$700

[postage stamp]

That's how much my water/electric bill was when I opened it.

I about fell out of my chair!

The water usage showed at 25 times the normal level.

SO I called the water company of course and they said "It was an estimated read because the reader couldn't find your meter, can you go outside and verify that it isn't moving?"

So I went outside, and nope, not moving so it isn't a leak. They are sending someone else out tomorrow or Thursday to re-read the meter.

To go from a $50 water bill to a $575 water bill? That was one HECK of an estimate!

 

[S. C.]

 

[Rellagirl]

Eek! You'd think an estimate would be based on an average. Guess they wanted to get your attention!

 

[phillmolly]

I had the same thing happen to me, found out that they had been estimating my water bill for almost a year! I ended up not having to pay my water or eletric bill for two months! (my water and electricty are both provided by the city I live in and they combine the bills)

 

[postage stamp]

Yeah, I was panicked. I mean it's me, my aunt, my 2 kids right now. For this billing cycle my husband and the boy who rents our basement have been gone.

SO that's 2 less people showering, less laundry being done, and I run the dish washer every other day instead of every day.

The four of us would have to be bathing non-stop with the washer and dishwasher going for that high of a bill!

 

[plummer925]

Yeah, I was panicked. I mean it's me, my aunt, my 2 kids right now. For this billing cycle my husband and the boy who rents our basement have been gone.

SO that's 2 less people showering, less laundry being done, and I run the dish washer every other day instead of every day.

The four of us would have to be bathing non-stop with the washer and dishwasher going for that high of a bill!

Or you could have filled 2 pools! LOL. My best friend needed her pool filled - was going to cost close to $1000 to do so. After some estimating they realized it would be much less to hook up their hose and do it themselves - it took 4 days of constant water and cost them less than $400 in water bill - QUITE a savings, but that was a LOT of water for $400...I can't IMAGINE a high water bill...well, I live in the country and have a well, so I can't imagine paying for water in the first place, but that's not the point!

 

[postage stamp]

I was talking to a friend of mine who has a pool.

Her water bill is normally about the same as mine. The month she fills her pool it goes from $20 to $100. Understandable and expected.


I could have filled 5 of her pools from this bill! CRAZINESS!

 

[cheerforchelsea]

If their new bill isn't a more normal bill then file a complaint with your state Public Service Commission. The PSC regulates most utilities and no utility company wants a consumer complaint filed with the PSC. The PSC will demand that the complaint be resolved by the utility. (I worked for major telecommunications company for 35 years)

 

[mckinley]

Our water bill is always $45-$120 it changes by the month we are yet to discover how to decide what we pay. Now for our electric bill i never really thought much about it Boy was i wrong i caught the meter reader using binoculars one day to read our meter from his car. So i called to complain and the next month we got a bill that was $60 less than we had been getting.

 

[Piecey]

The last electric bill I got was estimated, too.

It was for $3.12

Sometimes utility companies are just beyond stupid.

 

[kim929]

Boy was i wrong i caught the meter reader using binoculars one day to read our meter from his car. So i called to complain and the next month we got a bill that was $60 less than we had


Can you be sure thats all he was using them for?
We don't have typical meter readers anymore, now they just drive up and down the streets and the info is tramsmitted to the van

 

[mamalle]

defintely keep on them.. I complained for a few months about how high ours went and found out our neighbors did also.. finally they figured it out- they switched out our meters and didnt set it to the previous count..

anyhow, we had a credit for awhile.. I didnt get anywhere with customer service and went over their head to finally get it figured out.. we get a estimate every other month and the other month is a actual reading.. Ours normally runs $30-$50 depending on the month..

 

[oldbay]

A similar thing happened to my in-laws. They had the county come out, no leaks. Turned out when the readings were entered in two #'s had been switched leading to the bill problem, like 19 to 91. You may want to go in-person to your water office to find out what happened. Phone calls and having someone come out did nothing.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I had a problem a few months ago. But the water company called me when I had an unusual meter reading.

I did some checking and found there was a stuck valve in the water softener, so the rinse cycle was on all the time and water was passing through and going to the dry sump outside. I put the water softener on bypass and had it repaired the next day. When the bill actually came I took it, with the copy of the repair order, to the water company's service center. They removed all the excess sewage charges and some of the excess water charge.

But the nice thing was the phone call the day the meter was read.

 

[CobraBubbles]

I had a really big problem with our electric/gas bill. First of all the bill always comes around the 15th of the month but has about a month to pay it. So, it comes a month early. Our dryer broke and our bill never came and never came, and I kept checking it online and it said our balance was $0. I thought maybe we didn't owe because the dryer broke and they'd been estimating the bill, or something.

Finally at the end of the month I received the bill and it was twice what it normally was. I was expecting it lower because it was out of the cold months and the dryer was broken. Then a week later they hit us with another bill for the next month (because they put off giving us the first bill for so long) and in total it was over $700.

I was so furious. I found out that they had estimated we would use $0.00 the month before and slammed us with a double bill...then slammed us with next months bill. I really hate power companies!