Severn Trent wakes customers with early hours 'save water' calls
- Published
The firm said the calls were due to a fault in a third-party system
People were woken up in the middle of the night by calls from a utilities company urging them to use less water.
Severn Trent Water said a fault with a third-party system was to blame for the automated early hours calls.
Residents in Birmingham and Worcestershire reported calls from late on Tuesday evening to about 04:00 BST on Wednesday.
Severn Trent, which has been struggling with lockdown demand for water, said it was "incredibly sorry".
It has urged customers to stop using sprinklers and pressure washers to ensure there is enough water for hand washing.
Lisa Bennett, from Kings Heath, said she was "fuming" after receiving two calls from the company.
She said on Twitter: "Got an automated phone call about water usage at 11pm last night and another repetitive one at 4am waking us both up.
"Strongly worded tweet to them this morning, and now we're both knackered for work."
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Hazel Evans said she received an automated call to her landline at 03:30.
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In a statement Severn Trent said: "We're incredibly sorry this has happened.
"We believe there was a fault in a third-party system that led to some customers in areas such as Hagley, Yardley and Kings Heath receiving an automated message in the early hours.
"This shouldn't have happened and we can't apologise enough. We've launched an investigation to fully understand the cause and to prevent it from happening again."
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- Published1 June 2020
- Published20 May 2020
