South West Water Avis 

Where do I even start this this shower( no pun intended). I sent them an email Nov 2025 querying my bill and the sudden increase from a monthly payment of £26 to £43.50. Had an auto reply,"we aim to respond within 10 days". No reply by mid Dec. Then had a great bundle of paying in slips for the increased amount. I sent another email asking why such a large increase and can they give me a justifiable reason for it. End of Dec and still no reply. As I am not a whatsapp user I decided to call them. To say that they were next too useless would be a understatement. Having spent over 15 mins trying to get the lady to understand what I wanted, she advised me that she would put me through to a manager. I waited another 15 mins approx but it just kept ringing. Having taken the decision to hang up, I sent a complaint in the form of a third email. Until SWW have the common decency and courtesy to provide me with a response, I will not be paying them anywhere near their vastly increased sum. I will not be bullied and brow beaten by this bunch of cowboys. I hope that many more of their customers take the same stance and say enough is enough. I pay my water bill/s on time and have never missed a payment. I will not be treated like something they have trodden in.

Expensive and undrinkable. Used same amount as last quarter and bill is up £50. No idea how as I put a brick in the toilet system. Water tastes awful at times. Daylight robbery and no other supplier to use.

DESIGNED TO FAIL. I decided to take advantage of a SWW "offer" of free water saving devices which entailed taking a survey.
Having done this I could choose the free items 0/1 or 1/1 for each one. Having no idea what this meant I tried to call a customer service number (there are none for general enquiries). After a 4 minute wait a recorded message told me that I was 10th in the queue.
As the department I was calling would have been unable to help, anyway, I hung up.
I concluded that the whole exercise was just a PR stunt and designed so that it would be impossible to obtain anything.

South West Water are installing new water meters. I don't have a problem with this, but they are doing this in a way that, in my opinion, puts more vulnerable members of society at risk, with unexpected strangers knocking on doors.

My experience with this company has been deeply unsatisfactory. The service is poor, characterized by unannounced outages that leave customers without critical services and with no information or updates provided on the company website.

Furthermore, the conduct of the company's engineers is completely unacceptable. They were rude, abusive, and disrespectful. This behavior reflects poorly on the company as a whole and drastically reduces customer confidence. Service quality needs immediate attention, and employee conduct requires serious review.

They just billed me £3000 for2 months . I was not home for those months. Water was not being used . I live on my own on 1 bedroom flat. I asked the lady on call to give me the meter readings that they have taken so that I will compare with what I have right now. It was different . When I asked why would they do something like that she said it was a mistake. This is fraudulent company. Stealing from vulnerable people and they do not show any remorse at all. This company should do better.

I received a quarterly bill for £202, sewerage charges included. SWW call this wastewater on the bills! My waste water goes directly into a communal tank on site (I’m in a park home). The rest of the bill was estimated & told me I was using the equivalent of 3 baths a day. Cost £89. I live alone & don’t even have a bath, just a shower. Obviously I use it, wash up, do laundry. But 3 baths a day equivalent?? No no no!
I tried, with the help of a friend to read the meter. The meter space was flooded, we baled it out, the plastic above the dial was cracked, making the figures impossible to read. I wrote to SWW, a proper letter, don’t try to ring, you’ll just get stuck in hopeless queues. I enclosed photos of the state of the meter. I received another bill, sewerage charges removed, but still estimated at 3 bath fulls a day, £89, no comment on the state of the meter.
I wrote another letter. Finally a phone call, based on previous usage my bill had gone down to £78 for a quarter. They tell me the meter should give automatic readings, why then are they estimating? But as it’s clearly impossible to read, they’ve referred it to the maintenance department to be repaired or replaced.
My point! If you don’t check your bills, read the small print & don’t act for yourself SWW may overcharge & I can’t help but wonder how many vulnerable people get scared & pay what they’re told to. From £202 down to £78 is a big difference!
Please read your bills carefully & query them if you’re not happy. If they’re continuously estimated insist they read the meter. Check you don’t have a central waste water tank, especially if you live on a park home site.
I gave 2 stars because I did finally get a result & the lady was polite & helpful. But, SWW are still really not performing well & I know it’s been going on for years!

Uncontactable. Phone on hold forever, what's app, on hold forever.
Finally got through. (45mins).Complete waste of time yet again, 17 months after initial contact about the issue.

You dont want to work here I worked here for 8 months and it was bad people dont get to take lunches or breaks and the managers get to all doss and take multiple lunches and breaks and chatting away and theres too much family everyone is related to each other so if you got no family there or know anyone you won't progress theres no room for progression anyway they made that clear

Got a letter out of the blue with red flavour text demanding payment, which I am more than happy to make when I am able.
Followed a week letter with a threat about an enforcement agency.
My agreement with them is to pay half the bill every 6 months, this hasnt changed.
A polite reminder is all that is required here. Not threats.
No stars.

Contacted customer support as SWW have been charging us for waste water disposal since January 2022, but we have our own sewage treatment plant and we are 5 miles from the nearest public sewer (they were notified of this in January 2022 and then on various occasions).
Here we are November 2025 yet again contacting customer support by phone and email re the same matter. 15 days have passed and still no response. Contacted customer support again today (7/11/2025) and eventually the line was answered by their operative in the Philippines (really no need to have call services on the other side of the world) who yet again gave the same “bull” that the problem would be rectified (yep she didn’t have a clue about our ongoing problem).

SWW show absolute contempt for their customers and do not respond.

I’m dismayed by their poor standards of service and lack of customer care

Dumping our waste water into rivers and streams. Paying massive bonuses to shareholders and the corporate team. Last CEO Susan Davy jumped ship when she could face criminal prosecution for her 19 years of environmental failings and funneling our money offshore. CRIMINALS!

If I could give minus stars I would.

Their plumber fitted a valve which is now leaking. Call handler Steve Thomas was ride, obstructive, alleged I’m lying about the name of the plumber they provided was who attended my house. Refused to let me speak to a manager. Told me leak can stay till tomorrow. This company are shocking and should be shut down!!!

No one is going to believe this . My water bill
Jumped from £60 to £400 . After nearly 2 years of fight , finally they found the mistake on their side of billing. Still waiting to recover my money . A disgusting company and its policies are crap . Poor service and they scam
People. They owe £4000 for 2 years .

Joshua dealt with my enquiry with politeness and professionalism. Thank you.

Appalling customer service as they keep you hanging on the phone for almost an hour before they answer! Not only that, they pour untreated, raw sewage into our bathing water - even on days when there isn't torrential rain.

If you use a hose to water the garden, you get charged for all that water going down the sewer - even though it doesn't go down the sewer. Morally bankrupt!

Discusting company ..! what the hell my water bill nearly trippled from £ 34 to £90 with no explanation absolute piss take

My previous house was very old and beaten up by previous tenants.Sww wouldn't fix the leaks and neither would Sanctuary Torquay both very corrupt companies. A kind plumber fixed the leaks but they now want me to pay over 2 grand and I'm disabled plus who has that to hand...they are robbers and scammers. If you say your bill seems way too high they always say to people need a leak allowance? How about just fixing it well duh.
I moved to Exeter and I'm the first tenant. So now I'm paying off 2 houses but Sww had cheek to say today that my bill although I pay weekly, amounts on both properties,was
£931 and maybe there was a leak. ?Newbuild 1st tenant highly unlikely. What horrible corrupt people overcharging and lying shame on them,my mother just died too and I told them that. These people are unbelievable and need to be investigated for their devilish greed.What about the sewage as well.
The UK has a crisis right now and you want us to keep giving - it has to stop ....you're hurting people ....just stop stealing.!!

Accrued a debit despite paying direct debit. No-one thought that maybe it would be smart to review the payments. Also HIGHLY questionable huge usage spike for 4 months when I basically was barely home. Currently raising a complaint. And let's not even get started on the state of the local beaches after medium levels of rainfall. What an awful company.

Left Devon to move to Midlands. Final bill was nearly 10 times my monthly bill. Lots of data presented but no explanation of how it relates to previous billing or why the massive jump.
Then had 4 conservations on WhatsApp on 4 occasions - at my inconvenience. They said an advisor would call me. It never happened.
Now the threatening reminders have started.

BEWARE THE FINAL BILLING! BEWARE THE AMBUSH!