{"id":146690,"date":"2024-10-03T09:54:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T09:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/03\/water-companies-failing-to-address-customer-concerns\/"},"modified":"2024-10-03T09:54:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T09:54:08","slug":"water-companies-failing-to-address-customer-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/03\/water-companies-failing-to-address-customer-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Water companies ‘failing to address customer concerns’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Water<\/div>


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Billing disputes were the biggest cause of complaint to water companies<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A body representing the customers of water companies said complaints had risen by almost a third because concerns were not being addressed. <\/p>\n

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said it had handled 7,977 complaints in the past year from people who had “exhausted” their company\u2019s complaint process.<\/p>\n

It found Thames Water to be the worst performer, with Yorkshire Water and Cambridge Water also poor. <\/p>\n

All three water companies said they were working with CCW to make changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Just under 223,000 complaints were made to water companies in England and Wales during 2023-24 – a rise of 29%, CWW figures revealed.<\/p>\n

Billing disputes made up more than half of complaints, and concerns about environmental performance, such as spills from storm overflows and pollution, increased by 217%. Complaints about water meters also rose.<\/p>\n

CCW chief executive Dr Mike Keil said households were having to waste far too much time and energy resolving complaints, which water companies “should be getting right first time”. <\/p>\n

“We\u2019re particularly concerned to see a significant rise in complaints from customers with water meters who are questioning the accuracy of their bill,” he said.<\/p>\n

“More companies are planning to roll out smart meters over the next few years, so they must listen and act on people\u2019s concerns now or risk further damaging customer trust.”<\/p>\n

CCW also assessed how well complaints were handled, with Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Cambridge Water rated as poor.<\/p>\n

Wessex Water and Portsmouth Water received top marks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thames Water said it had “more to do” in light of the report<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Thames Water’s retail director David Bird said the company had an “ambitious business plan” based on customer feedback and insight.\u202f <\/p>\n

“CCW have recognised the collaborative approach we have taken and that the improvements we are making are showing promise,” he said. <\/p>\n

“However, we recognise we have more to do.”<\/p>\n

He said customers had told the company to focus on delivering safe and resilient water supplies, address concerns over overall performance – including on customer service – and to deal more effectively with wastewater.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Fallen short’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Cambridge Water said it was disappointed its customer service levels had “fallen short”.<\/p>\n

Between 2023 and 2024, it said it had received about 1,200 complaints – fewer than 1% of its customers.<\/p>\n

It added it had “taken on board” the key comments from the report and would be working closely with CWW to address the issues raised.<\/p>\n

Yorkshire Water said it was continuing to invest in new systems and training for its customer experience teams.<\/p>\n

Imran Patel, its group customer experience director, said: “We have worked closely with CCW to audit our complaints process and have received positive feedback for our customer-focused culture and the speed and effectiveness of complaints resolution.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There has been a 29% rise in complaints compared to the previous year<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Water UK, the trade association for the water industry, said companies were working hard to provide drinking water that was “independently rated the joint-highest standard in the world”.<\/p>\n

It said a rise in customer complaints should be examined, but that not all were necessarily evidence of poor service. <\/p>\n

It said firms were also being affected by funding cuts from water regulator Ofwat, which needed to “enable companies to provide [customers] with the service they rightly expect”.<\/p>\n

Water companies have put forward plans for bill increases, although Ofwat has made proposals to cap them. It is due to make a final decision in December.<\/p>\n

Ofwat said it had also seen customer satisfaction fall across water companies.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said, while it was challenging companies to invest in their networks, this alone would not solve the problem.<\/p>\n

“We have recently introduced a new customer focused licence condition, as well as new vulnerability guidance, to raise the levels of customer service to the standard we expect across the sector,” they added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images Billing disputes were the biggest cause of complaint to water companies A body representing the customers of water companies said complaints had risen by almost a third because concerns were not being addressed. The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said it had handled 7,977 complaints in the past year from people who had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[3047,771,507,16891,7241,556],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146692,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146690\/revisions\/146692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}