South West Water Arvostelua 

Where do I even begin....
So me and my gf where both out the country last year for 4 months September to December 2025 as you do we turned off the water in the house. When we returned we found a massive water bill upon investigating we found a leak at the water meter which took them over 2 months to fix and they had just guessed are meter reading, and now they are only refunding us £70 for a leak that could have been going on for 5 months!!! The company is an absolute joke and just out to steal your money if I could give them 0 stars I would and I would also change providers if I could.

Extorionate amounts charged for water and even more for sewerage. Have to run the kitchen cold tap for approximately one minute to get clear water to drink. SWW blames my pipes for this. Massive limescale build up in my toilets eventhough I thoroughly clean them. I use a lot of water due to health issues but still cannot get a reduction in water rates as I am not on a "Qualifying benefit". Water meter already installed on my property so am not allowed to go on an assessed charge. Funny how SWW management have such big bonuses...oh wait, it's due to them charging stupid amounts to their customers.

System will Not accept a meter reading.
Virtual Assistant is a complete Waste of time.

Horrendous organisation - appalling it’s 2026 and they are still around.

On several occasions I queried my bills, only to be told each time that the meter is read on a regular basis. As far as I am aware, my meter has only been read once in five and a half years, and that was when I requested an engineer to attend. I am not the only one to experience this and through Facebook, it appears to be standard practise for SWW. I believe that the Serious Fraud Office should investigate this to ascertain whether or not SWW are deliberately overcharging customers in order to earn interest on those funds. They should also look into SWW claims of regular meter readings taking place.

I have nothing good to say about this company-the hassle it takes to get any sort of query resolved is unbelievable. The prices have rocketed recently- I asked for some room to sort the new monthly bill, but all I've got is threatening letters! A jump from £31-50 to £49-50 pm is not reasonable! ( I'm on State Pension only).

There has been a large increase in my direct debit without any explanation. Tried to phone only to hear a recorded message saying I was 26th in the queue. According I wrote to them using 1st class mail. After 7 days they haven’t bothered to reply. Their customer service is appalling.

Bereavement Service is appalling. I contacted the bereavement line to advise that my mother had passed away. I gave them my contact details and asked to be updated and change the name on the account. I received a generic email to my address saying I have a new account and welcome to SWW! SWW also emailed my mum (now deceased and they were told) a closing bill and even addressed it to the executor of her estate. I called them and explained that its not best practice to send generic emails and maybe some recognition and empathy around someone passing would be a better thing to do. I was escalated to another team member who said the emails are auto generated and there is no bereavement team. With the millions this company make they should invest in a team to handle these times in peoples lives. Their intro message even says how much they value their customers and how well they treat them. Its a shocking way to deal with a bereaved person and even more so they dont have trained agents and a dedicated team. Fast forward to today and again they have emailed my mothers email address another bill.. Incompetence at its finest

000004301664 hi. this has not been fixed water as stated on your website the water is still pouring down the road and the road surface is cracking in front of houses. reported 8 weeks ago been out twice dug some holes in the field couldnt find leak and filled them back in !

Ponsworthy is a rural hamlet on Dartmoor. A watermain burst outside out home and we were impressed to see our workers toiling in pouring rain on a windy night until 4am to get to the problem & get our water back on. What a lovely gang they were. Very professional and worked day and night literally to sort us out. They got it all finished within a few days but the water was only. off for a matter of 12 hours or less. Thank you so much and please pass on our thanks to the guys who were here this week (commencing 8th March). Excellent service.

Phoned up about the water bill which was over estimated,by 9 cubic metres only used 2 cubic metres, person on the phone rudely said you don't use a lot water. Before there was me and father. Now just myself only need water for washing up etc. It's of no concern to them why!! Now have account in my name and paying correct amount as to reading. On the whole my experience of South West water so far is very poor. Already can see a complaint being put in only had account two days.

South West water are the worst company of ever had to deal with. All their interested in is paying their shareholders. Pumping sewage into our waters. Disgusting. They have literally doubled the price of sewage and water. So you pay it weekly. (Not on a payment plan) Then they send threatening letters saying they're going to take you to court. Nasty people.

I tried to contact south west water using their virtual assistant I was disconnected 3 times so 3 different assistants all asking the same information, again, and still no resolution to my query as I was then disconnected mid way through typing!!!!!!

Terrible company. polluting the water. extortionate innacurate bills. persecute sick and vulnerable people. Never speak to them on phone unless you record it as they lie, get paper trails. overcharging people

I had a massive one at the pub with big kev and naturally all the kebab reared its ugly head the following morning and clogged the streets plumbing

I called SWW and Keelan Trainer Roulstone came out within the hour, solved it with minimal fuss, only a few comments about the smell
Didn’t fancy staying for a cuppa but was pleasant

5*

South West water got my review took down because I told everyone to watch Channel 4 "Dirty Business." It aired 23rd 24th, and 25th Feb 2026 and exposes Water Companies lies about their sewage dumping. South West water featured heavily. The Environment agency were also shown to be complicit in all of this criminality. How arrogant that you think you will try to stifle the truth again by having my review taken down. WELL YOU WONT!!!!

For decades, you’ve pumped sewage into our bathing waters. You’ve made us sick. You’ve dodged accountability to protect your profits and left us all paying the price. In our skyrocketing bills, and our health. This is no accident. It’s a choice.

🤒 Since 2020, nearly 3,000 people told SAS they’ve been sick after using the water at a South West Water beach.

📉 South West Water has consistently received a 2 EPA rating. In 2021, it had a 1 rating. In 2025, it has been rated red for its environmental performance for the 14th year in a row.

💩 South West Water was responsible for 189 pollution incidents in 2024- double the number recorded in 2023.
💩 In 2024, South West Water dumped sewage into its bathing waters over 9,000 times.
💩 In 2025, it dumped sewage into bathing waters for over 50,000 hours, triggering over 2,000 sewage alerts on the Safer Seas and Rivers Service.

🤑 It paid out £126.9 million in dividends in FY 2024-25.

💷In 2023, South West Water was handed a £2.1 million fine for pollution offences and breaching its environmental permits.
💷 In 2024, it was ordered to pay back £17.4 million to customers for underperforming.
💷 In 2025, it was told to invest the £24 million it should have been fined for its woeful failings

There is something seriously systemic wrong with SW water. All I wanted to do is inform them of a change of address. Apparently that is too simple. On a watts app call I was told the meter was in the garden. It isn't, and there is no garden, which I knew to be the case. He then kept messaging me for three hours about meter readings even after I'd told him several times I was not well enough to continue the unnecessarily stressful conversation at that point and get back to them later. He still kept sending me messages against my wishes. In the end I had to block him as he was just harassing me and didn't listen. This was merely me trying to change address!!! Previous time I spoke to SW water they told me I'd have to lift a manhole cover and they know I'm disabled!!
Obviously I shall be raising a complaint with them and speaking to manager as it's not acceptable but what I've come to expect from their staff. They seem to think that if they harass you and are as obstructive/ unreasonable as possible yet add the words ' I'm sincerely sorry' or ' I sincerely understand ' on the end of all their ridiculous advice and comments it somehow mitigates their unacceptable customer services. Actually it's worth not living in the south west just to avoid this lot, it can feel like they enjoy upsetting their customers, their training must be terrible

Received latest bill of over £1,000 for 6 months, only 2 people live at the address. Checked the meter reading and it was wrong and had used less than half the amount. When I spoke to them they said the meter had been read 1 week before but I had to remove about an inch of debris to take the reading so it was obvious it hadn't been read in sometime. I would strongly advise everyone to check the meter reading when they receive a bill from South West Water

Water bill increase 13.22% increase for 26/27 on top of the 34.4% increase for 25/26. Continually have tankers collecting sewage overflowing manholes in Kingsbridge and made people sick in Brixham. Useless robbing organisation.