Southern Water Anmeldelser 

I received a call today from A southern water agent, Poorly trained and as aggressive as ever.

I had a previous direct debit in place and the submitted a card change request as my bank was closing, This request was sent 3 weeks before the direct debit was due to come out.

the direct debit that was set up bounced.. why? because southern water incompetent prats that they are decided to not even look at the request and action it.
This led to me getting called firstly by a contact center worker who said that the outstanding amount was for a missed month which i disputed because everything was paid up right until the moment they failed to update the bank details. so i made a outstanding payment to them and then it was fine.. all sorted and i told the guy to set up a direct debit on the 15th.

low and behold the direct debit auto declined and apparently and i get paperwork to that effect with a lady calling me up today demanding a £35 payment in November citing my usage had gone up.. ef that no it hasn't i use the same amount of water roughly a week on showers and washing because i have OCD and have to do things on certain days.

anyway after telling the agent to do one i set up a new direct debit myself online and look no £35 charge.. it wanted £16.

so.. whats going on at this shambles of a company that dumps waste everywhere then tries to get extra money out of me to pay for it.. scumbags.

After repeated calls ,emails and photos still no response to the 3 month fresh water leak on my street. Disgusting that this has been left untreated .

Awful company. 35 minutes waiting for the phone to be answered. Assistant tried to help and said they would phone back. They did not.

received letter stating an email address was on their website. No email address on their website.

Contacted using robot chat and robot gave a false email address

The absolute worst company to deal with. Exhausting and deeply stressful.
Southern Water is a total nightmare and has caused me endless annoyance. On top of an a duplicated account, I have been overbilled for the last 6 months, charging 3 times my usual rate.
Their customer service completely pretends to resolve issues. I have lost count of how many times I have contacted them, only to be given conflicting advice. They promise an issue is fixed, only for the exact same problem to come right back up again. Dealing with them is an endless, frustrating cycle of stress.

5 days ago they requested more info based on my TP review & I immediately supplied it so I hoped I would hear directly as weeks on I am getting nowhere but still nothing! Then I noticed everyone gets the same copy & paste response, as I said they don’t care.

Really disappointing customer service. I started a live chat to sort out my enquiry and was left waiting with no replies. I had to message "Are you there?" and "Hello????" before anyone answered. When the agent finally came back, I was told they were "handling multiple chats at the moment". That's not my problem as a customer. If I'm going to be stuck on chat for hours and still not get my enquiry resolved, then the service isn't working. Customers shouldn't have to chase an agent just to get basic attention. Unprofessional and frustrating. I expected much better.

If I could have given Zero stars then I would have.
Their customer service is shocking, I phoned to ask a simple question, I was on hold for 25 minutes then was put through to , I can only assume was a call centre in India, but I could not understand a word she was saying, then she cut me off . Shame on you and your company

The lowest reviews I have ever seen for a company, and quite justified. I called their customer service line today and had to go through tortuous irrelevant recorded messages before getting connected to an agent, who sounded like they were in India or the Phillipines. I wanted simply to change the name on my mother's water account as she had died, and replace it with my name as I had been the bill payer for a considerable time. After 15 minutes of security questions and having to continually repeat myself, I got cut off just as the procedure was ending. I called back only to be told it was impossible to be reconnected to the same agent, so had to go through the entire procedure again. When finally finished, I checked the account only to discover my dead mother's name still as the main name, with me added as a secondary name. This level of customer service is like having dental work without anaesthetic whilst listening to Kier Starmer. A thousand curses upon this company.

We have had an email from Southern Water reminding us we are still in a water hose ban as the River Test water level is low. Yet, we reported a leak which is spilling 3 times our household usage ( of 4 people), and 6 weeks on they have done absolutely nothing about it..
Well, they have tried to put the blame onto us saying it’s on our property and yet after us digging up our garden and giving them firm proof it’s on their side they are still in no hurry to sort out the leak.
So, it appears our hose pipe ban is down to pure incompetence by Southern Water, not just because the river level is low!

I am extremely disappointed with the way Southern Water handled a leak at our property.

A leak was identified when our smart meter was installed in March 2026, but we were not made aware of the issue until August 2026. During this period, the leak continued and our water consumption was significantly higher than normal.

I find it extremely concerning that such an issue could be identified but that we were not made aware of it until several months later. Had we known in March, we could have taken steps to investigate and arrange the necessary repair much sooner, potentially avoiding months of excessive water usage and charges.

When I raised my concerns, I was advised that the responsibility for arranging the repair sits with us as tenants (landlord). I appreciate that responsibility for the physical repair may depend on where the leak is located, but the lack of timely communication is what I find particularly unacceptable.

I would strongly encourage Southern Water to review its communication procedures so that customers are notified promptly when a potential leak or significant issue is identified, rather than several months later. People’s financial circumstances and living situations can change considerably, and timely communication allows customers to take appropriate action.

I hope Southern Water takes this feedback seriously and considers improving its processes to prevent other customers experiencing the same situation.

Daylight robbery, stupidly expensive and we have no choice but to pay it.

Still no response from them. I think customer service has disappeared. No phone call. Looks like I will have to take the newspaper route.

Neighbours Water meter replaced 2 weeks ago, Southern water have left an awful mess of cement and mud outside my house. X3 phone calls have said it will be jetwashed - nothing happens and in the meantime it’s now trodden into my drive. I believe it’s Clancy that are supposed to be doing it !

If I could give a minus I would as from my last comment about southern water I can now see how we are over charged for our services ! It took 8-9 weeks to repair a small leak it started and ended by approximately 15 guys to do a 1 man job ! The actual job was done by 2 guys that came out first to dig a hole out side my house and never covered the hole properly ! Then another guy to come and have a look then 2 guys to repair a meter that was in the same place as the leak but never repaired the leak they said it was another job ? So a couple of days went by so I contacted them and they were under the impression that it’s all been done ! So yet another guy came out and had a look ! Then the same 2 guys who dug the hole repaired the leak ! Leaving barriers slung in my drive ! Then a couple of days later 1guy came and tarmac the hole ! Then 2 guys came and picked up the barriers ! Then another guy came and cleaned the mud and dirty water all over the drive badly and that’s how they left it .so now you know why we’re getting massive water bills and very poor service!!!!

Southern Water are the worst company I have ever had to deal with.

There has been a leak behind my meter on the public pavement in my road. The water from the leak was going into my neighbour's property, causing damage. The leak was reported to Southern Water as soon as I was made aware of it. I explained at this initial stage that my water meter was spinning despite no usage from me and was reassured that my bill would not be impacted.

Southern Water eventually sent Clancy to 'fix' the leak and the problem was marked as resolved, even though we could hear there was still a leak and water was still entering my neighbour's property. We then had to go through the whole process again, multiple phone calls to explain, eventually leading to the leak being fixed after 3 months.

Almost immediately after this my water bill and my neighbour's both almost doubled. Since then I have tried contacting Southern Water approximately 15 times and either I end up in an endless loop between customer service agents or I get hung up on as they 'transfer' me.

The customer service is shocking and takes a ridiculous amount of time, at every stage I am asked to give multiple personal details that I've already given on the call to the previous agent. The conversations are heavily scripted and sometimes their answers do not match what I have asked. The call always ends with them promising the escalation team (based in the uk) will call me back. I've stated multiple times that I can't take calls until after 3pm and have had that logged on my account. Every time the escalation team calls me it is before 3pm and they leave a message with no details, saying that I have failed to pick up and that they will try again x more times. I've had 6 of the voicemails now. Every time I call back as soon as I can, spend over 30 minutes waiting, just to be told that I cannot be transferred to the escalation team (even though the most recent voicemail said that was possible). I've also tried the online and WhatsApp services but these are even worse. One agent was insistent that my bill was higher 'simply because my usage had increased', despite explaining the leak and then cut me off.

I really do not know how to move this issue forward or how to get somebody useful on the phone to talk to, apart from refusing to pay the increased rate.

Alongside increasing water bills despite poorer service, this the company dumps polluted water into our seas and rivers, allows water to leak forever after it is reported and pays ridiculous amounts of money to its directors despite an abysmal performance. It feels like a criminal enterprise to me, absolutely unacceptable. I dread to think how many vulnerable people are paying well over the correct price for their water because they have hit the same issues as me and have given up.

Edit: you state below that you have contacted me for further information but you haven't. You left another voicemail with no way to contact the representative back. Please either contact me via email or agree a time for a phone call or give me a way to contact you directly. My water meter is now not working at all. Again, this has been reported to you but no action from you. You have continued to charge me an increased rate though!!

Incompetence is too kind a word to describe Southern Water's customer service. "We have sent you a private message", it said, implying it's taking interest and getting on with doing a proper job. Needless to say, no such "private message" has been received by me. One way or another, the country must rid itself of this disgraceful firm. However, it's big and powerful; a single customer is a mere grain of sand on an enormous beach. So how to get rid of them? Suggestions, please, here on Trustpilot.

After two years in a new apartment in Brighton , Southern Water tell me they "forgot" to charge for waste water and sent me a bill about for two years in one go.
They then estmated future useage at 400% of typical usage.
On phoning them I was given a whole bunch of excuses, basically untrue, including that the new meter reading includes waste water charges. I explained to the lady this was untrue as the water meter is incoming supply. In fact Waste water is calculated as a percentage of m3 useage. She appeared to not know any of this, which gives me the impression Southern Water are incompetent in setting up new supplies to a 200 apartment complex, in forgetting they have waste water, plus they have telephone operators unaware of the basics of water and waste charges. Totally useless and that's an understatement
!! Updated - Southern Water called me on 17th September and resolved my issues 100% to my satisfaction.
The representative (Elizabeth) from Southern Water listened to me and was very friendly and helpful. I'm a fan of Southern Water once more!

While I've had no difficulty getting through to customers services I've found it very difficult to understand the customer service agents. Clearly English is a second language for many of the agents which makes thing frustrating for both parties, needing to slow down and repeat things many times. I don't know if these call centres are UK based or overseas - I strongly disapprove of overseas call centres, but if UK focus really does need to be placed on native speakers.

Beyond this, dealing the faults team is a lottery, comms are poor, cases get close when there is no conclusion.

As we all know, these companies are more about extracting profit via debt structures and holding companies that shield the real workings from the customer, rather than truly investing in the services/environment.

Disgusting company. Scamming the life out of me with assessed charges, due to them lacking the infrastructure to fit a meter. Paying literally double my consumption, and not a thing I can do about it. Staggering how a company can operate like this with impunity.

Raw sewage being dumped into Langston harbour, it's unacceptable! Apart from the unsanitary waste disposal "solution" the area smells so bad none of the local residents can have the windows on their home open, due to the smell, driving past if you don't hold your breath it will make you involuntary physically gag, not to mention the ridiculously high prices they are charging, it won't be long untill the majority of customers will refuse to continue to pay