Thames Water has the worst record of any supplier in the country for handling customer complaints, an official report revealed today.
Only 83.4 per cent of customers were happy with the way Thames handled their first letter or email, making it the only supplier not to hit the 90 per cent target.
There were 32,232 written complaints by Thames Water customers in the year to April 2013, down by 6.5 per cent. This was the highest absolute number for any water company — but measured by complaints per 10,000 connections Thames was only the fourth worst after Southern, Anglian and South East.
Overall there were 150,942 written complaints from customers in England and Wales, down 7.4 per cent, although levels are still higher than they were in 2005. Tony Smith, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, which compiled the figures, said: “The poorest performers remain too far behind the rest of the industry.
“CCWater continues to meet regularly with water companies to put pressure on them to prioritise customer service in order to see their complaint levels drop much further.
“We also continue to tell the regulator Ofwat that there needs to be stronger penalties for water companies who are failing to satisfy the expectations of their customers.”
Natalie Beckerman, customer service director for Thames Water, said: “We are not yet where we want to be, but we have made major improvements towards getting our customer service and complaint handling in a much better place.”
