Sutton and East Surrey Water sees customer complaints fall again (From Redhill And Reigate Life)
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Sutton and East Surrey Water sees customer complaints fall again
11:05am Tuesday 25th September 2012 in News
Customer complaints to Sutton and East Surrey Water have fallen for the second year in a row.
The company, which supplies water to more than 650,000 people in East Surrey, and parts of West Sussex, west Kent and south London, had the fourth lowest level of complaints in 2011 to 2012 of the 23 water companies in England and Wales.
A report published yesterday (Tuesday, September 25) by the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) showed the company had had less than 20 complaints per 10,000 customer connections.
The complaints totalled 552 – a drop of 101, or 15.5%, from 653 in 2010 to 2011.
Jeremy Downer, head of customer services for Sutton and East Surrey Water, said: “We are pleased that complaints continue to fall, but are not complacent.”
He said: “Any complaint is one too many and we are continuing to work hard to ensure all of our customers receive the best possible level of service.”
The company's continued improvement in complaints came against a challenging year - first following record low rainfall and a dry winter, through the introduction of a hosepipe ban and the securing of a drought order, and then a prolonged deluge of record rainfall.
The improvement also came against the backdrop of a continuing fall in customer complaints in the water industry.
Complaints dropped by almost 12% last year, reaching their lowest level since 2005.
The fall - for the fourth consecutive year – indicates that the over-all picture in the water industry is improving.
However, the CCW said there remain some areas for concern, with seven of the 23 water and sewerage companies reporting an increase in complaints during the period.
Among them were South East Water, Thames Water and Southern Water.
CCW’s report monitors written complaints to water and sewerage companies, received by letter, fax or email.
As well as total complaints and those not resolved after the first letter, CCW asks companies to report complaint numbers under five main categories: billing and charges, water supply, sewerage services (which are not supplied by Sutton and East Surrey Water), metering and other services such as company administration.
Website: www.ccwater.org.uk
