Anna Tims publishes 2025 dishonours list for worst customer service failures

Anna Tims, the Guardian's consumer champion, published her 2025 "dishonours" list highlighting companies and public bodies she says delivered poor customer service this year. Tims catalogued recurring problems across sectors: energy firms with billing and phantom account dramas, insurers that stall on claims, and travel and accommodation firms that take payments but sometimes do not provide flights or rooms.

Specific cases she reported included Three suggesting CF "kill off" her sick father to change mobile-contract ownership (Three later said it would review processes and made a goodwill payment); an elderly couple who found evidence of strangers having sex in their Premier Inn room and only received a refund after Guardian questions; and Vrbo initially calling a bloodstained holiday rental complaint "minor" and refusing compensation until the Guardian intervened.

Key Topics

Business, Anna Tims, Three, Premier Inn, Vrbo, Airbnb