Thameswater: most-reported complaints
- Complaints in recent reviews
- 38% of 286 recent reviews analysed
- Most-reported issue
- Support unhelpful 52% of complaints
- Company replies
- 93% of negative reviews, typically within a day
- TrustScore
- 3.9 from 6,271 total reviews
- Review window analysed
- 2016-05-31 to 2026-11-09 602 reviews
- Sector
- Energy & Utilities
Automated analysis of 602 public Trustpilot reviews published 2016-05-31 to 2026-11-09. TrustScore 3.9 from 6,271 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is Thameswater legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that support is unhelpful, with 214 instances identified across 602 reviews. Billing errors are the second most common complaint, cited in 160 reviews, while 96 reviewers mention poor core service. Additionally, 72 reviews state that customer support is unreachable. The data shows a rising trend for poor core service, while reports of unreachable support are falling.
Trustpilot lists this business as no longer collecting reviews. New reviews are not currently being gathered for its profile. See the Trustpilot page for the current status.
What are the most common complaints about Thameswater?
| Issue | Share | Count | Trend | By month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support unhelpful | 52% | 214 | steady | |
| Billing errors | 39% | 160 | steady | |
| Poor core service | 23% | 96 | rising since 2024-10 | |
| Support unreachable | 17% | 72 | falling | |
| Account/app problems | 8% | 31 | steady | |
| Overcharging | 6% | 25 | rising since 2024-10 |
Support unhelpful
214 reports · 52% of complaints“I've been waiting 5 months for a revised bill from Thames Water.”
The company replied on 2026-09-07: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The smart meter is also completely inaccurate with my water usage.”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“so overall I was paying someone else bills and still paying someone else bills as these people dont know what to do”
The company replied on 2026-08-06: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Billing errors
160 reports · 39% of complaints“I've been waiting 5 months for a revised bill from Thames Water.”
The company replied on 2026-09-07: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The smart meter is also completely inaccurate with my water usage.”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“so overall I was paying someone else bills and still paying someone else bills as these people dont know what to do”
The company replied on 2026-08-06: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Poor core service
96 reports · 23% of complaints“They are forever fixing issues in our village. This has been going on for the last three years.”
The company replied on 2026-07-31: “"Hi, I would like to start by apologising for the issues you've experienced with us. I've requested your details through Trustpilot so that we can review the points you've raised. Thanks. "”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The water been cut off since 7am this morning”
The company replied on 2026-06-24: “"Hi, I would like to start by apologising for the issues you've experienced with us. I've requested your details through Trustpilot so that we can review the points you've raised. Thanks. "”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“prices have increased by £23 a month and customer service is like a debit collection agency.”
The company replied on 2026-09-03: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unreachable
72 reports · 17% of complaints“Unreasonable billing a 1 bed flat has higher bill than a 2 bed house.”
The company replied on 2026-08-11: “"Hi, I would like to start by apologising for the issues you've experienced with us. I've requested your details through Trustpilot so that we can review the points you've raised. Thanks. "”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Almost impossible to speak to a human being”
The company replied on 2026-07-10: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“takes ages to get through and then they simply hang up”
The company replied on 2026-09-02: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Account/app problems
31 reports · 8% of complaints“I’ve had appointments missed, and even an engineer who promised to take ownership of the issue, but nothing was resolved.”
The company replied on 2026-09-09: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“We then found out when I rang that you’d closed his account and it got open up in a different name and at his address”
The company replied on 2026-06-19: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“being significantly overcharged, managers won’t even let you speak on complaint phone calls”
The company replied on 2026-09-01: “"Hi, I would like to start by apologising for the issues you've experienced with us. I've requested your details through Trustpilot so that we can review the points you've raised. Thanks. "”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Overcharging
25 reports · 6% of complaints“They are forever fixing issues in our village. This has been going on for the last three years.”
The company replied on 2026-07-31: “"Hi, I would like to start by apologising for the issues you've experienced with us. I've requested your details through Trustpilot so that we can review the points you've raised. Thanks. "”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“prices have increased by £23 a month and customer service is like a debit collection agency.”
The company replied on 2026-09-03: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“after I did my monthly installment increased to £147 a month.”
The company replied on 2026-06-15: “Thank you for providing us with your details. I've logged your contact within our system and we'll be in contact with you within the next ten working days.”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2020-12-14 and last replied to a negative review on 2026-11-09. We last checked this profile on 2026-11-10 and found 17 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Forum footprint: 11 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “Thameswater joint account -> Financial Association?”, “29/12: £1000 for survey with thameswater”, “3 names on the Thameswater account - possible?”.
Elsewhere: 2.3★ on Google (155 reviews, as of November 2026) — a 1.6-star gap between its Trustpilot and Google scores.
TrustScore over time
3.9 → 3.9 across 15 census measurements since 2026-09-29. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal:
Show all 15 dated readings
2026-09-29 (91%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-02 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-05 (92%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-08 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-11 (92%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-14 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-17 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-20 (92%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-23 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-26 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-10-29 (93%, 1.0d) · 2026-11-01 (93%, 0.9d) · 2026-11-04 (93%, 0.9d) · 2026-11-07 (93%, 0.9d) · 2026-11-10 (93%, 0.9d).
Severity: 37% of this company’s 415 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
1★ share of negative reviews over time
Share of 1–3★ Trustpilot reviews that were 1★
In June 2026, 100% of 34 one-to-three-star reviews were 1★; in November 2026, 100% of 12.
Counted from June 2026 onward — the period for which our capture of 1★, 2★ and 3★ reviews is complete for all three. Months with fewer than 10 such reviews are omitted.
Reviewers here waited a median of 0.8 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (370 reviews record both dates).
What their policy promises
complaint process: explain the claims process
“We’ll explain the claims process to you and help you make the claim if required.”
complaint process: work with you to agree on an arbitrator
“If you’re not satisfied with our offer of compensation we offer and want to refer the matter to arbitration, we’ll work with you to agree on an arbitrator.”
complaint process: reply within 28 days
“Once we receive details of your proposed arbitrators, we will reply within 28 days.”
Quoted verbatim from the company’s own published policy (source page); complaint counts are census classifications. As of 2026-10-29.
Policy-page monitoring
We monitor this company’s published policy page. No change to the policy text has been detected since we started watching on 2026-10-19.
Automated change detection on the company’s own published policy page. A change is listed only when a term, price, time limit, right or contact route in the policy text changed; other edits are counted, not listed.
Measured reply time: across 391 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.8 days — the company profile reports an average of under a day.
Reply quality: of 391 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 6% engaged with the specific problem and 94% were generic templates.
Review provenance: 140 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.97★, while 146 organic (uninvited) reviews average 1.95★.
23% of its 170 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 52% of this company’s complaints vs a 30% median across 114 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 2,436 of this company’s 6,271 Trustpilot reviews (39%) were written in the last 12 months.
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See all companies by issue: Support unhelpful · Billing errors · Poor core service · Support unreachable · Account/app problems · Overcharging · Sector table: Energy & Utilities in the UK
Compare Thameswater with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-11-10.