Decision Report 201105518

Summary

A number of years ago, Mr C bought a field next to a farm. The field was served by a water trough. He said that although he considered the water bills to be high, it was only in 2010 that he established that the supply was a joint one with the farm. He initially complained to Scottish Water who told him the meter number that should have applied and Mr C continued to question his bills on this basis. However, he also complained as he said that Business Stream continued to bill him incorrectly.

We investigated the complaint and considered all the relevant documentation, including all the correspondence and invoices from Business Stream. We upheld the complaint because our investigation found that Scottish Water had not kept Business Stream up-to-date about the correct meter that served the trough in Mr C's field. When this was brought to their attention, they corrected the records, re-billed Mr C and made him an ex-gratia payment in recognition of the inconvenience he had suffered.

Recommendations

We recommended that Business Stream:

• make a formal apology for their failure to deal properly with letters of complaint.