- The customer paid a bill of £5.24 and closed the account when he moved home
- But he continued to receive demands for payment.
- He then discovered that Thames Water had put a mark on his credit file.
A Thames Water customer was left with a black mark on their credit score after the supplier failed to close their account and said they had missed payments, when in fact their account was in credit.
When Andrew (not his real name) moved house last November, he was told to clear a balance of £5.24 to close the account, which he did.
He was given a new Thames Water account for the new address but continued to receive demands that he pay the final bill on the old account.
Thames Water was unable to close a customer’s account even after settling the balance
Every time he contacted Thames Water’s customer services team, Andrew was assured that the bill would be marked as settled and the account would be closed, but six months later the bills were still arriving.
Every time he called, he was told there was no indication the bill had been marked paid, leaving him back at square one.
He called again earlier this month and was put on hold twice after waiting in line for some time.
The customer service agent took his number at the beginning of the call in case they hung up, so when he had to leave “for a couple of minutes” to check with his manager, Andrew assumed he’d get a call. The phone call never materialized.
Andrew says he spent months trying to resolve the issue, and there were also several issues with setting up the new account at the new address, as well as issues with his online account.
He claims the provider’s billing and account systems appear “totally dysfunctional” and filed a complaint.
Andrew has since discovered there was a mark on his credit file relating to a missed payment to Thames Water the previous month.
The bill had been paid six months earlier and every time Andrew called Thames Water they assured him it had been paid.
He eventually learned that the constant demand to settle the bill had been futile, as the account had a credit of around £67.
This Is Money contacted Thames Water to ask why it had taken so long for Andrew’s account to be settled and why it had affected his credit score.
Fortunately, Thames Water were able to quickly resolve the issue and the management’s outstanding balance has now been settled.
The company told Andrew that if his agent had completed the transfer when he initially contacted him, the late payments would not have been reported to the credit agency.
All negative impacts will be removed from his record and Thames Water has also awarded Andrew a £100 goodwill payment.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for the distress and inconvenience caused to [Andrew]when attempting to credit and close an account maintained with us at your previous address.
‘We have investigated and can confirm that we did not update your account as requested, resulting in late payments being recorded incorrectly. We would like to reassure [Andrew] that we have updated your credit file and there is no trace of this error.
“This experience has not been up to the standards we maintain and in light of our poor service we have issued a goodwill payment.”