In February this year Ofwat announced that water companies can receive fines of up to 10% of their turnover for poor customer service following their recent report that there was a fall in customer satisfaction across most companies from 2021-2022 to 2022-2023.
In light of this, experts at Showers to You wanted to take a deep dive into which companies are receiving the most complaints and who would come out as the worst offender.
Data on the number of complaints, Trustpilot reviews, average bills for 2024 and overall satisfaction of the water services was collated to provide an overall “satisfaction score” out of 100.
The study revealed that Thames Water is the worst water company for customer satisfaction.
Covering most of Greater London, as well as parts of Essex, Kent and Gloucestershire they scored only 18 out of 100, having received 127.72 complaints per 10,000 households, the second highest of them all.
Thames Water’s complaint handling metric* according to the CCW, stands at just 1 which is considered poor.
Additionally, they have a Trustpilot score of just 1.5/5 and scored lowest on customer satisfaction of water services, with just 80% of customers saying they were satisfied.
SES Water
SES Water who serve South London were 11th on the board with an overall satisfaction score of 54 out of 100. They received only 41.02 complaints out of 10,000 households, a third of the number of complaints that Thames Water received (127.72). Additionally,their Trustpilot score is 2.2/5 and their average bill for 2024 before inflation is £167.
Affinity Water
Affinity Water places 13th with a satisfaction score of 62/100 – tied with Wessex Water. Providing water to the London Boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon and parts of Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Enfield, Affinity Water has a pretty good complaint handling score of 3 out 4. With a Trustpilot rating of 2 out 5 – it doesn’t seem the residents are too happy.
Essex & Suffolk Water
Coming in at the top five best water providers is Essex & Suffolk Water with a satisfaction score of 65/100 – serving the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge in Greater London.
Having the third cheapest average bill of £150 may be the reason for their positioning!
Martin Smith, the founder of Showers to You said, “Although it is concerning to see many of the water companies scoring low for their complaints and customer service, with the recent news that Ofwat has now brought in a new power to enforce fines on the companies when it is providing poor customer service we should hopefully see improvement in this area.”
