First talk to your water company or retailer
If you’re not happy with the service provided by your water company or retailer, you should first follow your water company’s two stage complaint process before we can help you.
- Stage one: Complain to the company, giving them a chance to sort things out. They should respond within 10 working days. If they don’t, you may be entitled to a payment under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS).
- Stage two: If you are unable to reach a resolution at stage one, you can ask the company to escalate your complaint to stage two. They will then have another 10 working days to respond.
- Stage three: If you’re still unhappy after the final stage two response, the company will direct you to us. You can then ask us to conduct an independent review of your complaint and the service you received.
If you’re unsure whether you’ve completed stages one or two, contact your water company or retailer to find out.
If you need help to raise a complaint, try our complaint letter tool. It’s designed to make it simpler and quicker for you to write a letter of complaint to send to your water company or retailer. All you need to do is enter a few details into the form and our tool will generate a letter for you to download, email or print to send to the company.
- Be clear that you’re making a complaint.
- When putting your complaint in writing, be clear about the main issues, use bullet points to explain.
- If possible, provide the water company or retailer with a timeline and any evidence to support your complaint.
- Be clear about what you are expecting to be done and what your desired outcome is. For example, do you expect and apology or an action, such as the company visiting your address to investigate a problem or a bill to be revised?
- Remember to raise all of your points. If you provide new information or add a new issue later in the process, the company has the right to consider that separately, as a new complaint, which can delay the issue being resolved.
How to complain to us
We can help if you’re still unhappy after going through all the steps in your water company or retailer’s complaint process (stages 1 and 2). We’ll need a final response letter from the company before we can help you.
We can also help if you haven’t received a resolution after 8 weeks.
This is Stage 3 of the complaint process.
What to expect
We’ll contact you to discuss your complaint and ensure we have all the necessary details. We prefer to handle this by phone, but we can also use email.
Provide as much detail as possible about your issue. This helps us work effectively with the company to resolve your complaint on your behalf to reach a resolution. We’ll keep you updated throughout the process.
Contacting us
- Call us: 0300 034 2222* (England), 0300 034 3333* (Wales)
- Online: Use our online form to submit your complaint
- Post: Send us a letter to CCW, 23 Stephenson Street, Birmingham B2 4BH
* Calls may be recorded for training and quality monitoring purposes.
We understand that managing your complaint can be frustrating, but please be polite and considerate to our case handlers. We do not tolerate abuse of our colleagues. Remember, our team is here to help!
Complaints we can't help with
We’re here to help with issues involving a water company or retailer but sometimes we may not be the right organisation for your type of complaint.