Southern Water Reviews 

Awful and harassing company.
Call centres full of script readers who are utterly useless and can’t even put you through to a manager.

Starting 3 months ago, I received correspondence from Southern Water - telling me they had opened an account in my name at the address I live at (bills included, and water paid by the landlord), for waste water - the house has a septic tank so there is no mains waste water.

I contacted them and they were utterly useless. Eventually coming up with the idea my landlord needed to speak with them and clarify and they told him I just needed to call up and be taken off the account (because me very clearly telling them this did nothing the first time).

I called today after being sent a text for a water bill (a bill for services not used, mind you) and I was told they wouldn’t remove me from the account, they now wanted me to prove a septic tank was in place (so, firstly this is not my responsibility, secondly they have received this evidence three times already). Why would I believe them this time when they have proven time and time again they cannot keep their word and clearly have no idea what’s going on.

They will not tell me where they got MY details from, despite the fact they have decided to make me an account holder for a account that I have no responsibility for. Just a list of vague ‘maybe here, maybe there’ responses.

I’m so fed up with this now - I’ve been dragged into this nonsense that they’re far too incompetent to sort out, but they expect me to go around in circles to fix their screw ups.

The call handlers just repeat their scripts, they’re zero actual help (can’t even put you through to someone) then they get surprised when you’re pissed off at them doing the absolute bare minimum. They need to be seriously looked into by an ombudsman and realistically fined or shut down for practicing like this.

Absolutely appalling and f**king incompetent.

I have waited over a year to eventually get my water meter, but eventually it was installed on 1/6/26, it was installed in one day, but Clancy have left a large hole with the meter exposed , I have phoned, emailed & sent photos, but to no avail!! Also, I am a 74 year old lady, living alone in a one bedroom terraced house, I was paying £47 before the meter was installed, they have just sent me an email saying it was going to cost me £92 a month, I phoned them & the young man agreed that it was absolutely ridiculous & changed the amount to £45, but even that is far too high, but no one seems interested, sadly. What am I supposed to do?
Oh no, I have just checked my bank account & my direct debit has been cancelled!! I hope Southern Water reads this!!

I have MS and this company are hounding for payment even through I’m paying every 28days a sum that I can afford and then they try passing the buck to another company which I do not have a bit of trouble with

Once Ben Maxwcu arrived on the 22/7/26 I’m pleased to say they worked tirelessly all day and night until the bulk of the work was done. They were both tidy and efficient and very polite. It has been a bit of a nightmare no one saw coming but we’re now satisfied with the outcome and are just waiting for some concreting to be done to completely finish the job. Once again thank you for looking after us and let’s hope your services aren’t needed for a while! Mr and Mrs Kelvie. Ref no. 1461 2451

Just thought I'd start with a joke , single person living on my own in a flat , 1 shower per day Washing machine on twice per week and a bit of washing up daily been told my bill for the year ahead will be over £1000 , I mean really !!! Could someone from Southern water please contact me . P. s feel for your staff having to read from scripts daily to appease your customers

I am a director of a retirement complex in Alresford Hampshire. This site has many elderly and vulnerable residents. The service we have received from Southern Water has been far from acceptable. They told us we didn’t exist even with an account number and bill information we couldn’t be located. For some considerable time we have had a water leak which we identified was a stop tap leak outside one of our blocks. After many and I mean many calls to SW eventually an inspector visited us. He agreed that SW would repair the leak and while on site he called, with our site manager present, and made the appointment for the work to be fulfilled. At 18.00 the evening before,a representative called to cancel the appointment and informed us that it wasn’t their responsibility and we were to get in touch with a plumber. The tap is southern waters and no plumber will entertain the work as the path has to be dug up to enable access to the tap which is some way underground. Apparently we were visited by a water distribution team this morning who some residents saw. We have been treated appallingly and this has left us having to find a company able to come and help us. The tap is currently sitting in 18 inches of water and SW could not care less. In the meantime our water bill is incredibly high. Where do we go from here?

Here we are a week later and not one person has contacted me with regard to my complaint. The company are useless and are only interested in their shareholders not the customers who pay their salaries.

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.