payment before a bill is due? This is not a practice used by other companies, and quite frankly it stinks - like Southern Water's constant sewage discharges.

It will be interesting to see when this bill arrives, and, if their past billing pattern continues. Previously we have received bills on say 28th May for example, that are already past due, due to when it was posted, and the dates do not match their emails.

SORT IT OUT SOUTHERN WATER!

Terrible ethics. River pollution galore. They do not care about people or planet. I honestly cannot understand how they are still allowed to run the show. I know corruption is widespread in all corners of society, but isn't it well about time that stops?

We are forced to pay for this corruption, and not just with our money - we are forced to sacrifice our own environment against our will. Rivers aren't meant to be sewage / chemical dumps.

It's not right nor is it okay Southern Water.

got referred across by portsmouth water and had letter through, they going to help with things so very grateful, thanks

Southern water are a disgraceful company. They had been taking over payments off me for over a year to clear a debt as well as taking money through a debt collector for the owed bill. When this was realised by the debt collector they contacted me and told them the debt was resolved. I had no contact from southern water apologising for the overcharge. I had to contact southern water myself, they insisted on keeping the account credit. After back and fothing they agreed that they will refund me the account credit in 10 working days. I called 5 working days later as I had received no confirmation of the refund. They assured me the refund was processing and they would send me confirmation. I didn’t receive any confirmation but decided to wait until Monday. Still didn’t receive the refund on Monday called Wednesday and was then told they aren’t able to refund me the money. They are a million pound company thriving through corrupt dealings stealing off individuals like myself. Absolute disgrace.

Southern Water charge me for waste water, my fresh water comes from Portsmouth Water. For the period between October 2024 to 31st March 2025 Southern Water charged me for 57m2 waste £161.04 (6 months). My current bill from Southern Water (October 2025 to April 2026) for 61m2 of waste water £266.19. The increase? Absolutely disgusting.

Terrible - a natural monopoly. You are forced to use this terrible company in the Southampton/Winchester area.

Complete lack of responsibility when it comes to delivering good outcomes for customers. Southern Water lack transparency, refuse to send out engineers (even though you are forced into using their infrastructure), and stick by processes with no logic/reasoning behind them.

I would avoid at all costs. Probably the worst, least cooperative, most expensive and useless company I have ever had the misfortune of coming across.

My bill went up by a staggering 51.3% last year thanks to OFWAT. My monthly DD went from £15 to £29 I cancelled and complained. I refused to pay for a year. Southern refused to accept the complaint of my price increase. They then sent me to a debt recovery for a mere £109 outstanding bill. I'm now reluctant to pay £20 every 2 weeks for a shoddy company.

I am having to take extra measures to even get a response from Southern Water.

At the beginning of the year, I noticed that my bill was significantly higher than usual. While this issue has since been resolved, I have been unable to access my online account to review my billing details. This problem has now persisted for several months.

Despite resetting my password numerous times - each attempt being confirmed successfully - I continue to receive an error message when trying to log in.I have contacted customer service multiple times via phone, WhatsApp, and email, yet I have received no meaningful resolution. Tomorrow will be my 4th Friday of calling them attempting to get a solution. I was initially informed that my case had been escalated and that I would receive a response within 30 days. After following up, I was then told I would hear back within five days - however, no such response has been provided. I simply want to be able to login to my account so I can see the billings on my account.

Instead, I have repeatedly been sent password reset links, which does not address the underlying issue. As a customer you can reset the password and do not need them to do this for you.

Last Friday, I spent an additional 45 minutes on the phone with the team, and once again, no progress has been made. I have even requested something as simple as setting up a new account, but this has also not been actioned.

This level of service is extremely disappointing. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to resolve what should be a straightforward issue, and I expect to have access to my account as a paying customer.

I was promised an email with a statement to show my outgoings and what I was paying for last Friday and still nothing has been made clear.

I would appreciate your urgent attention to this matter and a clear resolution without further delay.

They have been truly useless and I am pretty sure the technical team is non existent at this point as we are five months into the year and I have not heard from them once.

I live in a one-bedroom flat in Brighton and Hove, one of three flats in our building. Every single flat pays its own set of standing charges to Southern Water, meaning our building collectively pays over £1,050 per year before a single drop of water is used. The identical house next door pays £350. Same area, same pipes, same water. We pay three times as much in fixed charges simply because we live in flats. There is no justification for this whatsoever.

Then came the April 2026 bill. The variable water rate jumped 28% overnight. Not gradually. Not with any meaningful support or explanation. Just a near-third increase handed to customers who have absolutely no ability to switch supplier or challenge it.

To make matters worse, the wastewater charge on my bill is actually higher than the water supply charge itself. I am being charged more to remove water than to provide it. Southern Water has been repeatedly fined for pumping sewage into our rivers and coastlines, the very waterways they are supposed to protect, and yet here we are, paying premium prices for the privilege.

This company operates as a monopoly, answers to a regulator that has repeatedly failed consumers, and continues to extract maximum profit while polluting our environment. I am one person in one flat, but I intend to make as much noise as possible about this. Enough is enough.

I had to get on multiple calls with the customer service team as I can’t simply understand them. I eventually got through to someone who could explain something but still wasn’t perfect and they still couldn’t understand me!! How do these people get jobs on the phone??

On top of not being able to understand each other, if I did get through to someone who was clear they were utter heartless.

As much as I hate it, you’d might as well implement AI!!! Or nothing at all as they are both pointless.

This needs to be sorted out ASAP!

Complete scam. Avoidance best describes their customer service and complaints team. Our usage increased 10x in a 6 month period apparently, on top of a 47% increase in prices. Spent 15 days trying to speak to someone with no avail. On top of that, the quality of the water is the worse I've ever experienced.

my water bill close enough to my dual energy bill, wondering what actions taken by watch dog.