South Staffs Water Reviews 

214
•
TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.7

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Considering 49 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers frequently struggle with massive, unexpected price spikes on their utility bills and are deeply frustrated by receiving estimated charges instead of actual consumption measurements. Furthermore, people often describe customer service as completely unhelpful, incredibly difficult to reach by phone, and plagued by rude staff behaviors when addressing legitimate complaints. Some reviewers were happy with specific staff members who acted promptly and resolved their urgent water supply issues efficiently. A few customers also mentioned that certain advisors proved to be polite, professional, and ultimately successful in sorting out complicated billing queries.

What people talk about most

Customer service

Users describe negative interactions with customer service, highlighting long hold times, unhelpful staff,... See more

Payment

Customers expressed deep dissatisfaction with payment processes, frequently reporting unexpected spikes in... See more

Staff

Clients share ambiguous opinions on staff, with some reviewers praising field engineers and advisors for... See more

Price

Reviewers highlight deep frustration regarding unexpected price hikes and sudden massive increases in their... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Bills spike up without a warning. Charged us for estimate readings for a while without taking actual meter readings, and then sent us a huge bill after getting the actual readings. That kept us in a... See more

Company replied

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Having being forced onto a water meter their App constantly crashes and their online account site fails to recognise my username or password? Despite customer service resetting this numerous times!!!... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

My 96 year old mother phoned to report that following work in her road her water pressure had dropped to the point that it takes ages to fill a kettle. The operator then told her she had dementia at w... See more

Company replied

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

As many other people have said their service is just appalling. My bill has more than doubled each month because I was £60 in debit due to the huge price increases they inflicted on everyone earl... See more


Company details

  1. Water utility company

Written by the company

Providing high-quality water, great service and value for money.


Contact info

1.7

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

214 reviews

5-star
4-star
3-star
2-star
1-star

No recent history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative

Replied to 76% of negative reviews

Typically replies within 24 hours

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1.7

All reviews

(214)

48 reviews in the last 12 months

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Companies on Trustpilot aren't allowed to offer incentives or pay to hide reviews. Reviews are the opinions of individual users and not of Trustpilot. Read more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I had a complaint regarding meter…

I had a complaint regarding meter readings and location of meter not accessible, wrote to the complaints team over a month ago and no reply . Really a poor complaints team .

7 July 2021
Unprompted review
South Staffs Water logo

Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Ask.

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm not sure when you tried to contact us, so if you could give me an idea of the day and the time I can look into this?

Please message us on webchat for an instant reply, or on Facebook or Twitter where we always try to reply within 15 minutes.

I hope that helps.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Thankyou, excellent service

Felt I had to write, people only rend to review, when they have had a bad experience. However I spoke to a young lady this morning, I think her name was Alex, she was extremely helpful and sorted my problem straight away, she was most pleasant and nothing was too much trouble. She is a credit to you. Thankyou

22 April 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Thanks Tracy! That's lovely to hear.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

South staffs finally reply one month…

South staffs finally reply one month later yet they have the audacity to say do not write to us by letter please send something electronically and then they take 4 weeks to reply what a shambles

12 April 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Sorry Surinder, I don't know how I missed your original message. ^Christine

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

South Staffs have now automated…

South Staffs have now automated themselves into oblivion and made it totally impossible to contact them:
They don't reply to emails, they don't answer any phones, they leave phones to just ring out and cut off and keep repeating methods of paying them money! Very obviously no one at South Staffs is interested in any form of customer service and very obviously no one tests their automated systems - South Staffs used to be an excellent Company but have become a TOTALY useless supplier: South Staffs, shame on you

9 April 2021
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Chris.
I'm so sorry to hear this. I'm not sure when you tried to contact us, so if you could give me an idea of the day and the time I can look into this.
You should usually be able to get through to us on the phones but sometimes if our phone lines are extremely busy there can be an issue. If this is ever the case, please message us on webchat for an instant reply or on Facebook or Twitter where we always try to reply within 15 minutes.
I hope that helps.
^Christine

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Poor service

26 November 2020
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

I'm sorry to hear this. Can you give us some more information about why you were dissatisfied, so we can see how we can help?

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Can't login to pay bill on website

Can't login to pay bill on website . I am disabled and don't have the ability to speak so can't call to pay. I'm inisolation and can't get out to pay over the counter. Ideas please or do you honestly believe that everyone is as abled as you?

9 November 2020
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Dean.
I'm sorry to hear this, we recently changed the way you log in (from using customer ref to email address) so perhaps we didn't have your correct email address on file. Can you contact us so we can reset your account for you. You can contact us through webchat on our website, Facebook or Twitter.
In the meantime you can use our "pay now" feature which doesn't need you to log in: https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/my-account/website-payment
I hope that helps. ^Christine

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Was on a meter at my old flat and had a…

Was on a meter at my old flat and had a bill after 3 months for £120. I complained but they just fobbed me off saying the meter doesn't lie. Then the bill I got for the 6 months after that was £90. Funny that! I reckon they were trying to claw some money back from the old tenant who wasn't paying.
I now live in a 1 bed flat alone with rates and am paying nearly £350 a year while a friend who lives 2 miles away with her husband and child are paying around £250 a month. Ridiculous stuff.

Not to mention this company likes to poison the customers it robs by adding high doses of fluoride and chlorine. Can understand the chlorine but not to the extent of smelling like a swimming pool. The fluoride is a scandal.
It's not as if we have a choice either.

5 February 2020
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi there.

Firstly I apologise for the delay responding to you, we’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comments when you posted them.
I’m sorry you had issues with your bill, can you remember if you gave us a meter reading when you moved in? I’m wondering if there was an overlap with the previous occupier’s usage.

With regard to your current water rates, the rateable value for a property was set by the valuation office of your local council. The council set a separate rateable value for each property based on how much rent might be charged if it was rented out, taking into account the value and age of your property, the amount of land it occupies and the distance from local amenities. It sounds like you would be better off on a water meter. You can try a water meter for up to two years to see if it suits you but based on the fact that you were paying £90 for six months at your old flat, it does look like you’d be better off. https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/household/my-water-meter/why-switch-to-a-water-meter

Finally, about the chlorine and fluoride; we add a low concentrations of chlorine during the water treatment as a disinfectant to kill harmful bacteria and ensure that the quality of the drinking water is maintained all the way through the pipe network to your tap. The smell of chlorine may be more noticeable at times of day when water use is high or if we’re working in your area. This is because the water is reaching you quicker and contains more chlorine than when it has been standing in the pipes. If you find the small of chlorine unacceptable, you can try filling a jug of tap water and keeping it in the fridge. Not only will the chilled water taste better, it will lose that chlorine smell. Keep the jug covered and do not keep any water for more than 24 hours.

Our water supply contains either natural fluoride or an enhanced fluoride concentration at the regulatory value of 1.0mg/l. This enhanced level of fluoride is added at the request of Public Health England in accordance with the Water (Fluoridation) Act 1985, and following extensive consultation with local health authorities and our customers.

I hope that answers your queries. If you want to discuss it more, you can contact us online via webchat on our website, or Facebook or Twitter or give us a call.

^Christine

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Rudest customer collections staff ever!

Has issues taking over the business supply from previous tenant at my business.
Long story short they are threatening to cut off our water due to error. I have just phoned up to pay immediately upon realising the mistake, however the gentleman on the phone was more interested in having an argument with me than attempting to sort things out. He wouldn’t let me pay and seemed to really want to cut my water off. Absolutely awful to deal with, made a stressful situation even worse!

10 December 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Olivia.
Firstly I apologise for the delay responding to you, we’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience. We don't manage the water supply for businesses so you may have been in contact with our sister company, however I'm sure they would like to hear about your experience so if you do have any further issues please do contact their complaints team.
^Christine

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Disgraceful discriminatory practices

My friends have a council house. Their neighbour has a privately owned house. They go out to work. She is retired. They now have to take time off work to stay in to have part of their garden dug up in order for south staffs water “to prove” there is a leak in the neighbours private property. While she sits at home and waits to find out. Yes you say they don’t have to be in and that they can leave the gates open for god knows who to go round the back of their home and do god knows what. But in this day and age that’s an unrealistic expectation as crime is out of control. I don’t know any sane person who would leave their garden unsecured for strangers to mill about in. And your whole reasoning is they are council owned so don’t have to pay out of their own pocket. Well yes they are and so am I because we all pay our up keep and not one of us is on benefits of any kind. And if your charging the council for work on a property that doesn’t need doing on that property that we pay council tax too. Then your charging every worker in that area. To save a private home owner money. It’s a disgrace. It’s also a waste of everyone’s time. Asking permission, waiting for it to be granted by the landlord, arranging times when people can be off work. When you could just go to the source of the problem. She’s in all day, she can say yes immediately and the water wastage can be sorted out ASAP. I am 100% sure you are discriminating against my friends because they are in the unfortunate position of not owning their own home. There is no other reason for it. If they were in a private property you wouldn’t be able to charge them to dig up their garden to prove a leak was in a neighbours property would you? Because that’s like someone in a shop charging me for some trousers and then giving them to someone else in the shop. I’m disgusted by your behaviour and complete lack of scruples when it comes to discriminating against people who live in certain types of houses! You are clearly treating council tenants as some sort of lower life form that can be used for the good of private home owners.

10 September 2019
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Catherine
Firstly I apologise for the delay responding to you, we’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it.
I'm so sorry you feel this way. I know this was a year ago now, but if you have any problems in the future please get in touch so we can see how we can help.
^Christine

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Not happy with a phone call this…

Not happy with a phone call this morning 17 June

17 June 2019
Unprompted review
South Staffs Water logo

Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Martin
I'm sorry to hear that (I apologise for the delay responding to you, we’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it). Is it too late for us to help? You can get in touch online via chat on our website or Facebook or Twitter.
^Christine

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

South Staffs have always been…

South Staffs have always been attentive, helpful and very responsive. I really like the way that they operate. I have confidence in them as a customer and I rate their service very highly.

7 February 2019
Unprompted review
South Staffs Water logo

Reply from South Staffs Water

Thank you so much Yassemin!
^Christine

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Terrible customer relations service.

This company has been an absolute nightmare to deal with , after loosing my account,they could not even find me when I rang them as I only had an old reference number and after admitting it was there fault , and then sending me a huge water bill, putting me in financial difficulties and to say sorry they credited me a whole £30.00 off my bill . I can now sleep easy. They kept trying too blame me , for there mistakes. I won’t go on but if you do intend to deal with this company I suggest you really think about it , if I could have given them zero stars I would have.

10 January 2019
Unprompted review
South Staffs Water logo

Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Rod.
Firstly I apologise for the delay responding to you, we’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it.
I'm so sorry you feel this way. I know this was a year ago now, but if you have any problems in the future please get in touch so we can see how we can help. You can contact us online via webchat or Facebook or Twitter.
^Christine

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

They give a good service

They give a good service. Have embraced texting this week sending us reminders that water might be getting short and to save where possible. Generally a good provider who doesn’t bother you unless you contact them.

6 July 2018
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Mrs Sea
We’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it - but thank you for the review!
^Christine

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Water Meter

Your water supplier is determined by where you live, so you cant switch away if you feel you are being overcharged. I definately felt being charged on the rateable value of the property was crazy. However a quick call to their helpful customer services resulted in a free smart meter instillation.

11 February 2018
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Kelly
We’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it - but thank you for the review! We agree that water meters are the fairest way to pay for your water.
^Christine

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Hard work

Not impressed. Every time I call them it takes a while for them to understand my query and I don't find them helpful. Also they only read your water meter once a year but bill you twice a year.

15 June 2016
Unprompted review
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Reply from South Staffs Water

Hi Trees
I'm sorry we’ve only recently claimed this page so didn’t see your comment when you posted it. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, I hope you'll find it better in the future.
We do only read your meter once a year (at the moment) but feel free to give us your reading when your 6 monthly bill is due. You can give us your reading by logging into MyAccount on our website.
I hope that helps.
^Christine

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