Decision Report 201204363

Summary

Mr C complained about Business Stream's handling of his account. He was unhappy that Business Stream had not told him that they were his licensed provider, and complained that it was not until some years after moving into the property that he became aware of this. He was also aggrieved that he then received a bill backdated to when he moved into the premises. Mr C applied for a reassessment of his charges but was again unhappy when he was told that this would not be backdated to when he moved in.

During our investigation we found that it was the business's responsibility to establish the position about water supply arrangements when they moved into the premises. In this case there was no evidence that the delay in issuing Mr C's invoices was due to Business Stream failing to act on information available, or that they were aware his company were in the property and had failed to act. When Business Stream were told that Mr C's company was in the property they issued an invoice the same month. Although we did not uphold Mr C's complaint, we were concerned that Business Stream failed to apply the reassessed charges to his account, and made a recommendation for action.

Recommendations

We recommended that Business Stream:

• take action to process the banding offer and apply it to Mr C's account.