Utility Week

6 | 13TH - 19TH JULY 2018 | UTILITY WEEK News Inside story T he Consumer Council for Water's (CCWater's) customer complaints league table for water retailers is in – and the picture isn't pretty. Complaints received by CCWater against retailers are up 237 per cent on the year, sparking a dire warning from the watchdog that retailers must "get their acts together". Until last year, customers were not able to leave their water company. Since the non- household market opened in April 2017, business customers have had the option to switch. The market was supposed to drive improvements in customer service, as well as pushing down costs for customers, and encouraging innovation and water efficiency. However, as well as the shocking figures on complaints to CCWater against retailers, non-household written complaints received by companies between market opening and March 2018 are up 26.4 per cent on the previous year, at 14,885. What's obvious from the report is that both increases were driven by a small num- ber of poorly performing retailers, namely Castle Water, Wave and Water Plus, that were responsible for a disproportionate share of the rise in complaints. These worrying stats have prompted an urgent call to retailers from CCWater chief executive Tony Smith who warned: "Retail- ers who routinely deliver a poor service could start to see a backlash from businesses as their awareness of the market and right to shop around for a more reliable supplier con- tinues to rise." What's more, the report focuses solely on written complaints, which tell only a small part of the story. CCWater says non- household customers also had to make more than 46,500 telephone calls to resolve issues with their suppliers between January and March 2018. Why are complaints up? So, what's causing this dramatic hike in complaints? Some retailers put it down to teething issues with both the central market data, and their own systems and processes. Castle Water chief executive John Reyn- olds tells Utility Week the problems hail from when customers affected by data inconsist- encies in the central market operating sys- tem (CMOS) were first invoiced. He insists that since September 2017 the company has seen a "significant reduction" in complaints. "Castle Water has resolved these issues, and thousands of others – resolving ten times as many errors in CMOS data as com- Water complaints soar Complaints in the non-household water retail market have rocketed since competition was introduced. Why is this? And what are retailers doing about it? Lois Vallely reports. NHH WRITTEN COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY RETAILERS AND COMPANIES NHH COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY CCWATER Three Sixty Water Castle Water Wave Clear Business Water Water Plus Yorkshire Water Business Services Pennon Water Services South East Water Choice Dwr Cymru Business Stream The Water Retail Company Everflow SES Business Water Affinity for Business Water2business Dee Valley Water Pod 53 Regent Water First Business Water ADSM Leep Utilities Aquaflow Yu Water Waterscan 69.6 * 65.3 57.7 56.8 55.6 43.6 29.6 28.2 26.5 25.5 22.9 22.0 18.1 17.8 1.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 0 Castle Water Clear Business Water Water Plus Pennon Business Stream Wave Everflow SES Business Water Affinity for Business South East Water Choice Water2business Yorkshire Water Business Services Dee Valley Dwr Cymru The Water Retail Company Pod 53 Regent Water First Business Water ADSM Leep Utilities Three Sixty Aquaflow Yu Water Waterscan 0 5 10 15 20 n Administration n Billing and charges n Retail competition n Metering n Water n Sewerage n Other Complaints (per 10,000 SPIDs and connections) against retailers and companies in Wales, 2017/18 Complaints (per 10,000 SPIDs) in Wales, 2017/18 * Three Sixty Water reported one complaint but had only seven SPIDs.

• Cover