South Staffs Water Reviews 

Absolutely abyssmal is the best I can say for the management and organisation,which is a shame as the actual workers on the ground are very good. I have(and still have) a serious leak in my back garden,where the rising main goes into the house.i know it’s on my property and my responsibility ,but! I can’t get it repaired,as the main stop tap in the road(South staffs responsibility) is broken,was full of rubbish and won’t turn off. South Staffs have known for at least three years.
You phone them,on an emergency line(which is no different from there normal) god knows what country you get,but you cannot understand a word they say. I’ve had workmen out to change tap and clean the section out,but new taps won’t fit,workmen gone away,they actually put in that my job was an emergency but they haven’t been sent back. It’s petty bureaucratic middle management lackeys causing the problems,they put the prices up and do nothing. I am now going to take legal action against south staffs,I’ve got flooding in my utility room and it’s undermining the foundations.If I could change water suppliers I would. As of today,still waiting for the fault to be fixed,been over three weeks now.

My 96 year old mother phoned to report that following work in her road her water pressure had dropped to the point that it takes ages to fill a kettle. The operator then told her she had dementia at which point she put the phone down really upset. I visited week later to find the water still the same, phoned SSW only to be told repeatedly it's our stop tap under the sink, which is stuck and hasn't been touched in years. She is frail and on a list with them for preferential treatment. They the offered to get someone out in two months time. When pushed they said it would be a week. This company is a joke and really needs to look at its procedures and train it's operators.

I received a letter today notifying me of the change to my dd payments following the installation of a water meter a month ago! I had no idea! There have been no letters, no communication whatsoever. Having phoned them, they confirmed that the letters were never sent prior to the installation.

You might think it was an error, but no, having spoken with neighbours and others in the area, they've had the same experience too, only finding out weeks later that their supply is now metered.

I found a water leak on my garden 16/07 reported it to south staffs water our area had been subject to lots of leaks eventually we got a person to have a look just because he as in the area heard him talking to two other colleagues and he was saying the leak was losing half a litre of water per second working that out it is 43,200 litres per day water loss and it was over a month before they sent someone to repair it.And all this time we’re being told to save water. Two young lads turned up and dig a hole in the lawn they were here just 32 mins told me they couldn’t fill the hole back in as it was too sloppy , he put a couple of shovel fulls into the hole and put barriers all around it and left. Next day I found there was water in the hole so I kept a check on it until the whole hole was full so I called back into south staffs, I was told an inspector would be out to check it out in 2or3 days. 5 days later a young man came and said it was leaking in the same place nowhere near as bad as it was but enough to flood my next door neighbours garden paths front to back. When the extremely heavy storms came at end of August she was 4” deep in water and mud I had a call from south staffs telling me it would be over 3 weeks before anyone could come out and that was on a proviso that there were no emergency repairs elsewhere. I tried to say that the job had not been done properly in the first place so not pleased at having to wait so long to which I was told well we’ve no responsibility as such as it’s on your property you can get your own insurance cover to do repair. I tried that route as we do have cover but my insurance company did not really want to get involved simply as the work had been started by south staffs. I also being threatened that I will have to pay for the repair to south staffs. This company has always been a nightmare to deal with and if it were the case you could change supplier as with other utilities I would do that in the blink of an eye
I think South staffs needs to be held accountable and be overseen on it’s running by the GOVERNMENT. they are a waste of time. The staff that you actually get to see are great but when you phone in they are rude snappy and in some cases ignorant, if they can’t deal with working for a company that’s not capable of supplying a descent service then perhaps they should think of getting another job where there’s not so many customer issues.

The Way an enquiry was handled
Rang SSW co on 26.8.26 over a concern of water in our water meter chamber.
Engineer (Scott) arrived today (28.8.26) and dealt with the problem (No fault found)
2 of our neighbours has water meter problems which Scott dealt with there and then.
SSW and staff have delivered impeccable customer service and I commend all concerned for deliverying this quality of service so rarely found today. Well done!!

Absolutely disgusting company, I have had a bill quadruple my normal bill contacted them had a reading of 970 and then the previous bill was 873, checked my meter today and the reading was 856, so for the last 12 months they have overcharged me and all the have done is halved my bill for the last 6 months and actually deleted my bill from 6 months ago and the reading from my account, shame I cannot change companies cause this company is disgusting, I have evidence of bills and screenshots to prove this

Advice check your meter readings please as I was told some comes out once a year to read your meters, clearly not cause to get a meter reading of 970 compared to 856 is an actual joke, all in 12 months

Unexpectedly high bill after they claim to have read the meter - which is under a panel which hasn't been disturbed. As soon as I raised an issue, my login stopped working so I can't go back to check their figures.

WE HAD A PROBLEM WITH A NEW WATER METER.
THE CUSTOMER SERVICE MAN, CALLED MANY WAS PROMPT, INFORMATIVE AND SORTED THE ISSUE WITHIN A DAY.
VERY GOOD SERVICE

I pay my bill half yearly and have done for 8 years the average bill was £350 it spiked to £1200.
The explanation was that South staffs were only taking estimates and hadn't checked my meter for 2 years.Customer service were unhelpful and it has now put me in a difficult situation.
Really not happy with the estimates I thought having a meter stopped that.

Robbing B*stards. Just checked my direct debits:
June 2025- £39.36 a month
July 2026- £79.64 a month

More than 100% rise in a year. Is the Water Gold?? Does the water cure cancer?? Or is some fat executive tw4t sitting on a huge bonus in his office while the common person struggles to pay bills. Robbing B4stards!!!

Tried lot's of time to get into my account but it doesn't work, I can't get the emails to do anything I get locked out of the account rang them up the people I spoke to tried to find out what the problem was but they said it wasn't them So I've had to be put back on receiving paper instead

What a joke they fitted a meter and they didn’t tell me not happy I prob pay more money as worked it out what a joke they are robbing people defo the customer service are a waste of time she was stuck up defo talked posh don’t think so they think they rule the world I wish I could change the water people

Today I have spoken to Iqbal regarding the fact I keep requesting a Smart Meter and I hear nothing back. This has gone on for about 6 months so I guess this is why people give low results for bad service.
Iqbal listened and I was impressed and hoping he can sort it for me.
Around 4 years ago I had excellent service. WHY has it deteariated?
Iqbal was professional and pleasant.
Fingers crossed it might be a good result.

A lot of reviews here involving customer service. Unfortunately these aren’t the limits of their inadequacies. South Staffs Water have decided to distance themselves from Angling and are preventing a local company from providing a service on Blithfield Reservoir. A service that has been providing the local community with a past time that spans generations of families and encourages social connection, lowers stress and improves general mental health. It is a great shame South Staffs Water have come to this decision that will have a tragically negative impact not just within the local community, but also wider reaching areas. It shows a complete lack of care, consideration and understanding, unfortunately something we have come to expect from the majority if not all of the water companies in the UK.

I moved house two years ago and, despite paying my water bill regularly, I was presented with a large bill shortly after moving in. I suspected there may have been a leak at the property, but regardless, I accepted that I owed the money and continued paying after speaking with South Staffs Water.

Then, after around 18 months, the direct debit suddenly stopped. I assumed the balance had been cleared and carried on with life as normal until, completely out of the blue, I received a text message from a debt collection agency saying I still owed South Staffs Water money.

At this point, I had received zero communication from South Staffs Water, no letters, no phone calls, no emails, and no texts. Yet somehow, they had managed to pass my phone number and email address to a debt collector! They had some of my contact details.

When I spoke to a very helpful member of staff at the debt collection agency, we discovered the issue. South Staffs Water had my address recorded as what can only be described as a made-up hybrid of my old address and my new one. He assured me he would contact them to clarify what had happened.

A month passed and I heard nothing, so I chased it up myself. The debt collector had still received no response from South Staffs Water, so I contacted the them directly. To be fair, the adviser I spoke to was polite and helpful. She confirmed I still owed just over £100 and read out the address they had on file. This turned out to be yet another incorrect version of my address. Apparently, they had been sending correspondence there all along, which explains why I never received anything.

To summarise: we went from a strange blend of my old and new address to an entirely new “improved” version, with a touch of randomness added for good measure.

In short, South Staffs Water seems thoroughly disorganised.

To make matters worse, I was told they changed computer systems in 2024, meaning they can no longer see who entered the incorrect details or what happened when I moved house. Between the complete confusion over my address, the system change, and the fact I can no longer log into my online account, I now have no way of verifying whether the amount they are demanding is even correct or whether that figure has been made up too.

That level of record-keeping and customer communication is simply not good enough, in fact it appears to be bordering on shambolic!

Worst utility company I've ever dealt with.

The system is incapable of taking a lower meter reading than us estimated resulting in customers having to contact customer services. This doesn't happen with other utility companies.

Well where to start, We had to have a water meter fitted, so we were told, back in October 2025 here we are in May 2026 and it is still leaking outside they say the problem is ours as the leak is after the meter they installed in our garden path, and that the cause is our old pipe work into our home which we have never had a problem with in the time since we brought the property in the 1990's.
Their contractors, who installed the meter, also poured the excess concrete they used to repair our path down our surface water drain and blocked it!!
My wife and I are in our sixties and she suffers from anxiety and has just had a hip replacement, we cannot afford the cost of installing a new water supply pipe from the Road. The pipe is a shared supply with our next door neighbour who has refused to have a metre installed, we were told by south staffs water it was compulsory and the law. We did it to do the right thing but now it going cost us at least £1000 to put right which we do not have.
Others on our estate have had the same problems since having it done.
As for customer service, well the staff are pleasant enough but are unable to help with our constant request to have the meter removed and the pipe work they have damaged reinstated.
Thinking of doing the right thing? DO NOT DO IT.

Continous problem with regards to communication over bills, following massive increase in monthly bills. Company blames 'the system' and cannot distinguish between a monthly bill and a monthly plan. Lies over reading the meter when in fact it is estimated. No letters now sent advising on monthly payments as used to happen annually. Not a trustworthy company and sadly we can't change supplier.

As a regular visitor to Blithfield reservoir to fish it's devastating that for no apparent reason South Staffs Water are stopping all a fishing at the end of the 2026 season! Fishing is more than just catching fish, it's being in nature, forgetting all the difficulties we all have day to day and a reset for the mind and soul! Not only will a huge amount of anglers lose out but the local pubs, b&b's and shops will too when the huge amount of visiting anglers from across the UK stop visiting!

Good news, thank you trust pilot.

A very nice lady from South staffs water,has sorted my water rates out (many thanks) to her, our rates have been reduced by £18 a month. Although it is SS fault I am just glad it has been sorted.
Good result!