{"id":2174965,"date":"2026-10-01T18:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2174965"},"modified":"2026-10-01T18:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:09:16","slug":"thames-water-apologises-after-145000-customer-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2174965","title":{"rendered":"Thames Water apologises after \u00a3145,000 customer bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/a3c4\/live\/c0dffc20-bdb9-11f1-b7d8-31573a2bd831.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thames Water has apologised to a customer after trying to take \u00a3145,000 from his bank account due to a meter reading error by the company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Adam Bainbridge, a teacher from north London, discovered while routinely checking his accounts on Thursday morning that Thames had debited \u00a3145,562 from his bank account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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His wife Julia told the PA news agency that Adam “got the shock of his life” and had trouble paying bills that morning as a result.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Thames Water said the money had been returned to his account and that he had been offered “a gesture of goodwill”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The company confirmed to BBC News that it had returned the money to Adam’s account and had apologised to him personally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Julia told PA that the debit took Adam’s account “considerably” into overdraft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She said: “It was pre-8am when we looked … obviously then you try to do some ring rounds, no one’s online, no one’s answering any phones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’re a family rushing around looking after a three-year-old trying to get ready for the nursery run and all the rest of it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Julia said Adam initially could only speak to a Thames chatbot, which said the error would be rectified in the next payment. He then contacted his bank and the money was returned to his account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“As it was this morning, Adam had some bills he wanted to pay off his card and things that were due out of his account and everything was blocked. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s such a staggering amount of money.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The billing error comes at a time when the number of complaints made by households about water companies to the industry watchdog has risen by a record 84% in a year, driven by customer concern and confusion over bills.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Water customers in England and Wales have been hit with steep price hikes in recent years. The regulator Ofwat has also allowed firms to put up bills by 36% between 2025 and 2030.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Thames Water, the UK’s biggest water company, owes roughly \u00a320bn to lenders and has been working with creditors and government officials to prevent collapse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Adam told PA that when he saw the debit he felt “really shocked, because you don’t feel in control of what’s being taken from your account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It seemed that the numbers being calculated had absolutely nothing to do with reality at all. We’re a residential house in north London.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It just seems that the billing is completely detached from reality.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We apologise unreservedly to Mr Bainbridge and his family. This was the result of human error originating from an incorrect meter reading.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We can confirm the money has been returned to Mr Bainbridge’s bank account and we have spoken to him today to say sorry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We are introducing additional checks to our processes to prevent this from happening again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We have also offered Mr Bainbridge a gesture of goodwill and are continuing to work with him to ensure the matter is fully resolved.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier on Thursday, Julia wrote in a LinkedIn post: “Working parents have enough to contend with in the morning without a utility company emptying their bank account.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“How does a payment of this size get taken without basic checks?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She also wrote in a comment on the post: “The bank were relatively quick to return the money while Thames Water ‘looked into it.'”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ck24j46424veo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/a3c4\/live\/c0dffc20-bdb9-11f1-b7d8-31573a2bd831.jpg”] Getty Images Thames Water has apologised to a customer after trying to take \u00a3145,000 from his bank account due to a meter reading error by the company. Adam Bainbridge, a teacher from north London, discovered while routinely checking his accounts on Thursday morning that Thames had debited \u00a3145,562 from his bank account. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-2174965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2174965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2174965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2174965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2174965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}