It pays to keep at it and not let them get by with it....I am glad it is solved.UPDATE!! The meter guy was just here. Not only did he replace our meter with a new digital meter (that we get to keep! This isn't temporary like the lady on the phone led me to believe), but he actually DOES think that our meter got stuck. He says sometimes it's one number that gets stuck when it rolls over, that he's seen it happen plenty of times, and HE is the one who will test our meter He took one look at our pool, our tiny little yard, and where our hoses are and said there is no way that it went through a hose or through a toilet. He was pretty confident that it was the meter. I don't know whether or not we will get a credit on that 32,000 gallon bill, but hopefully this new meter has solved the ongoing issue.
I'm glad I pursued it because the city wanted to write it off as us having used the water or having a leak when I knew that neither was the case. The lady on the phone even tried to say that we had a leak that we had fixed and that would explain it. UGH. Oh and this guy even said he's seen cases where 2 houses were tied together and one gets billed for the other's water useage! That's not the case for us I don't think, but seriously...crazy!
I missed your Friday update. OF COURSE the old meter was perfect! Lol. I'm glad you have a new one.
Not surprising since your problem was intermittent. If they tried it again it may very well show different results
Glad to hear they switched out the meter. Since that other one could be getting stuck at times, it could just be they didn't run it enough to get to the digit that was getting stuck. Hopefully you are ok now, and they don't give that old meter to someone else!
All this is one more reason I want to stay on well water!
I'm so pleased that you were able to get this resolved. It just goes to show that "You can fight city hall". So sorry that you had to have the stress and complications of it all, and it's too bad that you will not be reimbursed for their error.
Do you have a local news reporter who takes cases like this? Not sure if any would take on a utility but you could try.I'm glad it's resolved, but it shouldn't have taken 3 billing statements. They should have replaced the meter the first time I called. Also, I'm beyond frustrated that there is no mechanism to fight the 3 really abnormally high bills. It was so very obviously the meter. I think I'm going to get a track record of a few more months of regular $90 bills and then try again. I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to and that makes me angry. An elderly person or a person with a very low income might not have the time or energy to call repeatedly to fight this. UGH.
Do you have a local news reporter who takes cases like this? Not sure if any would take on a utility but you could try.
At least in my area we have Problem Solvers on one of our news stations. They seem to be able to get farther in getting answers and sometimes it's just the fact that a news station is poking around that gets the person/company in question to perk up and resolve the issue.Pretty sure we do since I found a really similar topic locally when I did a google search. I think it was for the municipality north of us, but same county. People there were getting like $800 bills on residential houses, and they got the same response that they used the water somehow and the meters were fine. Maybe going to the paper would be the right thing to do...they'd need other people with the same issue to make a real story though I think.
Yet another update. About a year on, we've had no outsized bills since the meter was replaced. A few days ago, the local paper ran a big story about people getting outrageous water bills when there was no leak and incurring huge plumbing bills only to find out that everything is fine. Once the meters were replaced (at a cost to the customer, just like in our situation), the bills reverted to normal. In all cases, the water dept. insisted that the consumers had used the water. Yeah, right. The paper stated that customers could apply for some credit due to unusual water useage, so I called the water department. They claim ignorance on both the newspaper article and the credit that we're supposed to be able to apply for. I'm not sure what to do right now. A year should be sufficient data to show that the meter was the issue as we've had no further problems. Again they claim that they tested our old meter and that it had no issues. My response was that we should have continued to have high bills after the meter replacement and we didn't. It makes me angry that they're doing this to people.
Contact your city council representative (or equivalent), and send them a copy of the newspaper article along with the details of your individual story. I once had a garbage collection issue that I got the run around on for months until I called my city council rep. Suddenly it was addressed overnight!
Ooooh, I LOVE this. My town contracts with the city for this service, so I think I'd still go to my own rep and then they would deal with the city?
Ready through this thread I see your "normal bill" is $90. Yikes! . That's about what we spend for Four months combined on water and we have a teenager still at home.
That includes sewer and recycling also...I should clarify that. It might just be that water is more expensive where I live (coastal FL)?[/QUOTE
Ok that explains it. We are not on sewer so that is one reason why ours is so low but if I include recycling its still only about $45 a month