Wales’ largest water company, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, has been told to improve its performance after written customer complaints doubled over the course of the past year.
The company, which is based in Nelson, saw a 115% rise in written complaints between April 2015 and March 2016, according to figures from the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater).
Problems caused by more rigorous debt collection, a new billing system, and poor communication with customers led to 7,128 complaints in 2015-16, more than double the 3,314 complaints received in the previous year.
Those figures signify the biggest increase of any water company across England and Wales, and watchdog CCWater has asked Welsh Water to provide a report by the end of October, outlining the progress made to reduce customer complaints.
Tom Taylor, Chair of the Consumer Council for Water’s Wales Committee, said: “We are disappointed the good progress Dwr Cymru Welsh Water had made in recent years has been undermined by such a sharp rise in complaints.
“The company has identified the steps it needs to take to put things right with its internal systems and communication with customers, but we will be watching closely to make sure these changes deliver significant improvements.”
A Welsh Water spokesperson said: “We are disappointed to see an increase in the number of written complaints received during 2015/16. We know that this is linked to the introduction of a more robust process when chasing debt from customers who have not paid their bill and some unforeseen issues following the introduction of a new billing system.
“More customers are also contacting us by email or online after we made changes to our website to make it easier for customers to contact us. Whilst this has led to an increase in written complaints, we have seen a reduction in telephone complaints compared to last year.
“We have already taken steps to address the issues that have caused the increase in written complaints and our latest figures show that the number received has fallen by over a quarter over the past few months.
“We take great pride in the high level of customer service we usually give our customers and welcomed the Consumer Council for Water’s recent report that placed us top of all water and sewerage companies for overall customer satisfaction and value for money. Similarly, the number of compliments we have received for our work has increased year on year.
“We realise, however, that more still needs to be done and we are committed to driving further improvements and reducing the cause for complaint.”