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Oct 14, 2003 I dont know about anyone else out there, but Ive come to the realization I take water for granted. I turn on the faucet and water comes out. I flush the toilet and fresh water comes into the tank and bowl. I hop in the shower and hot water comes pouring out. Just the turn of a knob and all the water I could ever need is at my disposal. Then I received the water bill and it was more than double the usual amount. My first thought was that they hadnt received my payment the previous month, but in looking more closely I saw there was no notation of a past due balance. Of course I realized that someone at the water company had made a mistake and I immediately called them to point out the error of their ways. The nice person I spoke with assured me that they would get the bottom of the problem. She scheduled an appointment for a technician to come out the very next day, explaining that he would re-read the meter, check for leaks, and install a new meter as their records showed the meter was an older version. I eagerly anticipated the technicians visit, knowing that he would find their error and slash the bill in half. I couldnt have been more wrong. He stopped to read the meter before ringing the doorbell, and reported that the reading was accurate. I followed him around like a lost puppy as he checked the toilet and pipes for leaks. I told him that the landlord had been out several months prior to install a new pump in the toilet and it had been working fine. That was a big mistake. He immediately jumped on that comment and explained that if the last couple of bills had been estimates he would bet his last dollar that the leaky toilet had finally caught up with me. Darn my memory I couldnt come up with the exact timeframe of the leaky toilet no matter how hard I tried, so I just lamely responded that it couldnt be the toilet because that had been awhile back. He still had the new meter to install so I showed him to the basement door. I realized I had better stay away before my mouth got me into more trouble so I decided to play it safe and look through my mail. The poor man came up and said he was getting some towels from his truck as there was more water than he thought and it had leaked out onto the basement floor. I offered to help him, but he refused. I followed him to the basement and realized the water would soon evaporate. At that point he still had to install the outside part of the meter and I thought it best to stay inside. A question did come to mind and I went out to the front stoop to discover him still working. As I started to ask my question I noticed blood all over his hand and invited him in to clean up and get some antiseptic and a band-aid. He politely refused, finished his job and rinsed his hands at the outside faucet. I thanked him for coming out and off he went. I guess seeing all that blood totally wiped my question from my mind as I never did ask it and have yet to remember what it was. The next day I called the water company to see if they could tell if our consumption was back to normal. It was looking much better, but the suggestion was made that I talk to my next door neighbor to make sure they werent using our outside faucet, and talk to the landlord in case there was a leak in the pipe that comes from the street to the house. I asked again how the bill could be so high and got into such a state of confusion over the way they measure water consumption that I was finally told I had better speak to the manager. Of course when I was transferred I got his voice mail, and left a polite message explaining a bit about my situation and told him I would try to call him back due to my work schedule. In the meantime I did some checking and discovered that the landlord had put the new pump in the toilet four months earlier and there had been an actual reading rather than an estimate the month after. After playing phone tag, I finally connected with the water company manager on the day the bill was due, and I naively figured that with my new information he would see that the mistake had to be on their end. It didnt work, and after several attempts on his part to explain how water is measured in tens of cubic feet and how just the tiniest leak or running toilet can go through thousands of gallons of water, he explained that he could do what he called a leak adjustment. This entailed taking the average bill, subtracting it from the current bill, dividing the difference in half and subtracting that from the current bill. I was hoping it would bring it down to what I was accustomed to paying, but it was still ten to fifteen dollars more. At that point I felt lucky to get any reduction at all and accepted the amount. It then occurred to me that I couldnt make it to the water company in time to pay the corrected bill, and I asked whether I would be charged a penalty. He initially said the penalty was three dollars, but when I balked at that indicating that I had tried to correct the problem in enough time but he had been negligent in returning my calls he waived the penalty and we ended the conversation. I have been checking the meter regularly and will be even more prepared to do battle if a future bill turns out to be on the high side. ------------ About the author: Robin is a fledgling writer with no writing credits to her name. She likes to write about the every day things that happen in her little corner of the world. Email Robin L. Rostonski: calebcat@core.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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