Talk > Rants, Raves, and Praise > [Rant] Water Company

[Rant] Water Company

Sorry to hear that.

Sounds like our Rinky Dink Water Company.

Not long ago the minimum (which I paid) was $7.00.

Now it's $30.00 plus.

Oh yes, the water is not drinkable because it is so hard, so: Softener is $30 per month and drinking water is from .35 to $2.00 per gallon according to how rich your tastes are.

Nice, huh?
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Printed on 100% recycled bytes

reply to Anonymark
In Houston they just upgraded our meters without asking or charging about 10-15 years ago. They just left a hang tag advising when it would be done. We have never had any problems like this with Houston, Sugar Land, Or Denton.

reply to Anonymark
They can't send somebody out to read the meter, but they can sure as hell send someone out to disconnect service.

reply to Anonymark
Why are they disconnecting the water? That makes NO sense. Why not just show up and change the meter and be done with it? Don't understand why they would penalize the consumer for something THEY want/need to do.

reply to ilikeme
They did mine within the last year. Very nice and polite.

Or so my wife says

Dave
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I may have been born yesterday. But it wasn't at night.

reply to La Luna

reply to Anonymark
Not saying it is true in your case, but many times those "We are going to disconnect you IF" threats are just that, threats, to get your attention and they really have no intention of doing so.

Years ago I was having problems with the Gas company and they threatened to shut the gas off at the street .. their shut off day came and went and they ended up installing a remote read meter.

reply to Anonymark

reply to Anonymark
I have a 60ft well, I live in the country, I probably pay $10/mo to pump water for personal use (showers, washing, drinking, etc.) and my water tastes nice and it's not all that hard.

nanner nanner suckers! (J/K)

On the other hand I remember my dad almost constantly complaining about the price of city water when we lived in town. I think he said doubled almost every other year. So started at $5 and when we left 5 years later it was almost $40/mo.

Surely pumping water can't cost that much can it?!

reply to Anonymark
Wow. I am the type of person to just have them disconnect the water. Then when you complain to the state or (local news lol they would love this story...) , it has more of an effect. Nah, it would suck to be without water. I almost was there when I bought my house and the water bill from the previous owner had not been paid for 6-12 months. "Pay or be shut off!"... so I paid it. Not the water company's fault.

I did get a letter from my water company yesterday saying "We have found high levels of lead in the drinking water" Ummm, didn't you guys just upgrade the water cleaning system for a Kazillion dollars the last few years? That's why you told us the rates were increasing, to pay for this upgrade.

"Things you can do to reduce lead in your drinking water.... Get it filtered... use an alternate water supply/portable etc......" WTF??? Then they send you the bill in the same envelope. lmao.

reply to ilikeme
Sounds like when they changed out electrical meter, only we never got any notice. Just chillaxing when I here this electrical pop and everything goes dark, then another electrical pop and power is back on. I see two guys running like they are in a marathon to the house next door...they had installed the "smart" meter.
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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein

reply to Anonymark
I've received a mail notice from the water company asking me to schedule a replacement of the meter with a remote one.
The only reason was the fact that they couldn't read the meter, I have a dog and the reader guy is a pussy.

reply to Anonymark
Our parish decided it would be a good idea to upgrade everyone to the remote water meters...Scratch that...Our parish was SOLD the idea...
They were told it would save the parish in the long run. Well i noticed some of my neighbors getting new meters, but I never saw them dig up mine or replace it. I don't know what they look like (guess I could check a neighbor's), but it still has the mechanical dial and all.
Anyway, turns out it's MORE EXPENSIVE to run these things. To offset the cost, the parish had to raise everyone's rates by $2/month. Someone's cousin or brother-in-law made off like a bandit on that gig.

Did I mention that up until about a year ago our parish water system was consistently in violation of EPA rules? They kept getting fined. The water was so bad they had to put too many chemicals in it to make it drinkable. They finally fixed it, but it still tastes like crap. I think there are some third world countries out there that have better water than us.
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I'm actually not funny, I'm just really mean and people think I'm joking.

reply to Anonymark
At our old house, we had the meter inside, and it required the meter reader to come in and do a reading. For about two years straight, we missed the quarterly reading and the water company would give us an estimated bill. For eight quarters straight, the estimate was about the average of what we used quarterly over the many years that we had lived there.

Eventually, I got the notice stating that they wanted to replace my meter with one that they could read from outside, and sent someone out to replace the meter and get a final reading on the old meter.

What a pleasant surprise when they did the final reading... unrealized by me, in the two years that they were doing quarterly estimates, our water usage had decreased significantly due to two sons moving out. I didn't have a water bill for the next three quarters, and a very light bill the fourth quarter.

Yeah, I know that I had let them have my extra money interest free for over a year, but it still felt good not getting that bill for a couple of hundred simoleons every three months.
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Shine on you crazy diamond...

reply to Anonymark

Yes well IT SHOULD BE but sadly is still in MANY THINGS!!