City West Water Customer Charter QES Management System
Issue Date: 01/06/2015
City West Water
Customer Charter
July 2013
From The Managing Director
City West Water’s Customer Charter explains your rights and responsibilities as a customer and our commitments to you in providing safe and reliable water, sewerage, trade waste, recycled and alternative water services.
Our vision is to be a truly sustainable water business and our mission is to guarantee affordable and safe water for today and tomorrow.
We are committed to providing a high level of service across all of our operations. Our service standards outlined in this Charter are an integral part of our business and our Guaranteed Service Levels scheme will deliver a rebate to affected residential customers if we fail to meet certain service standards.
Our Customer Committee and Community Liaison Committee meet regularly and are involved in our planning and decision making. They also give us valuable feedback from the community so that we can better understand our customers’ needs.
To learn more about water efficiency measures and about City West Water, we invite you to visit us at citywestwater.com.au.
A Customer Charter summary is also available at citywestwater.com.au.
Anne Barker
Managing Director
Contacting us
We strive to make our Charter as user friendly as possible. Any word or term that appears in italics has a definition in the Appendix.
Throughout the document we will refer you to our:
· website at citywestwater.com.au
· email address via citywestwater.com.au/contact.aspx or
· Contact Centre on 131 691 (Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.00pm)
· water and sewerage fault hotline 132 642, open 24 hours a day or via email on .
In addition:
· for hearing impaired customers we also offer the National Relay Service on 133 677
· for customers who speak a language other than English we offer interpreter services via 131 450
· credit card payments can be made by calling us on 131 971 or via citywestwater.com.au.
· customers who are on dialysis, life support or who have other special needs can register as Special Needs Customers on 132 642.
We provide this Charter in a variety of languages, including:
· Arabic
· Cantonese
· Croatian
· Greek
· Italian
· Macedonian
· Maltese
· Somalian
· Spanish
· Tagalog (Filipino)
· Turkish
· Vietnamese
For a copy of this charter in Braille, please call 131 691 or visit citywestwater.com.au. In addition to this Charter, City West Water also has a Trade Waste Customer Charter, specific to the needs, rights and responsibilities of our trade waste customers. Copies of these charters are available at citywestwater.com.au or at our offices.
We embrace our region’s diversity and endeavour to offer our customers as many options to access our services as possible. We welcome ways to provide better access to our organisation, in keeping with our Social Policy, Disability Policy and Disability Action Plan.
If you would like more information on our business we have a range of publications available. Please visit us at citywestwater.com.au or call us for a copy.
General mailing address: City West Water, Locked Bag 350, Sunshine Victoria 3020.
From the Managing Director 2
Contacting us 3
City West Water services 6
Customer service 6
Service standards – customer service 7
Requests for information 7
Fees for information or advice 7
Obligation to connect 8
Interest and other charges 8
Security deposits 8
Regulatory information 8
Privacy 8
Enquiries and complaints 8
Complaints handling 9
Reimbursement of financial losses 8
Water services 10
Water meters 10
How to read your water meter 10
Access responsibilities 11
City West Water assets and customers’ plumbing/assets 14
Interruptions to services 14
When and why City West Water issues a “notice to repair” 17
Water quality testing 17
Water connections and meter installations 18
Backflow prevention (drinking, recycled and alternative water) 18
Fire services 20
Water efficiency programs 20
Sewer 20
City West Water assets and customers’ plumbing/assets 21
Sewerage interruptions 21
Notifying City West Water of water main bursts, leaks or sewer spills 21
Relevant service standards – sewer service 22
Sewer blockages 22
When and why City West Water issues a “notice to repair” 23
Trade waste 23
Recycled and alternative water 24
Permitted use 26
Development/Building 27
Your City West Water account 27
Charges 27
Meter testing 29
Receiving your bill 30
How to pay your bill 29
Concessions 33
Payment difficulties 33
Easyway payment plans 33
City West Water collection processes 34
Removal of restrictions 35
Word definitions 36
Document IRD-203 Rev 2 Page 6 of 39
City West Water Customer Charter QES Management System
Issue Date: 01/06/2015
This Charter has been prepared in accordance with the Customer Service Code Urban Water Businesses July 2013 and approved by the Essential Services Commission[1]. A summary version is also available. Included in the Charter is information on the services we deliver and standards that will apply to those services between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2018.
City West Water services
City West Water supplies water, sewerage, trade waste and where available, recycled and alternative water services to customers in accordance with the Essential Services Commission Customer Service Code and relevant laws. We service Melbourne’s central business district, inner and western suburbs and are one of three retail water corporations that service Melbourne.
City West Water collects the Waterways and Drainage Charge on behalf of Melbourne Water on a quarterly basis. This charge is included in customer bills.
We also collect the Parks Charge annually on behalf of Parks Victoria.
Please see melbournewater.com.au for details on the Waterways and Drainage charge and parkweb.vic.gov.au for details on the Parks Charge. City West Water does not set these charges.
Customer service
City West Water customer service staff can provide you with the following information on request:
· account information
· bill payment options
· concession entitlements
· available programs for customers experiencing payment difficulties, including our hardship policy
· available programs promoting water efficiency
· information about our community programs
· information about our complaint handling procedures
· information about the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) scheme.
If you have an enquiry please contact us at citywestwater.com.au/contact.aspx or on 131 691.
Service standards – customer service
The following table describes our approved customer service standards regulated by the Essential Services Commission and our additional customer service standards.
Approved service standards / 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2018Customer service
Complaints to EWOV / 0.56 per 1000 customers
Telephone calls answered within 30 seconds / 80.6%
Additional service standards
Account enquiries answered within 30 seconds / 74.5%
Customer correspondence responded to within 10 working days / 100.0%
Requests for information
On request, we will provide the following documents to you in reasonable quantities:
· copies of this Charter, including copies in languages other than English or in large print
· your billing history, including water usage, charges and payments for the preceding three years
· educational material about the sustainable use of Victoria’s water resources, including water efficiency and the use of recycled and alternative water
· a current price list, office location details and contact numbers
· information materials for customers with special communication needs
· standards and requirements for entering into a trade waste agreement.
Fees for information or advice
Unless otherwise stated in the Code, we will not charge a fee for the provision of information or advice specified in this Charter to customers or others affected by our operations.
Fees for services
For certain services, we do charge a fee, the costs for which are available in our Pricing Handbook. For many of these, you will need to apply in writing and, subject to the applications being satisfactorily completed, we will endeavour to respond within the following timeframes:
Service required / Time frame for responseComplex sewerage and water applications / within 30 business days
Other sewerage and water connection applications / within 15 business days
Build over assets/easements applications / within 30 business days
Commercial Trade Waste applications / within 10 business days
Information statements / within 5 business days
* Please note that the above timeframes are indicative of response time but due to some applications requiring detailed investigation the approval timeframe may take additional time. You will be notified if this is the case.
Obligation to connect
Under water law, when a customer requests connection to our services, we will connect or permit connection to the customer’s property within 10 business days, or a later date as agreed. This is conditional on the customer paying or agreeing to pay all applicable connection fees and meeting our terms and conditions of connection.
Interest and other charges
We will not charge interest except in accordance with water law. We will only apply interest or other charges on overdue accounts in keeping with the Essential Services Commission’s guidelines, requirements and interest charges.
Security deposits
We will not require a security deposit (unless you have previously agreed to provide the security deposit as a pre-condition to connecting your property to our services) from a residential customer unless approved by the Essential Services Commission.
Regulatory information
We will provide to you upon request any documents about water law, guidelines or regulations under which we operate, including a copy of the Customer Service Code.
Privacy
City West Water collects personal information for the purposes of providing and billing water, sewerage and related services. We may disclose your personal information to our contractors and other parties including Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria for these purposes. Access to your personal information can be obtained by writing to City West Water at Locked Bag 350, Sunshine, 3020. We may charge you a reasonable cost for providing you with access. Our Privacy Policy is available at citywestwater.com.au or a copy can be obtained by calling our Contact Centre.
City West Water is committed to protecting your personal information. In relation to accessing or amending customers’ account information, City West Water will first verify the customer’s identity or that the person contacting City West Water has the customer’s authority to do so.
Enquiries and complaints
If you have an enquiry or complaint, our aim is to achieve a fast and positive resolution and we will communicate with you to satisfy your concerns where possible. As a minimum, we will ensure the following:
· respond to any written enquiry or complaint within 10 business days
· endeavour to resolve enquiries within 30 business days
· inform you if the enquiry or complaint is complex which may increase the time for us to resolve it
· deal with the substance of the enquiry or complaint in our reply
· provide the reasons for our decision, including details of water law or policy if appropriate
· that where possible we will seek customer feedback on our complaint resolution processes in order to continuously improve.
Complaints handling
In the case of a complaint, our processes provide:
· the opportunity to raise the complaint up to the level of a senior manager within City West Water
· information about referral to the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) and any other relevant external dispute resolution forum in the event that you raise the complaint to a higher level and are not satisfied with our response
· we do not attempt to recover money in dispute until the dispute has been resolved
Money not in dispute is to be paid as per the due date or agreed payment arrangements. We consider a complaint resolved when the following has been met:
· we have informed you of the decision on the complaint or any internal review of the complaint
· ten business days have passed since informing you of the decision and you have not requested a further review or lodged a claim with the EWOV or another external dispute resolution forum.
If you do lodge a claim with the EWOV or another external dispute resolution forum, we will not consider the dispute resolved until the claim has been finalised in that forum. You can contact EWOV on Freecall 1800 500 509.
Reimbursement of financial losses
If we breach this contract or otherwise fail to perform our functions adequately, and a customer has suffered any financial loss as a result, then the customer may have a right to claim for reimbursement of financial losses or seek rectification from us.
Water services
Water meters
A water meter measures the amount of water that enters a property in litres and kilolitres. One kilolitre = one thousand litres. Your property may be individually metered or your property may share a common water meter with other properties.
We bill our customers water usage charges based on the number of kilolitres they consume. We work out the consumption by reading meters periodically. In certain cases, where properties share a common meter, we apportion the number of kilolitres used among the properties sharing the meter.
When the meter on the property is not accessible our meter readers may leave behind a card for the customer to complete. The meter will need to be read by the customer and the details on the card will need to be filled and returned back to our meter reader contractors.
City West Water will use best endeavours to ensure all customers receive an actual meter read at least once every 12 months provided the meter is accessible.
Alternatively, customers may call 1800 186 227 (24 hours freecall) and provide a reading over the telephone. If the customer fails to do this, the reading will be estimated based on past consumption. To avoid overpayment, it is in your interest to ensure the meter reading you provide over the telephone is correct.
How to read your water meter
A water meter is used to measure the amount of water that a property uses. It is generally located close to the front of a property, often just inside the boundary or fence line. It is also useful to know where the water meter is because a stop tap, which controls the flow of water to the house, is normally located with the water meter. In an emergency, such as a burst pipe, you can use this stop tap to turn off the water supply to the house.