Contact Details
Thames Water Utilities Ltd
PO Box 286
Swindon
SN38 2RA
Contact Information
- Website www.thameswater.co.uk
- Online Forms Click here
- Bill or Account Enquiries 0845 9200 888
- Water Supply or Wastewater Services 0845 9200 800
- Minicom 0845 7200 898/9
- Leakline 0800 714 614
Customer services are open from 8am - 7pm on Monday to Friday and 8am - 1pm on Saturday.
General Information
Thames Water is the largest UK water company, covering an area of 5000sq miles across London and the Thames Valley. 8 million people are supplied drinking water from 20,000 miles of water mains treated at 100 water treatment works.
Sewerage services are also provided to 13 million people in the Thames Water area with a network of 351 sewerage treatment works and 40,000 miles of sewers.
- Water and Sewerage company
- 99.91% of water quality tests carried out in 2003 complied with water supply regulations.
- Thames Water is generally a soft water area. More specific information about water hardness in the area can be abtained from Thames Water direct.
Customer Services
Thames Water are committed to providing a high level of service to it's customers. They have a policy to ensure appointments are met, complaints and billing enquiries are dealt with and that customers are informed properly about any interruptions or supply problems. Compensation is offered if they fail to meet certain standards.
Special Services
Watercare service for the elderly and disabled includes:
- Minicom, fax, typetalk and sign language.
- Large print and Braille bills and literature available.
- Talking bill service - telephone before bill is sent to give details.
- Bills emailed to customers using Screen Reading Software.
- Nominated friend or family member to deal with your bill.
- Registration system for people needing priority notification of supply interruption and extra support during emergencies. (eg Dialysis patients)
Comments
NB: We have no connection with the water companies, if you have a specific enquiry relating to your service, please contact the company direct.
Thames Water is without doubt the worst utility company I have ever dealt with, their customer service if you can call it that quite clearly leaves a lot to be desired. They have no interest in dealing with customer service issues and seem only interested of relieving you of as much money as possible for providing such a bad level of service.
Posted by Danielle Cleverley, 30th October 2008Utter rubbish company. We just had a leak outside and within our property, probably due to the blocked drain system or something. Whenever we switch the water on, it shoots from underneath the lid outside and floods the neighbours below, as the house is on top of the hill. I rang the customer services, went through like 15 automated options, eventually got through to someone and have been told that someone's going to check on it within 3 working days! Three working days of shooting water and flooding! They're crazy!
Posted by Peter Rakowiecki, 27th October 2008I have asked for a water meter twice in 6 months. The first time Thames Water has claimed they didn't receive the request, the second time they have gone silent. So I am now chasing it up. I have a feeling they don't want to supply me with a water meter as they know they will have to put me on an assessed charge which is cheaper than the rateable value.
Posted by O Fadero, 26th October 2008Just over 2 years ago I had to use a relation's house as a billing address as I was in between homes. Thames Water were given clear instructions of what was happening. Thames water rather than give me a refund decided to stop my relations direct debit and switch their water bill over to my name. I wrote them another letter threatening to report them to the regulator. They telephoned us both up though they apologised would not admit they had done anything wrong. No other utility supplier has problems following such simple instructions apart from Thames Water.
Posted by O Fadero, 26th October 2008Last week I reported a water leak near my property. When I returned home from having a weekend away, the repair had started, my only problem the repairers had torn up my lawn area getting access. After 3 or 4 hours work I made good this area, only to return home today and find it in an even worse state than the first time. Thames Water get yours sorted out.
Posted by Mr M L Smith, 15th October 2008Thames Water abuse their dominant position by overcharging and failing to deal with customer queries. The company have sent a bill for £106 for 57 days of water and waste water. The bill is unclear but seems to suggest it is metered. I've owned the property for over 10 years and am not aware of a water meter installation. Will they tell me - NO.
Posted by Mandy Shanks, 11th October 2008Some of your above customers are so lucky. I reported a leak on the 19th August, on the 22nd September a technician eventually confirmed that the leak was in my property but did not inform me where it was. I am now still waiting for another technician to come along and tell me where the leak is on my property. I have made at least 10 phones calls to your offices and have been promised that someone will contact me to make an appointment. All this time water is leaking out of my pipes and therefore wasting precious water. One very dissatisfied customer.
Posted by Ann Beauchamp, 09th October 2008Back in July I was sent a bill by Thames Water asking for payment that I had already made. I called up and explained that the payment had already been made on my debit card. I was told that there was no payment made and that I would need to make payment again. The advisor was quite rude. I then discovered last week two payments were taken from my account for the same bill a total of £193.17, which was back in July. I called up and was assured that I would have a refund in 3-5 working days.
Posted by Taiyab Darr, 09th September 2008I have checked my online banking yesterday and had not got a refund. So I contacted Thames Water and was told there systems were down so they could not access my accounts and I would need to call back. I then called Tames Water again today and was told that the refund was not actioned properly last week and it would take another 3-5 working days. I was then told that there may be a problem for them to refund me as the card I originally used, to make payment. I no longer had as I was sent out a replacement in its place by bank, which is on the same sort code and account number that Thames Water took the money out from....
Oh I forgot to mention that I was kept on hold for approximately 30 mins just to speak to a supervisor who was of no real help. A disgusting company with no real sense of customer service... I am awaiting a call back today regarding my refund.
On a separate issue, my mum is an elderly female who lives alone, she has been billed just over £1000 for her water bill. This is disgusting as she lives in a small flat and hardly uses any water due to being quiet ill. Rather then acknowledge their mistake Thames Water is saying they will need to investigate the matter and this was after several lengthy phone calls to the company. Nothing has been done to rectify the situation.
I am considering contacting WATCHDOG regarding the service I have had from Thames Water and by reading all these other comments it seems like I am not the only one with negative feed back for this disgusting excuse for a company. Does anyone have any other suggestions on who I could voice my concerns to?
I would have only rated Thames Water with 0 stars but u only get the option to leave 1 star, which I believe is to much for this unworthy company.
I discovered a water leak sipping in to my back garden coming from a stand pipe behind my back garden fence, I reported this on 28April 2008 and was inspected by a Thames Water staff and confirmed that the leak was from a stand pipe behind my back garden fence. I was sent an email by Thames Water that it will be repaired within 7 working days. After several calls to the customer service centre 2 work men from a out side company came and started replacing the stop valve in front of the house. They replaced the front stopcock although it was not leaking. They told me that they are doing their job and most of the time Thames Water passes on a a job about which they have no idea at all. I rang Thames Water and was told that they will have to send out a men to look at the leak and it will take 20 days before it will be under taken. What a waste of tax payers money in replacing a stop valve which was not leaking and sending a men again to inspect the same leak again I have to take a days leave for him to come and inspect the job in my garden.
Posted by Vijay Amin, 08th May 2008My property is being used as a billing address for someone in my family who has emigrated; consequently my direct debit has been stopped by Thames Water and they had installed a water meter at my home that I have lived in for the past 7 years. This was 18 months ago and they are now trying to charge me over double of my actual water usage. This has still not been settled and we are in the process of taking them to court and hopefully giving them some very negative press through the local papers.
Posted by Julian Bone, 08th April 2008Very unhappy with TW new charging. I'm single - live in a flat with 3 small rooms, am away working all the time and have tried and failed (because they said they couldn't fit one) to get a meter installed - but now I'm having to pay even higher charges because they are charging by bedroom. I've got neighbours, 3 bedrooms, 5 people but I have to pay the same as them. Why is this allowed to happen?
Posted by Derek, 14th March 2008We are in a band "D" house, as are most, if not all, the others. Yet we are charged more than our neighbours, and have been for years. Can you please explain why?
Posted by Jeffrey E. Melsom, 08th March 2008Our school was using 40000 tonnes of water a year for 3 years, but despite many, many calls to Thames Water to investigate we were told it wasn't their problem. We finally hired a private company who found the problem and renewed a section of mains pipe - our usage has since dropped to 4000 tonnes and now suddenly Thames Water are interested because, yes, you've guessed it - the bill has also plummeted!!! NOW they want to investigate why we are using so little water!! Personally, I think TW are the most useless major company in the UK. Professionally, I think they are a bunch of poorly managed, profit driven, self interested, egoistical people!!
Posted by Ken Pullen, 25th February 2008I am on a water meter and pay bills half-yearly. My last bill (estimated) August 2007 was paid and a month or so later I received another bill as the meter had been read. I paid this and then 4 weeks later received a further bill. After a lengthy telephone call this was cancelled and a letter of confirmation was sent to me. Then I received the same bill again, after a lengthy telephone call this was also cancelled and a letter of confirmation was sent to me. In January 2008 I received the bill yet again and after a further telephone call was told this would be cancelled and I would receive a letter of confirmation. This has never materialized and now I have received a final notice with the threat of debt collectors if payment is not received within 7 days. All of this is so frustrating, you get nowhere if you try and complain, so what are you supposed to do?
Posted by Ms Hilary Pitt, 22nd February 2008The Thames Valley website is not very good, I can't find info on the aims of the business and the organisational structure. I am a GCSE student and I have chosen to do research in the Thames Valley company.
Posted by Shabaz Ahmed , 21st February 2008I would just like to say how frustrating it is to get through on the Thames Water phone line.
Posted by T Hill , 02nd February 2008We have very low pressure, what makes it worrying is we have an open fire with a back boiler, our only form of heating. If this blows up because of Thames Water's negligence so be it on their heads. I have been trying since 10:00 am this morning; it is now 12:22 pm, still no help. This has got to be the last straw, they need showing up with the media.
I have had nothing but problems with Thames Water. They are the most incompetent company I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. First they charged my bank account 3times for the same bill which made me over 600pounds overdrawn and they were less than helpful when it came to refunding it. Then when we moved into a house where our landlord was already paying the bill they started sending the bills in my girlfriends name despite us saying that we would not be responsible for the bill when we moved in. I have spoken to thames water about this five times and so has my landlord. It seems impossible to get thames water to understand anything! Do other people have similar problems and is there any way of talking to someone to get this sorted out? This has being going on for over seven months now.
Posted by Peter Ashford, 10th January 2008It is pointless to complain, Thames Water has the monopoly. Apparently they know this and are of the same opinion.
Posted by Andrew , 07th December 2007Thames Water's track record with installing domestic water meters is nothing short of disgraceful! I had to wait more than 18 months for the meter to be installed - bombarded with increasingly bizarre excuses for their failure to install. Given they knew I'd be saving money with a meter installed, Thames deliberately avoided responding to installation requests - concocting completely fictitious site surveys - in a brazen attempt to keep low-usage customers on unmetered supplies. Thames abuse their monopoly status every day. Hopeless, time-wasting and inefficient - and that's on a good day!
Posted by Malcolm Smith, 06th December 2007To Doreen Jenkinson. Sorry, but the straight answer is 'yes'. Water companies have to provide a water supply to all properties and someone, usually the owner of the property, has to pay for a basic supply. It is essential to ensure the water tap is turned off, but if this has been done and there are still charges for water consumption, then there may be a leak on the supply side. Discuss it with Thames Water. The damage of a pipe in the garden is difficult to analyse. The person who caused the damage will normally be liable for the costs of repair, but the pipe is the responsibility of the property owner.
Posted by Peter Potter, 26th August 2007A friend of mine had his water supply cut off many years ago by the Water Board because a pipe was damaged within the garden of his property and there was a dispute over who was to pay for this. He has not lived at the property since and now lives at his mother's home. He does however pay his Council Tax on the property. Thames Water want to charge him back payments for a water supply he has never received. Is this legal?
Posted by Doreen Jenkinson, 09th May 2007