Watercare smart meter faults lead to zero bills, overcharges in Auckland

Watercare's faulty smart meters have led to zero-usage bills and overcharges for some customers. Photo / Laura Smith

By Checkpoint, RNZ

A number of Aucklanders have received Watercare bills that say they’ve used zero water, while others claim they’re being overcharged.

The zero-fee bills claim customers have not used a single drop in the past month, or in some cases for months.

The issue stems from Watercare’s smart meters, of which it told Checkpoint more than 13,000 are not working.

The water supplier also said it has known about problems with one type of smart meter since October last year, and the fault has so far affected around one-third of the 40,000 meters installed since 2022.

Greg is one customer who has been receiving zero-fee bills, the first one arriving in May.

“We got the bill that said we had used no water and there was just the sort of standard monthly charge. And I just thought oh well, they’ve forgotten to read it or they haven’t got around to reading it. And I just made a note that the next bill was gonna be bigger and then the next bill came and once again we’d used no water.”

Greg contacted Watercare about the issue, who told him his smart meter must not be working.

“They said ‘could you take a photo of the meter and then we can send you the proper bill’. And I said, ‘well, no, that’s not possible because I’ve had knee surgery. I can’t get down to take a photo’.”

He was then told the water supplier could send someone out to take the photo for him, but it would cost $35.

He said he was yet to receive the correct bill but had been told they would now be reading his meter manually.

Kyle was on to his second smart meter after the first one stopped sending signal a few months ago. He told Checkpoint his water bills were now coming in much higher than he would expect.

“Our water bill on average was about $100 or $120 a month and then it jumped to about $200 and it I’m like ‘yeah, no, that doesn’t seem quite right’.

The issue affects over 13,000 meters, with one third of 40,000 installed since 2022 faulty. Photo / Ben Plummer

“[Watercare] were basing it on estimates from the previous water bill, which would have been around summer, and me being a gardener I obviously used a bit more water.”

Kyle said Watercare made no effort to contact him about the issue, and it was him who raised it with the agency.

He said they came back to him and told him his meter had temporarily stopped communicating.

“They used the word temporary, but if it was temporary, then why are they replacing it?”

He said he was still waiting to have the issue resolved.

“I disputed it initially. Sent them a photo of the meter, heard nothing back from them ... then I sent them the photo and said, ‘hey, can I please get a bill amended?’ They said it would take three to five working days and I’m still waiting for it.”

Watercare’s head of retail operations Evan James said the fault means the meter eventually stops sending data but keeps recording water use.

Watercare stopped installing that particular model and started returning affected meters to manual reading, leading to “catch-up” bills that are higher than for previous months.

He said Watercare sincerely apologised for the inconvenience and it was offering payment options to help ease the impact.

Utilities Disputes told Checkpoint they would expect Watercare to inform customers if it was aware of issues with meters, and explore the options, such as letting customers know they can self-report their use to avoid significant back bills.

Watercare has around 500,000 meters and of these, around 70,000 are smart meters.

- RNZ