Customer Charter
Our service promise to you
The aim of the Customer Charter is to provide answers to questions you may have about our business practices and to provide you with reasonable expectations around our services, processes and responsibilities.
The Customer Charter explains our obligations under the Water and Sewerage Act 2008 and the Customer Service Code issued by the Regulator. It also outlines the rights and responsibilities of our customers and our commitment where possible in providing reliable water services, sewerage services and trade waste services.
Our Customer Charter is our service promise to you.
If you would like a hard copy of the Customer Charter please call 13 MYWATER (136 992).
Please note that there are currently two areas where Southern Water is not yet in full compliance with the standards outlined in the Customer Service Code: We apologise for difficulties these areas of non-compliance are causing our customers.
Areas of non-compliance:
1. Billing Period
Area of non-compliance: Section 5.1 of the Customer Service Code requires that “For customers who have not elected to enter into a separate service contract, the billing period must be no less than 1 month and no more than 3 months, unless otherwise approved by the Regulator.”
Due to data validation issues some customers have not received bills in accordance with the Billing Period requirement. As at 23 March 2012, there were 3 customers in this category that have not yet received 2011/12 bills.
Reasons for non-compliance: The outstanding cases relating to this area of non-compliance typically include inherited one-off billing arrangements which have required evaluation on a case-by-case basis. Some examples of the complexities include:
- properties and/or customers with shared and/or sub-meters;
- mixed fire service and normal connections with a multiplicity of charging arrangements;
- mixed land use with multiple connections and different charging arrangements across Council boundaries;
- historic charge basis was inconsistent with actual size and number of connections; and
- inherited one-off pricing arrangements that do not conform to any standard pricing (special arrangements).
Interim arrangements: Southern Water is working to resolve the outstanding cases as soon as possible. As there are occasions where we have not been informed of a property sale or other property transaction by a customer or a third party, we have commenced a reconciliation process against data provided by The LIST (Land Information System Tasmania) to identify any gaps in relation to subdivisions and changes of ownership.
Timeframe until compliance: A commitment has been provided to the Economic Regulator that Southern Water will be compliant with the Code in respect of the Billing Period by 20 April 2012.
2. Reminder Notices
Area of non-compliance: Section 7.1.1 of the Customer Service Code deals with Reminder Notices and requires that “If a customer fails to pay by the required date stated in the bill, a regulated entity must, within seven days after that required date and prior to taking action for non-payment under clause 9, send a reminder notice (in the same manner in which it sent the bill) ...”.
Southern Water has concluded that to issue reminder notices for accounts with balances outstanding less than $50 does not make practical sense. Accordingly, we will simply add these amounts to the next customer bill. On this basis, the remaining number of outstanding Reminder Notices is 27,237 as at 23 March, 2012.
Reasons for non-compliance: Our billing system did not have the ability to produce Reminder Notices in compliance with the Code until December 2011. Consequently there was a substantial backlog of accounts with arrears.
Interim arrangements: All reminder notices for outstanding amounts in excess of $50 are being released on a stage-by-stage basis.
Timeframe until compliance: A commitment has been provided to the Economic Regulator that Southern Water will be compliant with the Code in respect of Reminder Notices by 7 May, 2012.