Conservice Utility Management & Billing

Good afternoon,We bill residents using the same rates Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission uses to bill the propertyThe rate stayed the same from the billing period of 2/1/2015-3/1/to 3/1/2015-4/1/2015, so the only factor that changed the amount you were billed was your consumptionI apologize for any confusion, but the increase in the amount you were billed for service from 3/1/2015-4/1/was not caused by an adjustment for the previous billing periodIt was caused by an increase in measured consumption on your water meterSince your meter was replaced, we had an actual meter read for 3/1/2015, but we still had to estimate your consumption to the property average because we did not have an actual meter read for 2/1/2015, so your meter was adjusted to the property average based on the number of occupants in your unit for the billing period of 2/1/2015-3/1/For the billing period of 3/1/2015-4/1/2015, we had actual beginning and ending reads from your meter so we billed you based on the consumption your meter reportedYour meter was not adjusted at all for the billing period of 3/1/2015-4/1/I assure you we are not double billing residents, but that you were being billed for the actual consumption your meter showed.The national average monthly consumption is 3,gallons per occupantSince you have two occupants at your apartment, your consumption of 4,gallons was well within the national averageIf you feel that your meter is not reporting the correct consumption, you can do a bucket test to see if it is workingTo perform a bucket test, turn off all faucets in your apartment and check the read on the meter, then fill a gallon bucket at one of the meters and check the read on the meter againYour meter reads in gallon increments, so it should advance one unit when you fill a gallon bucketYou can also ask maintenance at your community to come to your apartment to check for leaksA leaking toilet can use up to gallons of water a day and a leaky faucet that drips at a rate of one drop per second can waste up to 2,gallons a yearI have attached a document with several different water conservation tips for your review.It is very common for sewer consumption to not be directly metered since it would be very costly and disgusting to install meters on all sewer lines, so a lot of utility providers bill a sewer rate based on the amount of water used at the metersIf you were able to be billed by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, they would also bill you for sewer based on your water consumption.I spoke with [redacted] at the leasing office on 5/13/and stated that she will be issuing credits for water and sewer to bring your charges from last month down to the property average based on the number of occupants in your unitYou will need to speak with her to get the exact amounts of the creditsShe is also issuing credits to other residents who feel that the amounts they were billed are incorrect.Thank you,Conservice

Dear [redacted], We received your complaint regarding your recent experience with Conservice and would like to address your concerns. First, regarding the payment on your account, no late fee has been applied for the returned payment, as you paid the balance in full with your credit card....

The $3 charged to you when making a one-time payment is not a fee from your bank rather; it is a pass-through of the charge from our bank. Conservice is charged $3 through our bank per electronic transaction. The $3 fee was disclosed before taking the one-time payment. That fee, charged by our bank, is passed back through to a resident to cover the cost of the transaction. We apologize for any confusion that made you believe the fee was charged from Citibank.  Next, at the time you enrolled for automatic payments, we disclosed that the payments must be canceled no later than three business days before the next due date. This policy is in place because payment requests are sent to paying bank before the 1st of each month so that payment is received on the 1st. This is to prevent payment on the utility accounts from showing as delinquent. With regards to your situation, the request to cancel that autopay was made after the request was sent to your bank. The full payment made by you via credit card was done after the payment request had already been sent to Citibank with your old account information. Where the information on the auto-pay transaction was for your old account, our bank assessed a $25 returned check fee. This fee was also disclosed when you enrolled in auto-pay. Unfortunately, Conservice is unable to reverse either of the fees as they are not charged by us, rather they are charged by our bank. We understand your frustration in this matter. Please rest assuredthat we have discussed your situation with the management team over Sunnyvale Town Center. They are aware that you paid your utilities in full, and that the only amount showing past due on your account is the $25 NSF fee. However, where the $25 fee is not charged by Conservice, rather it is charged by the bank, we are unable to remove the fee. Thank you,Conservice

[redacted],
Thank you for reaching out to us. I
am sorry for the inconvenience and frustration you have experienced. Conservice
is contracted with your property to recover funds they are paying to the
providers. Providers are using a master property meter in order to calculate
the bills they...

send. Using your individual meters we are able to properly bill
each resident based on their individual consumption. That amount is multiplied
by a utility rate and those charges are passed on to each resident to ensure
that both the property and the residents are paying their fair share of the
provider billed charges.
                The
meter installation was contracted with the property through an outside meter company
called Studebaker; during one of our meter audits for the property we
discovered a meter install error where Studebaker had entered the count factor
incorrectly. The provider was billing based on your actual consumption, but Conservice
was unable to bill based on your actual consumption as the meter’s count factor
was incorrect. A resident using 5,000 was only registering as having used 500.
We reached out to the Studebaker to have this corrected when the error was
found.
                The benefit for a metered
apartment home is that if the meter is working/installed correctly you will
never be charged for consumption you don’t use. This also helps us maximize the
amount we are able to recover from the residents so that Modera Tempo isn’t
stuck paying for the water residents are using. Your meter has been reading
correctly the entire time but due to the count factor being incorrect you
weren’t being billed for all the water you had used.
                We are
often auditing our billing to ensure we are billing residents accurately and
fairly. From time to time we will come across an error. It is customary in
billing to correct those errors to ensure that we are billing fair and
accurately for both residents and properties alike. Our customer service
department is available to answer questions, but doesn’t have the ability to
reverse charges sent because these charges are approved by your property each
month and changes made to these charges have to be thoroughly reviewed as well
as approved by your property.
                In
speaking with the management at your property, we have determined that the
back-billing amount is both fair and accurate and can assure you that you are
only being charged only for water you have used. Because Modera Tempo collects
the payments each month, they are willing to discuss payment options with any
resident who needs time to pay back the charges. Please feel free to visit your
leasing office or give them a call to discuss payment options to ensure you
have the time you need to pay the amount you would have previously been billed
over the course of 6 months.
Thank you,Conservice

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Thank you for responding to my grievance, however I've decided against accepting the explanation given for the following reasons:
- ConService mentioned that they've contracted/subcontracted a company by the name of "Advanced Metering Solutions" yet they reference "ConService" as being listed on my lease. I've never once been told about there subcontractor, which further complicates this matter. They are correct in that the lease has them listed as a "3rd party billing company" under "electric" but fails to mention the company "Advanced Meter Solutions" or there role.
- I appreciate now being informed as to the location of my electric meter, however they failed to mention that the the meters are locked and only accessible by staff...not resident's such as myself.
- Another misunderstanding on their part is the statement referencing my "girlfriend" and the fact that she should be added to my lease, insinuating she's to blame for my astronomical electric bill and that is absurd!! My female friend and I own a small business together therefore she does frequent my residence, as I frequent her home which is less then 500ft from the apartment community, she receives no mail at my unit, she too has a hectic schedule and works two jobs, so unless I'm forbidden to have guest's that statement is irrelevant and inappropriate!!! Furthermore, I believe in conservation and maintain the thermostat on average at 62degrees so if anything is to blame for the erroneous electric bills, it would more likely be the fact that the windows/air conditioning in the unit weren't weatherproofed prior to my moving in.
- Lastly, they mentioned the electric bills being "capped" but it's not clearly or definitively outlined, at least to my understanding.
Thank you in advance for any efforts to remedy this situation, I merely desire consistency, transparency and a decision that's fair to all parties involved.

Dear Mr. N[redacted]
In reviewing your account your first late fee was applied on
February 5, 2015. Bills are normally due on the 1st of the month and
we allow for a 3 day grace period at which point late fees are applied. Your
payment was received on February 5th after the late fees had...

been
applied. Due to this we mailed out a late notice, and a second late notice.
Your next bill also reflected the $10 late fee due March 1st.
Your payment for bills due March 1st did not include the $10
late fee. Where the balance had not been paid in full there was another late
fee charged on March 5th. You called to dispute the late fee on March 12th.
At this point you had two late fees and one was removed as a courtesy.
The next time we were contacted by you was May 13th,
In which you had received three more bills, three more late notices and three
more second late notices via mail. Another late fee was removed from your
account which is not typical. We usually will only remove one late fee per
customer. That would have left you responsible for three of the five accrued
late fees.
With the permission of Chateau Manor, we have removed the
remaining late fees.
Thank you for mailing your payments earlier after the
February late fee. We would encourage you to continue to do so in order to
avoid any further late fees. We will not be able to remove any future late fees
from your account.
Thank youConservice

Dear Mr. [redacted], Conservice is not the actual utility customer with LADWP.  As such we are not able to furnish copies of the bills to you. We have been instructed by Essex Property Trust, the management company for Catalina Gardens, for you contact the Property Manager at Catalina Gardens to review these documents or you can reach out to the Essex Collections department and speak directly with Kristy G[redacted] at 818-227-2167 to further discuss the amounts from LADWP. Thank you,Conservice

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I was gone 2 weeks in December yet I received my highest bill. Over $27. After my landlord called Conservice, they lowered my bill by $10 making it over $17. This would mean I am being charged over $17 for two weeks of service or $35 per month for a tiny studio apartment where I live alone. My landlord told me before move in that residents pay $10-15 a month for water. Later, since my situation has become problematic she has said $15-20. Regardless, $35 a month for water (more than my electricity!) is outrageous. I also have not been refunded for the other months that I have been overcharged. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear Mr. [redacted],The water and sewer charges for resident's at Marquis at Otay Ranch are billed to resident's based on their individual consumption recorded from the meter in their unit. However, there are instances when we are unable to receive an accurate meter read and the usage is estimated...

using either the average consumption for the property that month or the historical average for the unit. On 7/30/2016 we were unable to receive a read from your meter and your usage for that month was estimated based on the average usage at the property because we did not have usage history for your unit. We continued to use a property average to estimate your monthly usage from 7/30/2015 - 2/29/2016 due to not receiving a read value from your meter.On 3/28/2016 we were able to receive a read value of 662.90 from your meter. The actual read of your meter was less than what we had previously estimated for your unit, your estimated read was 680.70. As a result we allowed your meter to catch up to the estimated read and you were not billed for water usage from 3/28/2016 - 7/2/2016. On 7/28/2016 the read value for your meter surpassed the estimated read and you were billed for the difference of 3.53 CCFs. On 8/28/2016 we were again unable to receive a read from your meter and your meter usage was estimated using the property average. We recognize that we did have good usage history for your unit from 3/28/2016 - 7/28/2016 which would have allowed us to estimate using a unit average of 5 CCFs. We apologize for the over-estimation that you were billed and we have issued a credit of $31.54 to your account for the over-billing.In cooperation with your community, we have submitted a service request for a technician to come inspect the meter. Going forward we will ensure that you are billed based on your unit average until we are able to receive an accurate read.  Thank you!

[redacted],In an act of good faith, we have credited your account for 2 additional late fees.  Your current balance is -$[redacted].  Your next bill will be due 1/1/2016.Please keep in mind that Conservice's business practices fall within all regulations and guidelines.  We provide multiple solutions to customers in order to avoid late fees.  We hope that you will find this resolution satisfactory.  If you should have further concerns please let us know.Thank you,Conservice

Thank you for your feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced regarding your utility bill. Unfortunately, since we had to “catch up” for the months that had not been paid yet in order to get you current, you were billed for more than one month of past prior actual usage. Additionally, it is Progress Residential’s ®  policy to bill for all final utilities once Notice to Vacate has been received. We understand that receiving both bills at once can be upsetting, and they would be happy to work with you on a payment plan for the increased billing charges. Thank you!Thank you for your feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced regarding your utility bill. Unfortunately, since we had to “catch up” for the months that had not been paid yet in order to get you current, you were billed for more than one month of past prior actual usage. Additionally, it is Progress Residential’s ®  policy to bill for all final utilities once Notice to Vacate has been received. We understand that receiving both bills at once can be upsetting, and we would be happy to work with you on a payment plan for the increased billing charges.

HelloFor your property, Tarmigan, we are billing out the water and sewer charges we receive from the City Fife WA, based off of your unit’s consumption. For water, the base fee of $30.92 covers the consumption up to 2,244 gallons. If your consumption exceed this amount, you receive the rate of $4.69...

per 1,000 gallons for the remaining consumption. For sewer the base fee of $69.06 covers all of the sewer consumption for your unit and is a flat fee that every unit at the property receives. The bases and rates you are being billed are based off of the rates being charged to your community from on the City of Fife. Trash is being billed as a flat fee to each unit of $10.00. All the methods we are using to bill are in accordance to your lease and your local Utility Billing laws. Thank you,Conservice

Dear Mr. [redacted],   We apologize for any frustration or inconvenience that this issue has caused, and assure you that we are working to get it resolved as quickly as possible. In order to maintain our standards for accuracy, we are constantly checking every aspect of our billing process. In...

doing so, we found that your meter was previously set to read in gallon units, rather than 10 gallon units. However, the meter installation notes for your property state that all meters at the property should be reading in 10 gallon units, so your meter was updated to match the rest of the property.   When you called in to notify us of your increased usage, we began to look into it further. We had your property send us a picture of the meter to verify the unit of measure, but unfortunately due to the way the meter is facing, we are unable to verify from the picture. As this solution was unsuccessful, we are now sending a technician out to the property to verify the unit of measure for us manually.   We are trying to get in contact with your property to set a date for the visit, and our hopes are to schedule the visit for no later than July 11th. Once we are able to visit the property and verify the unit of measure for your meter, we will resolve the situation accordingly. Any necessary corrections to your past billing will be made.   In the meantime, we have credited back the overbilling to your account. Please feel free to contact our customer service department with any further questions or updates at ###-###-####.    Sincerely, Conservice Utility Management & Billing

Hello [redacted],  We have received your complaint through Revdex.com and wanted to respond to help explain the charges. You moved into [redacted] at Ascent on 5/19/2017. When you signed the lease you agreed to transfer Electric services into your name through the...

provider PG&E by the date your lease began. It is outlined in the lease that was signed that if you failed to do this, the charges received by the property for your unit would be passed onto you along with a $50 service fee.  Ascent has received charges from PG&E for your unit from 5/19/2017-7/27/2017. When you contact PG&E and set up services in your name you will start to receive the bill instead of Ascent. This means that you will be paying the provider directly and will no longer receive vacant charges from Conservice. If you have already set up a PG&E account for the electric service then please send Conservice a copy of your statement with the service dates you wish to dispute and we can review them to possibly reverse the charges and credit the amount back to you. Please provider statements to [email protected].  At this time with the available information, we are not able to credit back the amount you were charged. If you have further questions about this or how to send you PG&E statements in, please call us at 1-866-947-7379. Thank you,Conservice

Hello [redacted],Upon further evaluation, I noticed that you did have charges on your bills for Vacant Charges that were not appearing in our system. We have corrected the error and credited those back to you as well. Including those, the total charges are;6/8/2015-7/2/2015 - $73.91 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.7/2/2015-8/3/2015 - $99.55 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.8/3/2015-9/1/2015 - $130.26 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.9/1/2015-10/1/2015 - $153.35 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.10/1/2015-11/2/2015 - $122.77 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.10/1/2015-11/2/2015 - ($29) California Credit.11/2/2015-12/3/2015 - $65.89 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.12/3/2016-1/4/2016 - $58 Vacant Electric and $25 Vacant Service Fee.As stated previously, because the set up was incorrect, we cannot credit back the Vacant Service Fee. With those amounts excluded, the total Conservice is able to credit you back is ($674.73). The total amount due on 2/1/2017 - $62.92 - was deducted from that. The remaining credit is ($611.81). A check can be sent out to you for that amount. Please confirm what address you would like that check sent to. For further clarification, the amount of $89.45 was prorated by Conservice according to your move in date, meaning we only charged you $73.91 for the service period of 6/8/2015-7/2/2015. I do apologize for the confusion and frustration. If you would like to dispute the Vacant Service Fees, have any questions, and to verify the address the check is to be sent to, please call our Customer Service line at 1-866-947-7379. Thank you,Conservice

Dear Mr. [redacted],Upon review of your account we agree that recently the bills have unintentionally been mailed later than our expectation, and that the due date has not been modified to reflect this. Under normal circumstances the bills would be mailed at least 14 days before the due date and that...

standard has been met consistently in the past. As a gesture of good faith we have credited back your most recent late fee of $7.50. Additionally we will not apply a late fee to your account for the bills due March 1, 2017 to give you sufficient time to submit payment. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and will be sure to monitor this situation in the future.Thank you,Conservice

[redacted], The meter system at your property, Steele Creek South, had been having an issue with the transmitters. This issue has been corrected. While the meters themselves were recording consumption, some of the transmitters on the property that broadcast the meter reads to the leasing...

office were malfunctioning. As a consequence, Conservice was unable to receive reads for your unit from late June 2016 through early January 2017. The final read from your meter based on actual consumption was 104593 on May 25, 2016.When Conservice is unable to get reads from a meter an applicable average is used to determine expense. In your case a property average based on average consumption at the property was used. The amount varied over the six months Conservice was unable to get reads; from a low of 2810 gallons (in July 2016) to a high of 3315 gallons (in August 2016). Your estimated meter read on December 25, at the end of the cycle used for the bill due February 1, 2017, was 125465. In early January Conservice was able to access your meter read again. On January 25, 2017, the end of the cycle for bills due March 1, 2017, your actual read based on real consumption was 150196, a difference of 24,731 gallons from the estimated read.During the period when your meter was not checking in Conservice had estimated that you used a total of 17,986 gallons. In actuality, your consumption was 45,603 gallons. Conservice had been under estimating your consumption. In situations where a resident has been under billed for actual consumption, a "true up" of expense occurs, where the resident is billed the difference between the estimation and the actual usage. On the bill due March 1, you were charged consumption for that difference; 24,731 gallons. Shortly before Conservice received a notification from the Revdex.com of your concerns, the leasing office at Steele Creek South contacted Conservice and inquired as to possible options to assist you because of the large increase in your bill. After consultation with Fogelman Management your bill due March 1 was reduced by two thirds. Your bills due April 1 and May 1 will have charges based on actual usage during the applicable period (in the case of the bill due April 1, a consumption charge of 1112 gallons) along with one third of the expense from charges sent out on the bill due March 1. One third of the charges equal $49.71 for sewer and $18.71 for water. It was determined that splitting up the cost from this large bill over several months would make it easier for you to pay. Thank you,Conservice

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. However, I reviewed all my prior bills and would like it to be noted that although the $25 fee was removed in 2014, there were three other 'late' charges through the past 8 years with Conservice.  Additionally, while trying to avoid late charges, I have had to use the phone payment service four times, which incurred a fee for use of a credit card.  I have kept all my billing statements and have noted the trend of a shorter time allotment in which to pay a bill.  Hopefully this has now been corrected.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

[redacted],The residents are responsible to pay for their individual electric usage. The meters are read each
month by the company, Advanced Metering Solutions, who is contracted by Conservice to
read the meters. The meters are typically read anywhere between the 5th and 11th of each
month....

The meters are located in an electric closet on each floor of the property. Residents are
billed the exact usage that is registered from the meter and billed PECO Residential rates. The
meter only registers usage for your individual home. Resource Residential covers the cost of the
billing and a service fee is not passed through to the residents for the billing service. There are no
additional charges billed to the residents to cover this cost. Karen, the property manager, informed us that Conservice is listed as the billing company for the
electric charges; this is listed on the utility addendum. Also, Karen did state she would have the
residents thermostat replaced. Karen confirmed that although this resident is the only one listed
on the lease, they have repeatedly told him he needs to add his girlfriend to the lease as she is
there almost every day even when he is not. Vista Apartments is billed the entire property electric bill by PECO Energy and they pay this bill to
PECO Energy; this is the reason the electric bill is due back to the community from the residents.
Vista is aware that the electric bills are higher than they would like to bill to the residents and for
this reason (in the winter months), they usually choose to cap all electric bills at a certain dollar
amount. This year, they had us put this in place as of the bills due 2/1/16 and have the cap set at
$200.00. This is for the electric usage portion of the bill only. The resident’s bill due 3/1/16 was
capped at $200.00 for electric. The prior month the resident did not reach the cap amount with
a charge of only $[redacted] for electric. The bill before that they were charged $[redacted] and this was
before the property started capping the bills. The first bill was $[redacted] and this was a partial billing
from 10/26/15-11/5/15, which is the reason that bill was much lower. The resident signed up for our paperless billing so their bill is e-mailed to the e-mail address they
provided to us and they are not receiving a paper bill in the mail. The resident may call our
customer service at ###-###-#### if they would like to update the e-mail address we have on
file or if they would like to switch back to a paper bill and have it mailed each month. They may
also contact us with any other questions they may have and we will be happy to help. Thank you,  Conservice

Mr. [redacted],We are sorry this issue has been an inconvenience to you. The charges on your original final bill for water and sewer were incorrect. When our system automatically determined your final charges and sent out your bill, it did not prorate the charges. As you noticed the automated charges only...

prorated the trash and not the water and sewer amounts. The charges should only account for the days that the unit was under your name, which was until the 22nd of October. This was not the case in your first bill. The charges have been fixed and attached is your final bill with the prorated charges. This bill has also been sent to the property to make them aware of the mistake, so they know what is due. Meter reads are only read once a month at the end of the current cycle. Because you moved out during the middle of a billing cycle, your charges are based on your prior month's charges prorated to the number of days you are in the Apartment Home before your move out date. Your new Water amount is $4.77 and sewer is $7.73. Thank you,Conservice