Business complaints creep up with wide gulf between best and worst retailers

Water Plus, Castle Water and Clear Business Water were the worst performing retailers in 2020-21 in terms of business customer complaints, CCW revealed in its latest annual, non-household market complaints report. This goes for written complaints to the suppliers themselves, and complaints to the watchdog per 10,000 supply points, (see table below).

In stark contrast, First Business Water, Everflow and Water2Business were the top performers on written complaints, with Water2Business and First also top quartile for complaints to CCW.

At 15,102, the total number of written complaints made to all retailers increased by 5% compared to 2019-20 and was 28% higher than the pre-market complaint level. The watchdog noted this rise was largely caused by a rise in complaints to Castle Water and Business Stream (the latter’s figures this year took full account of complaints to Yorkshire Water Services which Business Stream bought in October 2019). Taking those firms out of the figures left complaints broadly flat on the previous year.

At 2,848, complaints made about providers to CCW reduced by 17% compared to 2019-20. This was for the second successive year. However the number remained more than three times greater than pre-market complaints (824 in 2016-17).