Southern Water Reviews 

I'm trying to report a massive leak, which has been going for 2 days. Can't get hold of a human or actually leave a report on their system.... Only a drought going on....

While on the live chat today rohini was exceptionally helpful , reset my account , no problem at all

Thousands of litres of water still pouring out of leak outside Sainsburys' in central Winchester - been going on for weeks despite public protest, articles in Hampshire Chronicle. Can Southern Water bosses be removed? we are all doing our best to save water, Southern Water couldn't care less. Our bills have tripled, their salaries and bonuses continue to rise. What a total shambles! Get rid of them all, Burnham government, please!

Our sewer was blocked we phoned Southern water, although it took a while to speak to someone , from then it was excellent. The team arrived at the time of the text message and did a fantastic job. Dave and Leon were brilliant. Thank you

The Water the water don't quite taste like what outta No the Water in Southern Robbing yer bank with out telling you, then over 1 month laters via several phone calls i have gotten to know the entire staff team. and still no 100 quid recompense or a bloody call back for the 4th time now... if i could switch to outter mongolia i would

Trying to pay my water bill. Was issued with a new smart meter so I cancelled my extortionate direct debit and will pay for what I use..however it's impossible to submit a meter reading because the website won't accept it. My last bill was 150, for the half a year yet I'm paying nearly three times the amount by direct debit. No explanation, can't call, in a queue for ages.

Staff are overpaid and lie. After they knew I was unable to read the meter they didn't take a reading. A year went by, and I was told they were supposed to take it every 6 months and that "the meter was not talking to their computer but it was fixed now". Another year went by and I was told the same thing. 3 years no meter readings. Overcharged by 120 units and, after asking for the revised bills, they have mashed up my water usage to fit the higher unit rate charged from my account, with absolutely no bearing on my usage. According to them I use 3 times more since they increased their rates, 280litres a day up from 40litres, which is impossible. The customer service person apologised for their "incontinence". Because Southern Water fed incorrect data to Bournemouth water, I've also been overcharged waste water. They charged me £238.68 knowing they had not read the meter. This is going to the Ombudsman.

They sent me a bill. Nothing out of the ordinary except less than 7 days later another email! Pay your bill in 7 days! Do they not realise people are living in a cost of living crisis & are living hand to mouth waiting for each pay day to make ends meet sometimes made even more stressful by having a life ending illnesses!!!. Ive never Not paid & always clear my bill within 30 days. I feel Harassed seeing as there are customers out there that don't pay & wont pay yet they get left alone!.

They sent me an outrageous bill of £1,400 and then one of them called to threaten me very rudely about paying it as they will not be sending an engineer to generate a new reading. I am ready to challenge them this time with the Ombudsman. This has got to stop.

Now waiting for nearly two weeks for my complaint to dealt with.
I have sat on WhatsApp for many hours and received many scripted faux apologies. They know that I am in my seventies, am certified as deaf and have severely limited visual capacity.
Southern Water are a national embarrassment.
Lawrence Gosden has failed as CEO and should be replaced by the company's investment bank owners, Greensands Holdings Limited.
If customers had a choice of supplier they would undoubtedly change - but this is a monopoly and they act like a monopoly.
Shameful.
And still no reply!

I had two simple questions for the Customer Services operative and she failed to answer both.

First, I wished to know the year and date in which Southern Water had sent out a team to effect a repair to my water meter/the stopcock under the pavement outside my house. It was at least five years ago, and the only repair they have ever needed to do since I had the meter installed.

I have no email record of this. Presumably confirmation of appointment was done by SMS messages which are not kept by the phone beyond a certain period, hence my request to her.

I was alerted to the need for the repair by my own plumber at the time, as I explained to the operative. He had used a technical term to describe the fault.

I also wanted to know the technical name of the fault with the meter/stopcock which they had repaired and which my plumber had alerted me to.

The operative claimed they have no such record of any repair, and that if any repair had been carried out, they would have a record of it!

I asked her if she was implying I was lying about the repair!

I gave further details of the pavement being closed off for the area, and mentioned the name of Clancy (one of their sub-contractors) being on the yellow pavement signs temporarily put up while the work was done.

She later claimed her findings were confirmed by the "Technical Team" for which she had put me on hold for ten minutes. She insisted that no repairs had been done to the meter/stopcock at my property!

From this, I can conclude several possibilities:

1. Southern Water is inefficient, inept and not good at keeping a history of repairs at domestic properties.

2. Staff are not trained properly and are incapable of finding requested details i.e. the date of the repair and the name of the fault.

3. Staff are deliberately trained to obfuscate and put off the customer with what – to me – was obvious nonsense. This is presumably to evade liability and responsibility regarding works done, guarantees or future works.

4. Staff are not trained in other ways. Near the end of the 20 minute call, she asked me "When did the repair take place?" I replied: "That was my question to you at the start of this conversation!"

I left the operative in no doubt that I was not impressed with her ineffective and disrespectful "support".

Southern Water: a national disgrace in everything from customer support to water quality.

Just lamentable.

Totally useless company. I have had an issue with direct debit payments. They collect the payment early and the direct debit guarantee dos not seem to apply to them. Frequent calls to their customer services does not resolve the problem. They have a narrative they seem to follow but does not resolve the issue.

Another year, another drought.
The Southern Water Cycle
Spring rains -> let overflow, runoff and waste get dumped into the river because the system cant handle it.
Summer Droughts -> react slowly to water leaks, enforce? A hose pipe ban, and drain an already delicate chalk stream.

Oh yeah and my water bill keeps going up.. despite not having a house pipe, re-using my waste water and using rain barrels...

We had white cloudy water all day, I called to find out what the issue was, explained we had 30 horses, dogs and puppies and was concerned about their welfare. I was told by the person I spoke to that they would investigate and would call me back in 10-15 minutes…. Guess what, no call back, even though I had said I was concerned about their welfare of my animals!!! I then called back after 75 minutes and was told it was air in the system and the person I first spoke to should have known that… who did I believe? If they were correct then TRAIN YOU STAFF.
Absolute disgraceful service, if my animals become ill, I will be taking legal action, value of my horses is around £1 million.

Very expensive bills which keep going up, no real change in quality service, CEO on a ridiculous salary but no impact.

I have had a stage 2 complaint regarding missing guaranteed standards payments since 20 April..it’s been 3 months and no contact from them at all..i have to chase everything up myself and still no resolution!!!!

Southern Water is what you get when you have a protectionist monopoly that psychopathically destroys and drains the environment while holding its inhabitants hostage as a business model.

The people that are in the boardroom are basically sociopaths.

I am absolutely disgusted and appalled by the service from Southern Water here in Southampton! If I could leave minus 10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, I WOULD!!!

It’s been a whole week since a big leak in Settle Close, Southampton, and a number of residents, including myself, have called SOUTHERN WATER. Literally, they had no interest on the phone! It’s A DISGRACE! IT’S OK TO TAKE PEOPLE’S MONEY, MAKE HUGE PROFITS, AND PUT BANS ON USING HOSEPIPES, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO FIXING SOMETHING AS URGENT AS A BIG LEAK, YOU JUST IGNORE IT.

WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE EVEN DOING? YOU ARE WORTHLESS AND JUST POCKET PEOPLE’S MONEY. TO MAKE IT WORSE, ONE OF THE RESIDENTS SAID YOU WON’T SEND ANYONE FOR ANOTHER 3 WEEKS. IT’S D.I.A.B.O.L.I.C.A.L.

Shocking company!!! if i could have given no stars i would have. They lie, will not address the problem they have hung up on me twice!! please note i have not been rude. Harrassed with large bills, taking advantage of the elderly, also knowing hat i am on pallative care. Absoultly outrageous been going on since march.

One star is too much! Very poor customer service. They keep you waiting ages then cut you off. They cancelled my direct debit and then accused me of missing a payment!
In response to the reply from the company, yes, the matter was eventually finalised to my satisfaction, but it should not have been necessary for me to contact the chief executive for it to be resolved.