Complaint Review: Severn Trent Services - Nationwide

Severn Trent Services has the monopoly on the water to my neighborhood through Ft Bend County MUD # 35.

I love how you can have choices in electricity, and sometimes phone/internet, but you usually get stuck with whatever water company cut whatever backdoor deal to get distribution/collection rights.

Severn Trent Services, STS, must have finally realized how they can make a quick buck (or most likely thousands) by leveraging the billing system in their favor.

They recently "updated" their billing system, to "give" the consumer more choices in paying their monthly bill.

However, anything more than a paper check either mailed or hand delivered will result in a "convenience" fee added to the bill.

So if we try to remove the middle man and decrease the amount of human intervention involved, therefore saving all parties involved human labor, equating to saved money, I get charged extra money... good policy Severn Trent!

At least the other utility companies hide the payment in the monthly charges so I don't know I'm getting screwed.

Interestingly enough, they only mentioned the extra convenience charges once, when they mailed out the notice of the "upgrades".

If you visit their on-line billing site, there is not on single mention of the extra charges, but if you take the time to call and/or email customer service, eventually you will get a call/email back that there is indeed extra charges.

Notice I say you will get a call/email back... The customer service representatives on the phone do not know anything about the billing system or how it works.  All they know is "you owe $$$ money".

Severn Trent Services customer service is probably the least informed customer service of their own product and what they provide and bill for.

My question: "can you change me to paperless billing?", their answer "no, you have to go to the website"

My question: "how long does it take for changes to take effect on my account?", their answer "i don't know, but the billing cycle is 20 days"

My question: "how does your billing dept process payments?", their answer "i don't know, i suppose they process them within a day or two."

The list goes on....

But watch out for that last one - time to process payments...

I made the switch to on-line bill pay a while back.  Of course my bank, Wells Fargo, says allow ten (10) days for a bill pay to be processed and mailed to the payee.

First of all, WTF, in this day and age of automated electronics, how can it take that long to "process" anything?

All the information is already in the system, it prints out to a paper bank check, and mails to a company in the same town.

I have never seen the post office take more than three (3) days, and that's stretching it, to deliver a piece of mail across town.

BUT, Severn Trent Services starts reporting that my payments are late.  Okay the first time.  Maybe the second time.  WTF the third time?  So I push back my on-line bill pay to allow 14 days for payment.  At this time frame, it seems to defeat the point of electronic paying.

But still, Severn Trent Services continue to cry "late payment!!".  How is this possible, I ask them?  Even as I allow two weeks for payments to make it.  STS continue to blame the post office, my bank, rotation of the earth, methane gas from dairy farms, you name it.

I have been now wrestling with STS since November, since their "upgrade" to better bill paying.

And of note, if you miss/forget the late fee payment, no matter how small, expect a notice to cut off your water, along with another fee for deliquent paper, and get this, another fee to have the water cutoff letter delivered.

If i could drill my own water well, I would, and give this company the finger, several times over.

What really ticks me off is that, as i stated above, if it's happening to me, it's happening to a ton of their customer base, which means Severn Trent Services is ripping off hundreds, maybe thousands of customers $$ money every month, and lining their own corporate greedy pockets.

I have now resorted to going back to writing a paper check and driving it to their offices, so I can guarantee my payments are marked with a time stamp and a reciept of proof of payment.