CCW Reviews 353

In 2010 i contacted Thames water to let them know that i was going to be moving into a property, and that i was going to be responsible for paying the water charges for that property. When a person contacts a water company to let them know that they are going to be moving into or out of a property the water company are meant to survey the property to see if it is possible to fit a water meter, it states that on CCW, web site. In 2016 i received a letter from Thames water explaining a survey was going to be carried out in my street to fit water meters to all properties in my street that didn’t already have one. I was more that happy to have one fitted. No one came to do a survey. In 2019 i contacted Thames Water to request a survey, they sent a surveyor who said that it wasn’t possible to fit a water meter at my property. Because of this Thames water changed my water rate charges from the RV rate to the single occupier assessed household charge tariff, which halved my RV monthly rate charges. Which i was pleased with, but i was not so pleased that i had been paying twice the amount of water rate charges for 9 years, which i worked out to be more than £2,200. Thames water refused to give me a rebate, and said that the water rate charges i was paying was correct. I contacted CCW to ask them if they could challenge Thames Water for me on this issue, as it clearly states on CCW,s web site that a survey will be carried out when a person contacts the water company to let them know that a person is going to be moving into a property. If a survey had been carried out when it should have been done, i would have been paying the single occupiers assessed household charge tariff from the beginning. CCW contacted me and said that it is the customers responsibility to request a water meter, and that the water company can offer one but they don’t have to, so therefore my water rate charges where correct at the time. I disagreed with CCW on this issues as Thames Water should have done a survey when i contacted them to let them know that i was going to be moving into a property.
CCW doesn’t seem to have any interest in wanting to challenge Thames Water for me on this issue. Because of this in my opinion CCW is not fit for purpose.

Allowed the water company to get away with blatant lying. What am I supposed to say. Well done

The way the staff spoke to me was excellent and the follow up of my complaint was wow. I am delighted with everything from them.

My case was assigned to Stephanie. Reply received 20/1/2025 i.e over 6 months later. She agreed with everything Thames water told her with no questions. CCW claim to be the voice for water consumers but this is a total lie, it should read the voice of water companies. TW deemed that £30 was fair compensation when we couldn't drink the water, use a dishwasher, cook or prepare food for over 5 weeks. Yes they provided bottled water but with no acknowledgement that it was incredibly worrying with the risk of petrol in the water and inconvenient using bottles.

Having spent 4 years arguing against Waterplus for a misbilled amount on a meter that was replaced whereby a spike of some 2.5 million litres was claimed to have been used (we are a small retail shop) I came to a dead end where Waterplus heavy handed us into a situation where we had to pay a bill that wasn’t agreed in order to not get cut off.

Having then followed the complaints procedure and being told by water plus at every turn that we were right, they still went on to tell us they were right and the bill was correct. (It wasn’t).

We ended up getting CCW involved and explained the situation. We were listened to and our case was created. The case worker (Mary) told us exactly what was going to happen and went to fight our corner. Mary (who is an absolute legend) called us at every point to keep us informed on progress and what she was going to try and achieve for us.

Within weeks we saw results and within 4 months we have a resolution, which was what we had been trying to get Waterplus to see all along! Our account was subsequently credited and we are now happy, albeit tired after fighting Waterplus for 4 years to get there.

In short. CCW are excellent, Mary was fantastic, we got what we had wanted all along with little hassle once we got them involved. Wish I hadn’t wasted 4 years and got them on it early doors.

Thank you!

My case was assigned to Baba at CCW. It took him 6 months to respond, and when he did he did not have a clue about the basic policies governing water companies. Terrible service. Don’t waste your time.

Utterly disgraceful non existent service.
I made my complaint in mid November 2024. I was contacted and asked by YOU for a third party authorisation which I completed and sent to you along with my final response and all complaints to Severn Trent. At no point did you tell me you were sharing the signed authorisation form with Severn Trent Water which I believe is against GDPR and illegal.
Anyway your first response rejected my complaint because Severn Trent Water lied to you and told you they had no record of my complaints. I immediately replied to tell you I'd already sent you all copies of my complaints, Severn Trent s replies and their final response which told me to go to you. You said you hadn't got it which isn't true as I got no bounce backs. I sent them again. Your advisor replied to tell me I was correct and Severn Trent had lied to you and she also was bewildered on my behalf as to why Severn Trent Water were harassing us to pay bills for an empty property.
I then waited for the case worker Mary to get in touch which she did on Thursday last week. I called her back and at no point did she say what the first advisor did, which was that Severn Trent shouldn't be expecting someone to pay bills for an empty house especially when they had just paid £1400 to repair a leak on Severn Trent's demands.
Mary insisted I should get a water meter fitted which is what Severn Trent wanted. I didn't commit to anything and asked her how much the water bills would be with this fitted. She lied and said she would ask Severn Trent and tell me.
Then today I got an email from Mary simply closing my complaint down because I should get a water meter fitted!!! No information as she promised and the email also had the bare faced cheek to say that Severn Trent were closing my complaint down because they don't agree with the authority form that YOU OBTAINED FOR YOUR PURPOSES.
You're the worst ombudsman service I've encountered yet.

I DON'T WANT MY COMPLAINT CLOSED BECAUSE YOU'RE HELPING SEVERN TRENT TO AVOID DEALING WITH IT. And we won't be getting any meter fitted and I want compensation for all the disgusting customer service harassment and LIES and BULLYING from Severn Trent for 8 months now and an immediate apology from you for wrongly sharing personal data with third parties without my knowledge, permission or consent. Absolutely atrocious service. I don't want to deal with MARY again.

The caseworker was extremely helpful. Took time to understand what was a complex issue, ensured that he clarified what we could expect from the process and was very empathetic. Whilst the process is slow, the caseworker was good at keeping us updated and we reached the right outcome.

Absolutely useless and pointless organisation. My 1st caseworker was excellent, then went on leave. His colleague hoisted the white flag to relevant water company even before contacting them! He contradicted everything the 1st caseworker told me, then when I tried to record a Complaint in accordance with their own protocol the call handler refused to take the complaint! Worse than useless, what a waste of scarce public resources that allows water companies to act like the maverick corporate crooks they are.

I was kept informed but the process achieved nothing.

Did not keep to timescale, had to be chased, and in the end just agreed with the water company. Complete waste of everybody's time.

Communication was good, with regular updates. My complaint was about Severn Trent Water charging me for waste water treatment while continuing to pollute our environment while financially rewarding it's negligent CEO and greedy shareholders. My complaint was rejected, and CCW supported Severn Trent, whcih continues to pollute.

I was able to get justice for the injustice I got from my water supplier. All thanks to CCW. I appreciate the support, customer service was also in touch while looking into my complaints. Well done CCW, you are doing a good job 👏🏾

I cannot understand why this organisation exists in view of it's limitations

Pleasant enough staff but a paper tiger. A consumer body with no teeth, no power and hence no means of acting effectively on behalf of consumers. In my specific case they merely accepted whatever Severn Trent Water told them (without asking for or receiving evidence) which merely resulted in an utter waste of time for all concerned. Sorry, but 0 stars.

What a waste of time . Thames water fully in wrong & they done nothing. Long story to put on here.

Baba was thorough and dedicated in bringing my case against Yorkshire Water. He told me they are one of the hardest companies to take action against even though my case was solid, but he would try his best. He eventually got them to admit liability for their poor mains repairs, causing noise and damage inside our house. They have now agreed to reimburse my out of pocket expenses. Well done

Not helpful at all.
Ignored clear evidence and I would suggest they are not impartial.
We were given 30 days notice by Anglian Water to repair a leak in our supply line that we never had.
We subsequently had to replace our supply line as no leak was detected.
It was clearly evident that we never had a leak with the meter data showing zero hourly usage two days after being informed by Anglian Water that they thought we had a constant flow leak.
This was further evident by the readings spiking even higher immediately after replacing the supply pipe for over 24 hours, clearly not caused by a leak.
Our specialist contractor gave a written testimony that there was no leak detected in our supply line.
The meter had been giving erratic fluctuating overnight readings with huge spikes in usage since it was installed and after we replaced the supply line it took 11 days to show accurate usage.
This clearly shows that the issue was a minor sensor/pressure issue since the new smart meter was installed that could have easily been resolved and not a leak which if it had been would have resolved the meter readings immediately after replacing the supply line.
The CCW concluded that we had a leak even though the evidence was clear that we did not and tried to say the dispute should be between us and our contractor and would not refer our case to the independent adjudicator.

"I would suggest that all of the information provided by Anglian Water to CCW, confirms that there was a leak and that the action taken by your contractor resolved the issue. The costs charged by your contractor are between you and your contractor and CCW would class this as a private dispute. This is out of scope for referral for adjudication/ DRO and this is no longer relevant to you and won’t be considered."

An ongoing leak cannot show zero hourly usage and could not continue after a new supply line was installed let alone spike up to 48 litres per hour for 24 continuous hours.
Our contractor completed the job he was paid to do, our dispute is with Anglian Water falsely claiming we had a leak and we shall be taking the matter further as you clearly did not acknowledge the clear evidence you were provided with.

Yinka was very helpful. Followed through with Thames water and made sure my complaing was resolved quickly. Didn't think it was gonna be possible, have been waiting for my complaint with Thames water to be resolved for 36 months and Yinka was able to push it through and get it done in a couple weeks.