Local Water Authority - poor Supply / Customer Service processes?

[avander]

My wife owns a shop house with a cafe on the Darkside. She has been operating it for nearly 3 years and pays the bills on time every month.

This month she has been busy and forgot to pay a 200THB water account. After it was 10 days late our meter was "stolen" (we paid for and own the meter) and supply cut by the local water authority without any warning. Unfortunately, the shop was temporarily unattended at the time this was done.

The Missus went to the local office today, paid the bill and the water was "reconnected" by 2pm after nearly 24 hours without supply. Inconvenient for both business and household but luckily we have great neighbors.

The other thing I found interesting was the guy that reinstalled the meter after taking it yesterday indicated he could not say anything to his boss seeming fearful of ramifications.....?

My question to other TV members is, has anyone else experienced similarly poor customer service from the local water authority here, what, if anything they did about it and any outcomes from the situation?

I have just written a complaint email to the Head Office in Bangkok. Maybe I will get a response, maybe not, but I guess we'll see. I did receive confirmation of the email being received.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Why would you write to Bangkok? The Provincial Waterworks Authority is just down the railroad road a couple clicks...the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a completely separate entity isn't it.

I've been late paying my bill a few times and never had my meter "stolen." I guess just bad luck for you. I suggest paying the bills on time in future and getting a water storage tank.

[Don Mega]

removing the meter is an awesome way of getting people to pay their bills ontime.

[Pdavies99]

Standard practice for years!

[Langsuan Man]

If my or my wife's livelihood was dependent upon water service I would have automatic debit of the bill from my bank account and have one less thing to worry about

Not having to deal with the muppets at the Pattaya Water office is just an added benefit

[avander]

Yes of course it's lessons learnt guys but don't you think it's also unreasonable when we pay our account on time every month and late 10 days just once?

In Oz they give you a lot more notice before cutting off your supply for a basic service such as power and water.

[avander]

Why would you write to Bangkok? The Provincial Waterworks Authority is just down the railroad road a couple clicks...the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a completely separate entity isn't it.

I've been late paying my bill a few times and never had my meter "stolen." I guess just bad luck for you. I suggest paying the bills on time in future and getting a water storage tank.

I believe it's reasonable to let their Head Office know when their business processes are so slack or lacking be it a local issue or not.

[Don Mega]

Yes of course it's lessons learnt guys but don't you think it's also unreasonable when we pay our account on time every month and late 10 days just once?

In Oz they give you a lot more notice before cutting off your supply for a basic service such as power and water.

Might be time to head back to Oz then.

[mikebell]

I live in Bang Saray. Our supplier is East Water who have no idea of customer service. Each month a guy on a motorbike reads the meter & prints off a bill payable at 7-11s. Occasionally the device fails to print a bar-code. This requires a 40 kms round trip or your water is cut off. At the office there is a scrum of disgruntled customers. Complaints fall on deaf ears - East Water is a monopoly - take it or leave it.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Why would you write to Bangkok? The Provincial Waterworks Authority is just down the railroad road a couple clicks...the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a completely separate entity isn't it.

I've been late paying my bill a few times and never had my meter "stolen." I guess just bad luck for you. I suggest paying the bills on time in future and getting a water storage tank.

I believe it's reasonable to let their Head Office know when their business processes are so slack or lacking be it a local issue or not.

I think they are completely different entities was my point...so I don't think you will receive any satisfaction by writing to Bangkok (unless the PWA actually has some main office in some Bangkok ministry).

As to things being done different here...I hear you...you're not in Oz anymore...better get used to it ☺

[robblok]

If my or my wife's livelihood was dependent upon water service I would have automatic debit of the bill from my bank account and have one less thing to worry about

Not having to deal with the muppets at the Pattaya Water office is just an added benefit

Agreed, got both my water and electricity debited. Never have to worry again about it works far better.

[Guderian]

I pay my bills by direct debit so there's never a question of me forgetting to pay them. Nonetheless, a few years back my water meter mysteriously disappeared one morning. I got the Thai office manager for the village to call the PWA and, although nobody would admit it, they had evidently taken the meter away by mistake, presumably confusing my address with somebody else's. It was returned later in the afternoon with no apologies, but I was just glad to have the water back without any dramatics.

[Don Mega]

Why would you write to Bangkok? The Provincial Waterworks Authority is just down the railroad road a couple clicks...the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a completely separate entity isn't it.

I've been late paying my bill a few times and never had my meter "stolen." I guess just bad luck for you. I suggest paying the bills on time in future and getting a water storage tank.

I believe it's reasonable to let their Head Office know when their business processes are so slack or lacking be it a local issue or not.

More likely head office will praise Pattaya water authority for implementing the seizure policy to force people to pay their bills on time.

[petermik]

Why would you write to Bangkok? The Provincial Waterworks Authority is just down the railroad road a couple clicks...the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a completely separate entity isn't it.

I've been late paying my bill a few times and never had my meter "stolen." I guess just bad luck for you. I suggest paying the bills on time in future and getting a water storage tank.

I believe it's reasonable to let their Head Office know when their business processes are so slack or lacking be it a local issue or not.

This is Thailand,we are just visitors here reasoning and logic do not apply............

be careful your email isn,t viewed as contravening the recently introduced computer crime act

[Jedsada3]

As said above: Internet, water, electricity etc should be paid by direct debit. No more worries and no more "Sh!t I forgot to pay".

And if you fear that your bank account could be plundered, open a new one just for that and feed it every month with the necessary amount.
But it could also happen that one day you say "Sh!t, I forgot to feed the bank account"!  

[FracturedRabbit]

Not sure what you have to complain about. The standard practice is to disconnect the meter if the bill is not paid, maybe more brutal than chasing for payment, but certainly effective. It is not your meter; you may have paid for the install but it is the property of the water authority.

[whatproblem]

I cannot pay my bill here by direct debit,they speak no ,if I go holiday befor e I could leave money with them for the bill ,now they stopped this and put the reconnection charge up from 100 baht to 321 baht ,good move for them. If I go office for pay it take a minimum of 30 minutes because only one person will serve at a time ,the other 8 people busy talking ,at pea it takes about 30 seconds ,pwa said that's because lots of people have water ,idiots ,all the same people have electric aswell 

Edited August 2, 2016 by whatproblem
Spelling mistake

[topt]

24 minutes ago, whatproblem said:

I cannot pay my bill here by direct debit,they speak no ,if I go holiday befor e I could leave money with them for the bill ,now they stopped this and put the reconnection charge up from 100 baht to 321 baht ,good move for them. If I go office for pay it take a minimum of 30 minutes because only one person will serve at a time ,the other 8 people busy talking ,at pea it takes about 30 seconds ,pwa said that's because lots of people have water ,idiots ,all the same people have electric aswell 

Can you not pay at 7/11, Family Mart, Big C, Tesco and I am sure there are other places.............

[whatproblem]

3 minutes ago, topt said:

Can you not pay at 7/11, Family Mart, Big C, Tesco and I am sure there are other places.............

Yes ,just saying how bad their customer service is, but I can't pay if I go on holiday ,at 7/11 without a bill 

Edited August 2, 2016 by whatproblem

[Deepinthailand]

If you put your customer number from water/elect bill in your phone as a contact you can pay your bill anywhere in thailand if your on holiday. At 7/11 tesco big c ect. If you don't have the bill or are away before reading I just pay over what the last bill was then rectify it the next month works a treat.

On the removing meter there are a few in village who dont/forget to pay. So along they come and take the meter!!!! Makes no diffrence as they are tapped into the water supply just along the road a bit. We have a meter and pay as due however when they came to put the supply in for us for 500bht a little blue water pipe and tap appeared 3m away from meter.

[elgordo38]

On 7/29/2016 at 5:32 PM, OMGImInPattaya said:

Why would you write to Bangkok? The Provincial Waterworks Authority is just down the railroad road a couple clicks...the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a completely separate entity isn't it.

I've been late paying my bill a few times and never had my meter "stolen." I guess just bad luck for you. I suggest paying the bills on time in future and getting a water storage tank.

A true Donald Trump answer.

[avander]

On 7/30/2016 at 3:18 AM, Don Mega said:

Might be time to head back to Oz then.

It's not that dire.   I was just curious in what others may have thought and/or experienced is all.  

[avander]

1 hour ago, Deepinthailand said:

If you put your customer number from water/elect bill in your phone as a contact you can pay your bill anywhere in thailand if your on holiday. At 7/11 tesco big c ect. If you don't have the bill or are away before reading I just pay over what the last bill was then rectify it the next month works a treat.

On the removing meter there are a few in village who dont/forget to pay. So along they come and take the meter!!!! Makes no diffrence as they are tapped into the water supply just along the road a bit. We have a meter and pay as due however when they came to put the supply in for us for 500bht a little blue water pipe and tap appeared 3m away from meter.

Yes, good idea about storing the account number in the phone.  As you mention I thought of a bypass also and checked the connections.  I'm gonna make up a short simple bypass and if they "disconnect" us again unreasonably I'll just connect the bypass.  

Just have to make sure it's not in place when they come to reconnect however, from my understanding and the chat my missus had with the guy who disconnected and then reconnected the meter he wouldn't bother reporting it;  no love loss between management and the guys on the ground.

Edited August 2, 2016 by avander