Water Charges / Tax / Demonstrations / Irish Water / Meter Installations etc etc

tomasrojo

That's fantastic. Thanks very much for that.

I've had some more email correspondence from them. Admittedly, just clarifiying that they do know I have a meter and explaining why the First Fix Scheme doesn't apply here, but I took the opportunity to press them on how I could expedite a water pressure solution. Your advice will be very useful now.

(This seems to be the current URL for the PDF of the Irish Water Customer Handbook, if anyone else is looking for it.)

Bob24

tomasrojo wrote: »

That's fantastic. Thanks very much for that.

I've had some more email correspondence from them. Admittedly, just clarifiying that they do know I have a meter and explaining why the First Fix Scheme doesn't apply here, but I took the opportunity to press them on how I could expedite a water pressure solution. Your advice will be very useful now.

(This seems to be the current URL for the PDF of the Irish Water Customer Handbook, if anyone else is looking for it.)

No worries! - hopefully it helps getting them to look at the issue.

tomasrojo

The mention of non-compliance with commitments made to the CER did the trick. Unfortunately, the problem is my end (pressure at meter is normal), but at least I know now.

joeysoap

Just out of curiosity, aside from registering , did anyone actually pay a water bill yet?

aunt aggie

Hi, been avoiding this for awhile but I recently moved into a rented property and I expected some notice from Irish Water. So far I haven't received any information on registering or billing. Also no sign of a water meter. Is there anyway to find out if your address is liable for charges??

FrStone

joeysoap wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, aside from registering , did anyone actually pay a water bill yet?

Yep, I did.

dudara

aunt aggie wrote: »

Hi, been avoiding this for awhile but I recently moved into a rented property and I expected some notice from Irish Water. So far I haven't received any information on registering or billing. Also no sign of a water meter. Is there anyway to find out if your address is liable for charges??

You need to contact IW. Didyour landlord make any mention when you moved in?

The_Conductor

aunt aggie wrote: »

Hi, been avoiding this for awhile but I recently moved into a rented property and I expected some notice from Irish Water. So far I haven't received any information on registering or billing. Also no sign of a water meter. Is there anyway to find out if your address is liable for charges??

Water is a utility- like any other.
You need to contact the provider.

pyxxel

joeysoap wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, aside from registering , did anyone actually pay a water bill yet?

We tried, but we're not too sure if it's gone through, gone twice, or not at all.

My wife called them to pay over the phone, and the assistant asked her to speak the CC number "very slowly and clearly" as it was a new system with voice recognition. This seemed like an extremely convoluted approach to us - if there's a CS rep why doesn't he just take the number and punch it in, like with any other service?

He wasn't too sure if it had taken, so we eventually made another call and took a different option where we ended up typing the number in via our phone, like with many other automated systems.

We are not anti-water-charges at all, but this whole escapade didn't instill confidence. Teething problems, OK, but it seemed even worse than we would have expected... :mad:

aunt aggie

dudara wrote: »

You need to contact IW. Didyour landlord make any mention when you moved in?

I sent them an email but with bank hol it'll probably be a week before I hear back. We rented the property through a management company. They wanted a ESB account number but mentioned nothing about water charges.

The_Conductor

Direct debit came out for the correct unmetered amount.
No invoice/bill/advisement notice received (nearly 3 weeks ago the payment came out).
As the amount deducted does represent the right amount- and I have a paper trail- I'm happy enough to leave it be.

dudara

I received my bill via email, logged onto the website and paid via credit card. All records updated, so appears to have worked well.

@aunt aggie - just ring them. Email is a slow form of communication. Getting o the phone usually yields quicker results

Bob24

pyxxel wrote: »

We tried, but we're not too sure if it's gone through, gone twice, or not at all.

My wife called them to pay over the phone, and the assistant asked her to speak the CC number "very slowly and clearly" as it was a new system with voice recognition. This seemed like an extremely convoluted approach to us - if there's a CS rep why doesn't he just take the number and punch it in, like with any other service?

He wasn't too sure if it had taken, so we eventually made another call and took a different option where we ended up typing the number in via our phone, like with many other automated systems.

We are not anti-water-charges at all, but this whole escapade didn't instill confidence. Teething problems, OK, but it seemed even worse than we would have expected... :mad:

The voice recognition thing seems a bit convoluted alright (especially if it is not working properly), but if the idea is that the CSR can't hear you while you are saying your CC number and it only goes through a computer I would think it is a good thing both for you and for IW can help reduce fraud (just overkill compared to the other option you mentioned of simply dialling it on your phone).
I never like giving my CC number to a random person on the phone (chances of the person not being honest or not handling it properly are not nil, even if the company has security measures around it).

tomasrojo

joeysoap wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, aside from registering , did anyone actually pay a water bill yet?

Paid it in the post office.

joeysoap

FrStone wrote: »

Yep, I did.

thank you

joeysoap

tomasrojo wrote: »

Paid it in the post office.

thanks for reply



I have registered and will probably pay, my son has registered and has said he will probably pay, my daughter has registered but is open to paying/not paying (negative equity, serious mortgage, water least of her worries)

I asked at work last Saturday night who had paid their water charges (admittedly only about 8 workers still there when I asked the question) One has commercial charges for a small business and pays this, has not yet paid the 'house' charges.Puzzled how the rates for both appear to be the same yet he has rental charges on the commercial meter and says when he enquired the 'house' meter charges were incorporated into the water charges. He says both are the same so he doesn't understand how IW can claim one incorporates the meter and the other doesn't. I have no idea of what he is saying is true or not.

Anyway in reply to my question: None of the 8 had paid any water charges to date.

pyxxel

Bob24 wrote: »

I never like giving my CC number to a random person on the phone (chances of the person not being honest or not handling it properly are not nil, even if the company has security measures around it).

Yeah I get what you're saying. However nowadays, all "reputable" companies (define "reputable" as you will!) record every single phone call automatically, so they or the customer can go back and check what's been said. I think you can even demand a voice recording copy or a transcript from them. Also the reps have to type up a record of every single call into their CSM system so the danger of fraud is quite reduced.

But yeah I know, fraud does happen often enough.

omnithanos

I rang Irish Water to inform them that my tenants are liable for the water tax at two of my properties. While I was on I asked what would happen if I didn't pay my own water tax by the due date. I was told that I would then go into arrears. I asked what did that mean and I was told they didn't know and there were no penalties for going into arrears at the moment. So what incentive is there for actually paying your water bill and more importantly what implication does the following bill have, if any, on our necessity to pay?

Graham

omnithanos wrote: »

what implication does the following bill have, if any, on our necessity to pay?

Did you read the act you posted the cover page of or are you just relying on the odd interpretation pasted to the top of it?

The_Conductor

Graham wrote: »

Did you read the act you posted the cover page of or are you just relying on the odd interpretation pasted to the top of it?

It would also be helpful if he googled 'repealing Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1997'.
By my count- the act has been amended or repealed on 14 occasions since 1997- and the Act itself is an amendment to a previous (1978) Act.......

In short- its meaningless. Totally meaningless. If a 'Consolidated Act' is available (i.e. one where all the amendments to the core regulation are taken into account)- it might be helpful- but printing the front page of an amendment act from 1997- is a waste of space in its own right.

omnithanos

The_Conductor wrote: »

It would also be helpful if he googled 'repealing Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1997'.
By my count- the act has been amended or repealed on 14 occasions since 1997- and the Act itself is an amendment to a previous (1978) Act.......

In short- its meaningless. Totally meaningless. If a 'Consolidated Act' is available (i.e. one where all the amendments to the core regulation are taken into account)- it might be helpful- but printing the front page of an amendment act from 1997- is a waste of space in its own right.

So you're telling me I should go pay the bill conductor?
That's all I was asking.

The_Conductor

omnithanos wrote: »

So you're telling me I should go pay the bill conductor?
That's all I was asking.

Yes.
Pay the bill.
Its not open to interpretation or dispute- despite what numerous groups would have you believe.
You owe the money.
If you don't pay it- you don't qualify for the DSP grant- and Irish Water will, eventually, come after you (how- depends on what ends up in the bill that is currently before the Oireachtas- but it would appear to include all manner of escalating processes- short of jail.

omnithanos

The_Conductor wrote: »

Yes.
Pay the bill.
Its not open to interpretation or dispute- despite what numerous groups would have you believe.
You owe the money.
If you don't pay it- you don't qualify for the DSP grant- and Irish Water will, eventually, come after you (how- depends on what ends up in the bill that is currently before the Oireachtas- but it would appear to include all manner of escalating processes- short of jail.

Thanks Conductor.
Might I add that I have read many of your posts and I would trust your opinion implicitly.

joeysoap

Daughter got her bill recently. Bill in husbands name, no allowances for baby. She Phoned IW. IW informed her they couldn't talk to her as she wasn't the account holder. She said fine, just add the baby to the account and send out a new invoice. IW said they couldn't do that as she wasn't the account holder and the account holder had to inform them of the baby. Daughter replied that SHE completed the form, and the child was included. IW replied that they wouldn't amend the account until the account holder contacted them. Daughter replied, fine, but don't expect any payment until you forward the correct invoice. IW were apparently happy enough about this. I asked her if she was absolutely certain the baby was on the 'application'. She said baby was definitely on application. I advised her to bin the invoice and ignore all future invoices until they get it right.

She lives in an new estate, where approx half the houses are metered and the other half are not. She was happy enough to have meter installed but the young lad installing the meters looked at his map and said she wasn't on it, so no meter. I understand that the cap is €62 for anyone with no allowance, how do they calculate what the allowance is for a house with a family with no meter? How do you deduct an allowance when you have no figure to deduct it from? Do you just make up a figure and deduct the child allowance from it. Would you pay a bill in Dunnes, Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Supervalue etc if the person on the checkout glanced at your basket and just asked for an amount. Better still if they didn't even see your basket and still asked for an amount based on what the customers before you had spend?

We know somebody is making money out of this water fiasco, but I suspect it's not Irish Water.

Michael D Not Higgins

joeysoap wrote: »

Daughter got her bill recently. Bill in husbands name, no allowances for baby. She Phoned IW. IW informed her they couldn't talk to her as she wasn't the account holder. She said fine, just add the baby to the account and send out a new invoice. IW said they couldn't do that as she wasn' the account holder and HE had to inform them of the baby. Daughter replied that SHE completed the form, and the child was included. IW replied that they wouldn't amend the account until the account holder contacted them. Daughter replied, fine, but don't expect any payment until you forward the correct invoice. IW were apparently happy enough about this. I asked her if she was absolutely certain the baby was on the 'application'. She said baby was definitely on application. I advised her to bin the invoice and ignore all future invoices until they get it right.

There's going to be mistakes. She needs to get her husband to inform them. They're not going to correct it otherwise and ignoring it isn't the right thing to do nor will it fix the issue.

joeysoap

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

There's going to be mistakes. She needs to get her husband to inform them. They're not going to correct it otherwise and ignoring it isn't the right thing to do nor will it fix the issue.

husband leaves most of this stuff to his wife, as far as she is concerned, the application is completed correctly. I do understand that mistakes are made, but she has contacted them and informed them of the mistake, up to them to correct it in my opinion

in the meantime IW could

1) look at the application form again
2) send out a new application form

Graham

joeysoap wrote: »

husband leaves most of this stuff to his wife, as far as she is concerned, the application is completed correctly. I do understand that mistakes are made, but she has contacted them and informed them of the mistake, up to them to correct it in my opinion

in the meantime IW could

1) look at the application form again
2) send out a new application form

No company is going to communicate with anyone other than the named account holder. This isn't unique to Irish Water.

Michael D Not Higgins

joeysoap wrote: »

husband leaves most of this stuff to his wife, as far as she is concerned, the application is completed correctly. I do understand that mistakes are made, but she has contacted them and informed them of the mistake, up to them to correct it in my opinion

in the meantime IW could

1) look at the application form again
2) send out a new application form

Head in the sand is not going to fix it.

Whoever was on the phone was just following their procedure. No one except the account holder can affect the account. This is the same for all utilities. Getting confirmation from the person named on the account is what's needed, and both you and your daughter know it. Let him ring them up, make the change, and switch the account holder to her. Problem solved.

The_Conductor

joeysoap wrote: »

husband leaves most of this stuff to his wife, as far as she is concerned, the application is completed correctly. I do understand that mistakes are made, but she has contacted them and informed them of the mistake, up to them to correct it in my opinion

in the meantime IW could

1) look at the application form again
2) send out a new application form

Taking the ostrich approach- means they don't qualify for the DSP 100 Euro rebate/bribe- and arrears will build on the account. So not only do they miss out on the allowance for baby- they miss their 100 Euro grant- and end up with arrears. How the hell does that make sense?

catgalway

joeysoap wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, aside from registering , did anyone actually pay a water bill yet?

No...and there's not a notion of me paying anything to an incompetent company...EVER!!!