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.
This company uses mis-leading collection tactics to disrupt service and get you to pay re-connect fees. I have lived in my neigborhood for over 20 years. This company has vry bad reputation in area for service handling. Area tech told us to put receipt on door so dis-rupt doesnt occur, but yet no one checked and still disconnected. The web site has a web site to pay bill, but doesnt state that the payment will not be applied on time until after the receipt is send via e-mail (can take up to 3 days) PLUS you have to pay a fee to pay-online! Otherwise, you see tons of people at their pay station to pay in person like you used to see in the 80's. No one does business like that anymore. How can they be legal to operate when they hold running water as hostage, with no choice in providers of service?
VERY BAD BUSINESS, and I dont know what anyone can do about it!
I have been paying bills for over 20 years, and by far, Severn Trent is the worst company I have had the misfortune to be forced to deal with!
My experiences with them...
Three years ago, when we first moved into Katy, we inherited a torn trash can from Severn Trent. When I went to sign up for service, I told them about the broken trash can and they said they would have the trash guy bring a new one. However when their garbage truck driver came by, he refused to empty our trash, nor did he have a new trash can for us. He told me that he cannot pick it up and that I needed to call the main office for a new one. So we had to put our trash in one of our vehicles and find a dumpster to take it too!
It took me making weekly calls for 3 months before they finally brought a new one! This is an unacceptable business practice, since we know what they would have done if we had failed to pay them!
I pay all of my bills infront of my computer, except this one! They're payment options are limited and ancient.
Their Disconnection notice process - On about May 2014 I got a bill. I wasn't able to leave my job that month, and the next month I got a disconnection notice. Within days of receiving it, I went to pay. The young lady at the front desk told me that I owed a little over $70.00, I paid and left.
The very next week my daughter called me at work to tell me that the water was off! I left my job and headed to Severn Trent ,all the while thinking that I was growing senile in my 40's, because I could have swore I'd just went by last week and paid this bill. I stopped by the ATM and pulled out $120.00 ($70 plus an extra $50, as I guess-timated the reconnection fees).
When I arrived at STS, I asked the same young lady at the front desk "what happened? why was my water turned off? I came here just last week and paid May and last I checked, June isn't due until the end of JUNE!" And here is what she said...."Once we send out a disconnect notice, even if you pay the past due amount, they don't stop the disconnection. The only way to stop the disconnection is to pay the past due and the next month."
Let's go past the mediocre excuse she just give me and go straight to what that translates into.....What she was saying is that Severn Trent will disconnect a customer, even though they are not delinquent!
For example...you have a cell phone and you are past due. Now you know that the next bill is due in a few weeks, but just so your service doesn't get turned off, you pay the past due, while you get your money together to pay the current bill, right? Well, if your cell phone company was Severn Trent, they would not have accepted you paying the past due only. Instead, you would have had to pay the past due month, the current month, and if you got disconnected, a reconnection fee, BEFORE they would consider you current!
Their Reconnection Fee - I was so stunned by what she said that I just looked at her for a minute. I blinked back the shock and asked ...."So what do I owe?" She pulled out her calculator and said "$230.00". I laughed, because it was impossible! Simply impossible! I said, "Mam, I already paid you $70 just last week, and I'm assuming that June will be around the same amount, plus a reconnection fee, so what do I really owe you?"
She said "the June payment is $70.00, and the reconnection fee is $160.00, so that's $230.00."
I asked, still shocked..."are you telling me that your reconnection fee is really $160.00?" She nodded.
I became lightheaded and had to take a few moments to calm the rage that was building! This was simply unbelievable, because now...I had to get back in my car, drive to an ATM to get more money and then drive back!
Fast forward now....I went by there today, to pay my bill, and the very same young lady took my payment, stapled the receipt to the statement, turned it over, stamped something in red and shoved it back under the glass. Since I do not trust them, I read what it said....
Effective December 1, 2014
No Change Will Be Given
Exact Payments Only
Now....they had just happily taken my hard earned money, so since I was face to face with them, wouldn't it have been nice if they had included good customer service by politely explaining the stamped words and inquiring if I had any questions?
If you steal someone’s tires you go directly to jail, and yet....this city's government has been allowing this company to blatantly practice beneath even the poorest company standards, while financially profiting from it?! There is no other way to put it.....disconnecting someone's service when they are not delinquent is illegal, and a reconnection fee of $160.00 is unethical and should be considered theft!
So to all of you like me, who are not on the streets stealing or hurting anyone, but working 5 days a week, paying our taxes and doing our very best to pay for the services we use, I truly wish that this company would kick rocks, shut down and never be allowed to do business again!!!!
And to those government officials who have allowed this company to prosper at the expense of the consumers...you should be ashamed!
Severn Trent Services Reviews
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.
This company uses mis-leading collection tactics to disrupt service and get you to pay re-connect fees. I have lived in my neigborhood for over 20 years. This company has vry bad reputation in area for service handling. Area tech told us to put receipt on door so dis-rupt doesnt occur, but yet no one checked and still disconnected. The web site has a web site to pay bill, but doesnt state that the payment will not be applied on time until after the receipt is send via e-mail (can take up to 3 days) PLUS you have to pay a fee to pay-online! Otherwise, you see tons of people at their pay station to pay in person like you used to see in the 80's. No one does business like that anymore. How can they be legal to operate when they hold running water as hostage, with no choice in providers of service?
VERY BAD BUSINESS, and I dont know what anyone can do about it!
I have been paying bills for over 20 years, and by far, Severn Trent is the worst company I have had the misfortune to be forced to deal with!
My experiences with them...
Three years ago, when we first moved into Katy, we inherited a torn trash can from Severn Trent. When I went to sign up for service, I told them about the broken trash can and they said they would have the trash guy bring a new one. However when their garbage truck driver came by, he refused to empty our trash, nor did he have a new trash can for us. He told me that he cannot pick it up and that I needed to call the main office for a new one. So we had to put our trash in one of our vehicles and find a dumpster to take it too!
It took me making weekly calls for 3 months before they finally brought a new one! This is an unacceptable business practice, since we know what they would have done if we had failed to pay them!
I pay all of my bills infront of my computer, except this one! They're payment options are limited and ancient.
Their Disconnection notice process - On about May 2014 I got a bill. I wasn't able to leave my job that month, and the next month I got a disconnection notice. Within days of receiving it, I went to pay. The young lady at the front desk told me that I owed a little over $70.00, I paid and left.
The very next week my daughter called me at work to tell me that the water was off! I left my job and headed to Severn Trent ,all the while thinking that I was growing senile in my 40's, because I could have swore I'd just went by last week and paid this bill. I stopped by the ATM and pulled out $120.00 ($70 plus an extra $50, as I guess-timated the reconnection fees).
When I arrived at STS, I asked the same young lady at the front desk "what happened? why was my water turned off? I came here just last week and paid May and last I checked, June isn't due until the end of JUNE!" And here is what she said...."Once we send out a disconnect notice, even if you pay the past due amount, they don't stop the disconnection. The only way to stop the disconnection is to pay the past due and the next month."
Let's go past the mediocre excuse she just give me and go straight to what that translates into.....What she was saying is that Severn Trent will disconnect a customer, even though they are not delinquent!
For example...you have a cell phone and you are past due. Now you know that the next bill is due in a few weeks, but just so your service doesn't get turned off, you pay the past due, while you get your money together to pay the current bill, right? Well, if your cell phone company was Severn Trent, they would not have accepted you paying the past due only. Instead, you would have had to pay the past due month, the current month, and if you got disconnected, a reconnection fee, BEFORE they would consider you current!
Their Reconnection Fee - I was so stunned by what she said that I just looked at her for a minute. I blinked back the shock and asked ...."So what do I owe?" She pulled out her calculator and said "$230.00". I laughed, because it was impossible! Simply impossible! I said, "Mam, I already paid you $70 just last week, and I'm assuming that June will be around the same amount, plus a reconnection fee, so what do I really owe you?"
She said "the June payment is $70.00, and the reconnection fee is $160.00, so that's $230.00."
I asked, still shocked..."are you telling me that your reconnection fee is really $160.00?" She nodded.
I became lightheaded and had to take a few moments to calm the rage that was building! This was simply unbelievable, because now...I had to get back in my car, drive to an ATM to get more money and then drive back!
Fast forward now....I went by there today, to pay my bill, and the very same young lady took my payment, stapled the receipt to the statement, turned it over, stamped something in red and shoved it back under the glass. Since I do not trust them, I read what it said....
Effective December 1, 2014
No Change Will Be Given
Exact Payments Only
Now....they had just happily taken my hard earned money, so since I was face to face with them, wouldn't it have been nice if they had included good customer service by politely explaining the stamped words and inquiring if I had any questions?
If you steal someone’s tires you go directly to jail, and yet....this city's government has been allowing this company to blatantly practice beneath even the poorest company standards, while financially profiting from it?! There is no other way to put it.....disconnecting someone's service when they are not delinquent is illegal, and a reconnection fee of $160.00 is unethical and should be considered theft!
So to all of you like me, who are not on the streets stealing or hurting anyone, but working 5 days a week, paying our taxes and doing our very best to pay for the services we use, I truly wish that this company would kick rocks, shut down and never be allowed to do business again!!!!
And to those government officials who have allowed this company to prosper at the expense of the consumers...you should be ashamed!