Complicated billing system

Thousand of complaints have been addressed to ARMS Ltd ever since this company took over the processing of water and electricity bills. The complaints have been mainly related to the bill itself. But I have a different but equally important claim.

I had applied for and still make use of the direct debit facility introduced by the Water Services Corporation in 2007.

Before ARMS took over the administration of these bills, I had no problem whatsoever with the direct debit facility. My bank account was accurately debited with the amount due and a clear invoice reference was provided in the single debit entry on the bank statement.

Things took a negative turn when this responsibility was passed on to ARMS. For some inexplicable reason, each bill payment is now being fragmented into a couple of debits. To further complicate matters, the debit entries are no longer showing an invoice reference which would allow the customer to easily associate a payment with the respective bill.

This is not user-friendly at all - one has to keep summing up the various debits and checking the due amounts on the bill to ensure the right transaction has been carried out. I have written directly to Arms on two separate occasions with this complaint.

I received a weak reply in the first instance and no feedback at all in the second. One expects such a payment service to be accurately and clearly carried out, as well as better customer service response.