CCW stated the business’s total efficiency was skewed by the variety of complaints made by households to Thames Water and Southern Water.
Complaints acquired by Southern Water have been virtually thrice increased than the general common for water and sewerage corporations, whereas Thames Water’s have been simply over one-and-a-half instances increased.
Thames Water was the one water and sewerage firm to be marked as poor for each the variety of complaints it acquired and its grievance dealing with.
It was additionally the worst performing firm for billing disputes and the variety of complaints that might not be resolved on the first time of asking.
Southern Water was probably the most complained-about firm, with the speed of complaints per 10,000 connections virtually twice as excessive as Thames Water, whereas it was rated worse than common for a way these have been dealt with.
England and
Wales in 2022/23″ data-source=”CCW”>
Among the smaller water-only companies, South East Water scored poorly for both the number of complaints it received and how these were handled, and Cambridge Water generated three times as many complaints to CCW than last year.
Among the best performers were Wessex Water, Hafren Dyfrdwy, Bristol Water and Portsmouth Water.
Overall, households made 232,817 complaints to water companies in England and Wales during 2022/23, with problems relating to billing and charges accounting for almost half (47%) of them.
Issues with water services made up 30% of complaints, with these rising significantly during the summer drought of 2022, when six suppliers introduced hosepipe restrictions.
Customers have a right to expect better from such an essential utility provider where switching supplier is not an option
Some 22% of complaints were about wastewater services, falling as a proportion due to fewer instances of extreme wet weather and flooding incidents during the winter months.
CCW said it had seen a 29% rise in complaints brought to it after water firms had been unable to resolve them during the first quarter of 2023/24 compared with the previous quarter.
CCW chief executive Dr Mike Keil said: “Trust in the water sector has never been more fragile and the task of rebuilding it is made all the more challenging when companies perform as poorly as Thames Water and Southern Water.
“We’re especially concerned that these two companies have not performed well across all the main causes for people to complain and that Thames, in particular, is compounding customers’ frustrations with delays and a failure to resolve many issues first time.
We’ve been working onerous to turnaround our efficiency and have decreased our whole family complaints by 28% in comparison with final yr alongside a big discount in phone complaints
“Customers have a proper to count on higher from such a necessary utility supplier the place switching provider shouldn’t be an possibility.”
Thames Water retail director David Bird stated: “We’ve been working hard to turnaround our performance and have reduced our total household complaints by 28% compared to last year alongside a large reduction in telephone complaints.
“We’ve completed the onshoring of our customer service call centre in Swindon so we can be closer to our customers and deliver the reliable and better-quality service they deserve.
“We are also investing additional resources to improve our response times to customers and to reduce the need for second-stage complaints.
While we are seeing early signs of improvement in the quality and speed we deal with (customers’) queries, we know we still have a lot of work to do and are committed to significant improvements
“Our aim is to always deliver brilliant customer service and we’re determined to do better.”
Meanwhile, Katy Taylor, chief buyer officer at Southern Water, stated: “We recognise that we need to do better at serving our customers and fixing their problems.
“We are investing in video diagnostics, upskilling our customer service agents and keeping our customers regularly informed when issues take longer to fix.
“While we are seeing early signs of improvement in the quality and speed we deal with their queries, we know we still have a lot of work to do and are committed to significant improvements.”
A Water UK spokeswoman stated: “Companies worked hard last year to support customers and maintain infrastructure through an unprecedented drought and record-breaking temperatures, and it is good to see that complaints to the ombudsman remained stable.
“Complaints about bills are increasingly being resolved by companies themselves, with an 8% reduction in these types of complaints being escalated to CCW. However, we appreciate that many customers remain concerned about their bills, which is why we have announced plans to more than double the number of households eligible to receive support, rising to 3.2 million households.”
