Aquarion Water Company

Review: Aquarion sent a bill for 3x the previous average, refused to check or validate the meter, and charged us an unvalidated fee.

Aquarion sent us a bill for over 3x the previous bill average. When we questioned the charges, they setup appointments to check out meter, and each time the Aquarion representative either cancelled, or failed to show up during the appointment time. While still disputing this Bill, Aquarion shutoff our water without any notice, and charged us $125, and insisted on the full payment of the bill in order to turn the water back on. They still have not checked the meter to determine its accuracy.Desired Settlement: I am seeking a full refund of the bill, a service call to determine if the meter is accurately recording ammounts, and a refund of the $125 fee to turn our water back on.

Business

Response:

Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2013/06/11) */

Contact Name and Title: [redacted], VP

Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted].com

We have reviewed this customers complaint and determined the following: Customer called on 4/4 to inquire about a high bill. At that time, she did not have her schedule in front of her and did NOT schedule an appointment (we verified this because all of our calls are recorded). Customer stated she would call us back. Customer did not call back to schedule an appointment. Her meter was read (not estimated) and customer did not not respond to several payment reminders (we do a 30day, 45 day and 60 day reminder call). Due to the customer not calling, the company followed normal procedures (as prescribed by our regulators) and shut the customer off for non-payment. When water was shut, the customer called and paid and filed complaint with Revdex.com. We have spoken to the customers (Mrs [redacted] who was the person who originally spoke with us) and agreed to provide her with a credit for the water turn on fee as a courtesy (she has been a good paying customer previous to his occurence). I'm afraid that Mrs [redacted] did not communicate the circumstances to her husband correctly, which may have caused him to call in this complaint. Based on the many calls we placed and reminder notices, there were plenty of opportunities for the customer to contact us and settle this issue with us, which we always encourage. We make reasonable payment arrangements and are very willing to set up service appointments to investigate high bills - we do this every day. Again, the customer did not call us back to set up an appointment or we would have done this.

Review: Aquarion installed a new water meter at my home in January 2015. Since the new meter was installed, my water usage and bill's have been cut almost in half. The old water meter was defective and I was overcharged all the years it was in my house. I have complained to Aquarion but they have been unresponsive. I demanded meter test results and a print out of my last 5 years of water usage and billing on 6/3/2015 from Angela of Aquarion but they have not responded and I suspect that they no longer have the old meter.

Business

Response:

Aquarion is required approximately every 12 years to test and replace all meters in customer homes. Mr. [redacted]'s meter was tested and the results indicate that the meter was accurate. When I look at Mr. [redacted]'s bill history, there is seasonal fluctuations during the summer months (where most customers use a higher volume of water). When I look at previous years, similar time periods, the usage is very similar and in many instances much lower than the current bill. See history below. In addition, the most recent invoice includes a credit of $5.74 related to a cost sharing credit provided to all customers.

82.75 11/10/2015

122.28 11/6/2014

108.9 11/7/2013

115.41 11/8/2012

92.78 11/10/2011

77.8 11/15/2010

57.97 11/11/2009

59.16 11/17/2008



We called Mr. [redacted] on 11/18/15 to review his account and provide him with specific information regarding his complaint - he has not returned our calls.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

Review: In October 2013, Aquarion invoiced us for more than 3 times our average usage over the last 4 years. Our Facilities Manager made several attempts to to negotiate a credit but to no avail. In March I sent a formal written request for credit to [redacted],VP of Customer Service. In less than 3 hours I received a response from a [redacted] offering a credit of $465.52, no questions asked. I declined Ms. [redacted]'s offer, told her we were willing to pay in the area of what we normally pay per quarter and asked her to escalate our request for credit to the Finance Department. Subsequently, the complaint was assigned to [redacted], the Director of Business Improvement & Customer Advocate. Mr. [redacted] reached out to our Facilities Manager and confirmed that there were no leaks on our property. In an effort to resolve the issue, Mr. [redacted] offered an additional $400 credit for a total credit of $865.52. While I was not completely satisfied with the amount of credit offered, based on the premise that there was no identifiable cause, I was willing to accept it in an effort to put the matter to rest and requested a credit memo be issued so that we could process it on our end. Rather than issue a credit memo, Aquarion sent me a letter stating they had agreed to provide a one-time leak adjustment in the amount of $865.52 which represents a portion of the water usage lost through the leak at our property. I immediately responded to let them know that this was a deceptive business practice that served no other purpose than to protect Aquarion and transfer responsibility to the customer. I told them that I was vehemently opposed to the content of the letter received and that I planned to forward a formal complaint to the CEO of the company and to the Revdex.com as well. Aquarion's billing practices are suspect and should be closely monitored.Desired Settlement: [redacted] requests that the leak adjustment letter dated 3/14/14 be withdrawn, all references to a leak on our property be removed from the account and a new letter of credit be issued immediately.

Business

Response:

Dear Sirs,

I'm happy to respond to Ms [redacted] complaint and to clarify Aquarion's policies and actions. As part of the service we provide to customers, we sent a "high bill notice" to this business alerting them to the fact that their bill was significantly higher than normal. This is a normal proactive process that we follow. This notice was followed up by an actual bill. As a result, we received an inquiry from [redacted], the property manager to investigate the premises for a leak and to test the meter for accuracy. The meter test results determined that the meter was reading the water usage accurately and no leak was found on the service line at that time. What this means is that water ran through the meter and registered as used. As such, the bill was deemed accurate. Ms. [redacted] and Mr. [redacted] claimed that they had not used the water, but our investigation did not prove otherwise. However, as a courtesy to our customer, we followed the same procedure that we would have followed if a customer had a leak. This was a benefit to Ms. [redacted] who again could not prove there had been a leak and that they had not used the water. This resulted in an adjustment of $465.52. When Ms. [redacted] was not satisfied, she called the Company again and after further review, our Business Improvement Director provided a further credit of $400. We believe these actions went above and beyond what we would normally provide to customers for water usage.

We take objection to the fact that Ms. [redacted] deems this to be suspect billing practices. In fact, our meter results indicate that water was used and therefore payment in full would have been required. We have no way of knowing where the water was used other than to take her word for it. The letter we sent to Ms. [redacted] claims that we provided her with a credit under our leak adjustment policy (which was true) and also an additional credit of $400. I am not sure what Ms. [redacted] is objecting to, but we feel that we handled this situation appropriately and that she received credits to her account that went above and beyond what we normally provide to customers.

Best regards,

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting Aquarion's response for the following reasons:

We never received a “high bill notice” despite Ms. [redacted]’s claim to the contrary and, if we had, it would not have changed the manner in which this matter was handled.

My water is clean, I should be satisfied.
But, when these is came out to fix a broken street valve, I paid the bill (even though they didn't fix the valve). Then, they threatened to shut off my water because I hadn't paid - but I had. Turns out, they add a new account number for you when you ask them to do anything other than deliver water. I paid them the money but to the wrong account #, so they took my money and called collections. [redacted]
Now, after calling in and asking them to move my money from their left pocket to the right, and them agreeing that my bill was in fact paid in full, they send the collection agency to calling - 3 months later. [redacted].
I returned their call 20 minutes after they called to harass me, and, wait for it, Nope, they don't work after 5:30. Pathetic excuse for a government regulated entity.