Water company has lost my bill payment
Discussion
Hi all. Wasn't sure if this post should be in here or speed/plod/law, so if its wrong could it be moved?
We received a water bill in November which I prompty paid at our local payzone shop. Pay money, money taken out of account next day, all is well, or so I thought.
Early December we get a final notice for this bill. Cue worry and stress for my Fiancee and I. We follow instructions on the final notice, call the dept recovery team who tell us to write in and send a copy of receipts etc as they can't do anything on the phone. Typical.
We do this asap.
Had a letter on Saturday morning from the water company saying that the bill still hasn't been paid, and they don't know where the money has gone! They have put a stop on the account to stop any further action (too bloody right they have).
However, they are saying in the letter that it now has to go to the company who handled the payment, a well known financial company, to be investigated. This will take about 6 weeks! The letter finishes by saying that we will be contacted pending the result of the investigation.
This worries me a little. What if they come back asking for more money? This would be hassle and stress that we really could do without. I am not going to pay them anything else, but its all the trouble that comes with it.
We have a payzone receipt which says 'payment with thanks (water company name)' so the payment obviously linked to them. We also have a bank statement which shows the money going out the next day, and we have the shop receipts to show the transactions.
Has anybody else had a similar situation to this? I sent them a snotty but sensible letter in December, but it seems to have taken them a month to get nowhere.
I would like to know where my money has gone, anybody got any ideas? It could be human error (on the part of the shopkeeper keying in the wrong info into the payzone machine), or it could have been skimmed?
As anybody else who has been in this situation will know, its incredibly frustrating. They have somehow managed to lose £126, and even though we provided receipts, they don't know where its gone!!
Thanks all!
We received a water bill in November which I prompty paid at our local payzone shop. Pay money, money taken out of account next day, all is well, or so I thought.
Early December we get a final notice for this bill. Cue worry and stress for my Fiancee and I. We follow instructions on the final notice, call the dept recovery team who tell us to write in and send a copy of receipts etc as they can't do anything on the phone. Typical.
We do this asap.
Had a letter on Saturday morning from the water company saying that the bill still hasn't been paid, and they don't know where the money has gone! They have put a stop on the account to stop any further action (too bloody right they have).
However, they are saying in the letter that it now has to go to the company who handled the payment, a well known financial company, to be investigated. This will take about 6 weeks! The letter finishes by saying that we will be contacted pending the result of the investigation.
This worries me a little. What if they come back asking for more money? This would be hassle and stress that we really could do without. I am not going to pay them anything else, but its all the trouble that comes with it.
We have a payzone receipt which says 'payment with thanks (water company name)' so the payment obviously linked to them. We also have a bank statement which shows the money going out the next day, and we have the shop receipts to show the transactions.
Has anybody else had a similar situation to this? I sent them a snotty but sensible letter in December, but it seems to have taken them a month to get nowhere.
I would like to know where my money has gone, anybody got any ideas? It could be human error (on the part of the shopkeeper keying in the wrong info into the payzone machine), or it could have been skimmed?
As anybody else who has been in this situation will know, its incredibly frustrating. They have somehow managed to lose £126, and even though we provided receipts, they don't know where its gone!!
Thanks all!
Edited by funkyrobot on Monday 5th January 13:59
Yep.
Don't worry. We had this with an energy company last year who had no record of our payment, despite bank account records of it being paid.
Que letter to them from our bank with copies of the payment details and a strongly worded letter from me to the energy supplier.
Took them three weeks to sort, but written apology received with £40 credit to cover phone calls, bank letters, statements and my time.
Just check you put the right payee reference in the payment details. If this is wrong it's a bigger pain, but still sortable. If it's there cock up, i'd push for a spot credit to be applied to your account.
Don't worry. We had this with an energy company last year who had no record of our payment, despite bank account records of it being paid.
Que letter to them from our bank with copies of the payment details and a strongly worded letter from me to the energy supplier.
Took them three weeks to sort, but written apology received with £40 credit to cover phone calls, bank letters, statements and my time.
Just check you put the right payee reference in the payment details. If this is wrong it's a bigger pain, but still sortable. If it's there cock up, i'd push for a spot credit to be applied to your account.
funkyrobot said:
We have a payzone receipt which says 'payment with thanks (water company name)' so the payment obviously linked to them. We also have a bank statement which shows the money going out the next day, and we have the shop receipts to show the transactions.
In that case, you have nothing to worry about as far as I can see. If they ask for the money again, tell them as impolitely as possible, to f
k right off.Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff