Water company must do better!

WARRINGTON based water company United Utilities is highlighted in a national report as one of the worst for customer complaints in the country.
The Consumer Council for Water has revealed that complaints to water companies in England and Wales reduced by nearly 17 per cent last year.
But United Utilities is cited in the report as one of the few that still need to make further improvements. The report says that despite reductions in complaints last year, the company still received nearly double the industry’s average number of complaints per customer served.
And the report says complaints at United Utilities have not yet dropped to the level that they were before a national “dramatic rise” in complaints began.
The council says on average water companies are only part way through an “appropriate recovery,” as complaints are still 33 per cent higher than they were in 2004.
Before the formation of the council five years ago, the water industry had developed a reputation for rising complaints. But the water watchdog worked hard to put pressure on poor performing companies to make improvements.
It reports that despite overall results beginning to look promising many companies, such as United Utilities, have further to go if they are going to turn complaint numbers around completely.
Dame Yve Buckland, chair of the Consumer Council for Water, said: “Water customers are used to hearing about year on year rises in complaints, but we’ve been working hard to put pressure on water companies, particularly those with poor complaint numbers, to improve their performance. We are beginning to see progress from many of them.”
She said it was unfortunate that a few customers were still letting customers down when it came to service.
Dame Buckland said: “Although complaints to United Utilities dropped by 16 per cent last year the company is recovering from a period of high numbers of complaints. It has a lot of work to do to bring service levels more in line with the rest of the industry.
“Many customers are satisfied with the service provided by their water company, but if something goes wrong, we know that customers want the problem to be sorted out, and quickly.”