American Utility Management

1) Fee explanation non-existentWhat are "Sewer" and "Fixed Sewer 1" representing? When I use 1,gallons of sewer at $($1.57) why is "Fixed Sewer 1" at $7.08? 2) Fee explanation non-existentWhat are "Water" and "Fixed Water 1" representing? When I use 1,gallons of water at $($2.73) and "Fixed Water 1" $4.41? 3) Why is a water and sewer utility including "Ambulance Utility Fee" and how can that possibly be $5.41/month when fees are through cellular and telecoms and I've never seen an ambulance here? 4) Why is there an $"one time activation fee" for seconds of data entry work to create an account for me? 5) Why was a statement generated on 01/31/delayed to have a bill generated on 02/03/and delayed again to be post-marked 02/05/(and received 02/09/2015)? There is a nine day turnaround time between bill generation and bill receipt; this is entirely unacceptable 6) Why is there no option to pay via telephone? 7) The company delays the bill to the customer by days but expects that the bill shall be processed by the company within days, or impose a $late fee(NOTE: This does NOT mean post-marked by the day mark, NOR does this mean received by the day mark; this actually means mailed, received, AND processed, by the day mark, and there is reportedly a 2-day delay between receipt and processing.) How is this reasonable? A customer has to mail the check to the company on the day of receipt of the bill in order to pay on timeFurthermore, the bill is sent to a "secure lock box" and then processed at a later time, with no accountability between postmaster delivery to the lockbox and processing at the facilityAlso NOTE: Paying early by checking the bill online is not possible, as the company REQUIRES the bill stub to be attached to the bill 8) Why does it take two months to set up an automatic deposit, and why is the only automatic deposit available a direct (and automatic) funds transfer from a checking account to the company(There's NO way to dispute or question a bill that is incorrect beforehand with this optionThis company does not at all inspire any trust or confidence in fairness, accuracy, or transparency, so I would NEVER trust the company with an automatic funds transfer 9) If a customer wishes their bill to be processed swiftly, the only way to do this is to pay by credit cardWhy is there an outrageous $convenience fee to pay via credit card? 10) How can it be that my $water bill + $sewer bill ($total) becomes $through third-party bloat fees, with a distinct risk of a $late fee or a $convenience fee to guarantee timely pay? 11) Why is a corporation run in Oak Brook, IL receiving payments in Carol Stream, IL for a residence 1,miles west of Oak Brook? This company lacks in transparency and is deliberately making it nearly impossible to pay the bill by mail at a lower costIn the year 2015, I have never done business with any utility company or service provider that makes billing so difficult, makes timely payment a near impossibility, and gouges so heavily with administrative fees, builate fees, and exorbitant convenience fees This company rates out of for being a barely legal rip-off artist and I will lobby my property manager to terminate their contract or break my lease to avoid this company

AUM is the absolute worst company I've ever had the misfortune of dealing withEvery person I ever talked to has been nothing but rudeMultiple times they "lost" the check I sent them, or the bill they supposedly sent me never showed up, resulting in me have to pay a $feeAny time I talked to the company about these problems I was told I could go online and pay via credit card, where I would have to pay a $"convenience" feeIt's completely absurdOne thing about AUM, they will get that $money from you one way or anotherThe A+ Revdex.com rating is just another part of the sham that is this businessI will never rent from another place that does business with these people again, and I make sure to tell everyone I know to do the same

AUM charges a $fee to pay your bill onlineMy most recent bill was $38, making this a 20% surcharge! This is illegal in states and completely indefensibleThere is no reason that processing an online payment instead of a paper one would cost AUM more than 4% of the billed amountIt's shameful that this business has an A+ accreditation

American Utility Management (AUM) received the complaint and we would like to take this opportunity to respond and provide details to help resolve this matter serif;">AUM is hired by the apartment complex and/or their management company to bill residents for their share of the property utility expenses such as water, sewer and trash The monthly statement simply reflects the resident’s portion of the overall bill for the property Reviewing the account information, our records indicate that the electric service was not placed in the name of the tenant as required by the lease The result is that the property remained the customer of record and was obligated to pay the electric bill each month In addition to the lease agreement, each monthly AUM statement that contains these types of charges also instructs the resident the place the utility service in their nameAs our Customer Service Representative explained on the phone as well as via email, if the service was properly placed in the residents name during the time period after move-in, she can forward copies of those paid utility bills for review They will be reviewed and the account adjusted accordingly Unfortunately, we are unable to make any adjustments until such timeIt appears that the electric account is now in the residents name as the property is no longer receiving electric bills for this apartmentAs always our AUM’s Customer Service Representatives are available to answer question about the billing and the residents account They can be reached by calling [redacted] , 8:00a.mto 7:00p.m(CST) Monday through Friday

When my roommates & I first moved into our new apartment in Rock Hill, SC on a Friday afternoon we were unable to have the utilities turned on in our names since we were moving in during a time crunch and we all work long hours at out respective jobs our landlord told us it would be no problem to keep the power on & made no mention of any additional charges we may or may no incurWe were shocked when we received a bill from a company called AUM (which has local affiliation) who charged us almost $for a Saturday & Sunday for power & including a $"connection fee" & a $"termination fee"We found this to be outrageous especially because the power was already turned on from the last tenant We had the utilities turned over into our names the following week through our city's utility department, as is customary in our county, & were very surprised to find out that our property management company was still expecting us to pay our utilities through AUM for each & every month we lived in our apartmentWhy on earth are we being made to pay not only our city for the services THEY are providing but also AUM which is hundreds of miles away & has nothing to do with our power, water, sewer & trash pick up? I find that both AUM & the property mangers are working together, not to provide a service to the public, but only to make money for themselvesWhen we brought up these questions & concerns with our landlord we were never given a plausible reasoning for why we were begin forced to pay double utilities which is disgustingly egregious & when we stopped paying the AUM charges we were proptly evicted from the apartment I cannot say that everyone out there will have this experience but I would warn against signing a lease with any property management company that uses AUM

For some reason, AUM makes it extremely difficult for their customers to pay utility billsThe hefty fees associated with making payments online or by phone make those options not viableSo you are left with either mailing in a check every single week (in !!!!!) or signing up for automatic withdrawal which takes an abysmal to days to set up and another 45-days to cancel whenever you decide toHow can any company be competitive with these kinds of policies?? It baffles me I signed up for the automatic withdrawal and somehow, something went wrong, there was a mixup with my account information and payments did not go throughThey charged me dollars in returned feesWhich does not even make sense because by their own admission, when one payment does not go through, they suspend the automatic withdrawalsYet they couldn't explain to me why I got charged twice When I called them to try to figure out what went wrong, not only did I get terrible and rude customer service but they essentially told me that they would carry out an investigation which would take an undisclosed amount of time to be carried outYet regardless of the results of their so called investigation I still had to pay the dollars and I was threatened with more fines and late payment fees if I did not They are inefficient, inflexible and have some of the worst customer service I have ever experiencedi am very disappointed and I hope i'll never had to deal with this company againIt is a shame that my apartment building essentially forces its residents to sign up through AUM, but if I ever have a choice I'll definitely NOT use AUM and if you want to save yourself the headache and inconvenience, so should you

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2014/07/11) */ July 11, American Utility Management (AUM) received the complaint submitted by [redacted] We would like to take this opportunity to respond and provide details to help in your investigation AUM is a third party billing providerWe are contracted with owners, landlords, and management companies throughout the United States to assist them with utility conservationPart of this assistance includes billing their residents for utilities on a monthly basis While AUM and the property have verified the mailing address, occasionally statements may take longer than to reach [redacted] when traveling by the U.SPostal ServiceWe have no control over this third party; however we do offer other options in order to receive statements and or make payments in a more timely and efficient mannerThose options include e-statements, direct debit or contacting our Customer Service DepartmentIt appears that [redacted] has signed up and is now receiving his statements electronically While AUM is unable to waive the online convenience fee, we are looking into waiving the late feeIf [redacted] has any additional questions our Customer Service Department can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX, 8:00a.mto 5:00p.mMonday through Friday Sincerely, [redacted] Paralegal