Long story. For MANY years, I have advised my mom her water bill seems way too high. Did not appear correct. After years and years of complaining to the city about it, and getting nowhere, I got involved. Years ago, I did tests, filling containers and measuring meter readings. Never got anywhere with them.

Lately, she complained about usage billed again. Last month, I did this again, testing the meter over a month. I sent them a well-worded (haha) letter, explaining my position. Mayor gets involved. Gives my mom a printout for past 24 years. Which is when the last meter was installed.

Bottom line is that the mayor spoke with me and was adamant that I should drop it because water usage has been fairly constant for the 24 years. And I kept saying "Mayor, you are missing the point. I don't care that the usage report shows steady readings. I care that I keep saying the meter could be wrong and in fact, does appear to be wrong. Can I please just speak with whomever knows how to read the meter?"

He finally agreed. Kept trying to get me to drop it, that nobody else was complaining. Kinda made me mad, like I'm a troublemaker and I have always been polite. But this time, I stuck to it. They agreed to have the reader speak with me.

Then, apparently, the meter reader reads my letter and gets cold feet. Mayor calls back and says they have consulted a state utilities meter expert and he will come by.

I met the mayor, the meter reader and the expert at Mom's house. The expert was flabbergasted. After staring at the meter for like two minutes, finally says "This man is right. This is the wrong meter. This is a 2" meter on a 1" line. It's way off, it's always been way off and always will be."

Feels good to sometimes be right about something. 99% of everyone would have dropped it with the mayor hardballing with his printout. Anyway, do you have any advice on how to settle this? I fear my mom will take their first offer. Who knows what they will come up with. But 24 years of who knows how much overcharge... what a mess. Maybe interest should also be calculated? This is thousands of dollars in overcharges. The meter has been reading at least 3.7 times too much.

It's a small town and you don't want to hurt the town but heck, she's a widow and needs every penny. I shudder to think if I would not have stood my ground.

WOW! Man get an attorney. Do not settle for their first offer (they'll most likely give her a way lower offer than she was overcharged). Also find out who installed the meter, and exactly when. If the water company did it they should have known what meter to use. Stick to your guns man. You've gone this far already.

Squeak

SemiLive: Yours is quite the human interest story. I commend you for your stick to it-ness in getting the mayor to finally get a state utilites expert involved to check the meter. I suggest contacting local or possibly even national TV stations about this story, as utility bills & poor little ol lady's always draw popular human interest attention with TV news audiences. I bet the utility company's settlement will be more once this story is shared over the airwaves. Thanks for sharing & please keep us posted. Scott

My mom would have a cow if I would call 60 Minutes, haha. She's always been very timid of rocking the boat when it gets down to it.

What a screwup. I'm trying to figure out how much she should get or even how to go about it. If I said "Speak to an attorney," she'll freak.

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 07-20-2005).]

While you wouldn't want your mom embarassed by a "60 Minutes" or whatever story, when the offer comes it might be worthwhile dropping a hint that such action might be necessary.
Best of luck,
t.

Bill, simple math tells us the 2inch meter line monitor is billing you twice as much as a 1 inch line monitor would have billed.... Take your last year average[12 months] times the total years,since the wrong monitor was installed....devide in half and that is your over payment....forget interest and also tell them you will forget the slight water cost over the years....
Now you have a legitament negotiation point...Don't bend..

PI x Radius squared equals area.
1 inch pipe = .7854 area.
2 inch pipe = 3.1416 area.
2 inch pipe is 4 times the area of the 1 inch pipe. The amount of water going through the pipe can vary with the pressure also.
Suggest asking a neighbor or two what their water bills average and then factor it out times the months and years involved.
In the event you are not satisfied with their adjustment then file suit in your local small claims court for the difference. Now you get a judge to hear the case and a lawyer is not required or acceptable in small claims court. The cost is very minor and will be refunded when you win the case.
Bear in mind that a water bill like any utility bill becomes a lien against the property and must be paid to clear the title to the property for transfer.
Bebop

Good Luck and keep after them!!!

I work for a water utility and NOBODY should have the same meter for 24 years!!! We have a standard of the industry 10 year meter changeout program here.
Water meters spin s l o w e r over the years, so it's in the Utility's best interest to change them every decade.

There's at least 2 dozen Attorneys in my town that advertise free counsel. I bet there are several in your neck of the woods too that would love to take this case. They'd probably get a lot more and work on a percentage. It shouldn't cost you anything but a little time.

3.7 times as much, for 24 years... I think any way you split it you will have one happy mom when it is said and done.

Phil

I think you should figure how much was overpaid, add interest lost, and aggravation and anything else that legally can be used. To me it would have been different if they would have cooperated maybe. Might as well work with the system and get as much as you can. You say your mom needs every penny. Has this affected how she spent money and the quality of her life for 24 years? I would find the cheapest and most effective way to squeeze them for every last drop. (no pun intended.)

Something similar happened to me with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin. I had over paid a few years for health insurance. My bill only used my first initial instead of my full first name. In doing that they accidentatlly charged me the female rate. Add to that that I was in a serious car accident and what it really amounted to was they really didn't want me any more as I would probably cost them money.

I stayed with Blue Cross for quite awhile, even though I could never get through to anyone to give me a refund. This went on for at least a couple years. I finally dropped them when I moved to Florida. That's when they finally paid me and I reallized that they had been trying to get rid of me.

Go for it.

Scott