Quote:
Originally Posted by Retiring
Water bills are a strange nut to crack sometimes. I recall, 20+ years ago, my parents received a huge water bill - $5k for one quarter (NY). This was before electronic reading of water meters, they used to come to the home and manually read the meter. My parents, not in the mood to “fight city hall,” said if I can correct the error I could keep half. It took 6 weeks of constant calling for the water people to come out and re-read the meter. They just would not accept there was an error on their end, as one lady put it “we don’t make mistakes.” They finally came out to re-read, probably to shut me up, and the previous reading was in fact an error. All monies refunded. Dealing with bureaucracies can be a real pain in the donkey.
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It is NORMAL for most/many companies to see what they can get away with. A non-fought overcharge does go into profit but for a large company such as a water company it means they do not need do anything.
RE: can't be an error on our end
I always demand the name of the person who said that.
Be sure to ask for an id number. Many of the people you talk to use false names. Ask for a supervisor-they often use a consistent if false name. When, the matter is settled
and the company is found to be wrong send a registered return receipt letter to the company president AND DEMAND AN APOLOGY LETTER SIGNED BY BOTH THE PRESIDENT AND THE EMPLOYEE INVOLVED.