Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

Clear Business Water

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Not Upheld Reference 201808639 Sector Water Category incorrect billing Decided 01 June 2020

Original decision on the SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) website ↗

Full decision

Summary

Mr C complained on behalf of Mr A, who owned a business. Mr C complained that Clear Business Water failed to bill the business appropriately. Mr A believed that his water bills were too high and he had extensive contact with Clear Business Water over a number of months whilst efforts were made to establish a reason for this.

After agreement with Mr A, Clear Business Water arranged for Scottish Water to conduct a site visit and the engineer identified that a valve close to the meter was the cause of the issue. This valve was fixed and meter readings were subsequently obtained in order to calculate a 'burst allowance' credit. A credit for a limited period was applied to Mr A's account, whilst non-payment charges were also cancelled. Mr A remained unhappy with Clear Business Water's response to his complaint and Mr C brought the complaint to us.

We found that, although it took a number of months to identify the issue with the water supply, Clear Business Water communicated with Mr A appropriately and they did not significantly contribute to the delay. We also noted that Clear Business Water had offered a goodwill payment to Mr A and subsequently extended the period for which the burst allowance credit was applied.

We concluded that there were no failings in the service provided to Mr A and we did not uphold the complaint.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201808639 as a PDF (24.33 KB) Updated: June 17, 2020

View original on SPSO (Scottish Publ… website