Conservice Utility Management & Billing

[redacted],Thank you for reaching out to us regarding the concern about your water usage.  I have attached a report that shows your apartment's daily usage for your reference.  I see that you have spoken to many individuals here at Conservice.  I am sorry that they were...

not able to satisfactorily handle your concerns.  As you can see from the meter consumption file we have provided your meter registered usage on 10/24 & 10/25 which, I believe, are the days you are disputing.  We can reach out to your community manager to discuss this issue further and provider additional information.  At this time we aren't able to make an adjustment but, will provider additional information that we receive from your community manager.Thank you!Conservice

Hello, I am reaching out to you in response to the complaint made in reference to discrepancies between your Conservice statements and your ledger found at utilitiesinfo.com.  I understand that these discrepancies can be frustrating, confusing, and can cause headaches, especially when you don’t...

feel that you are getting a consistent answer or adequate information from our customer service representatives.  As it is my responsibility to prepare your monthly statements, manage your account, and have experience working with a number of properties in the state of Oregon I should be able to help clarify the discrepancies that you have referenced. I want to point out that the state of Oregon has strict regulations that we adhere to as we prepare your Conservice statements each month.  Quoting the regulations:  “Residents must be given 30 days from receipt of the monthly billing statement -- NO late fees until after 30 days.”  Because we are required to give residents 30 days to pay their utility charges we often have to mail your next bill to you before the due date of your current bill.   Based on when we mail your next bill and when you’ve made your payment on your current bill, the balances between your statements and your online ledger may not reflect the same amount.  Charges are not posted to the ledger until about 48 hours after the bills have been prepared and mailed to residents and this can also affect the balance discrepancies between your statements and your ledger.  If you make payments on your next bill before due date of your current bill or before the ledger has an opportunity to be updated than we will often see these discrepancies.  We do not simply add charges to a residents account, any items that you are responsible for are listed on each of your monthly statements. Looking at your current bill, due 6/5/2017 the balance due matches exactly what is being reported on your account online.  Currently, the balance due on your statements accurately reflects current amount owed.  Thank you for taking the time to contact us.  It is our aim to adequately explain any situation that a resident finds themselves in regarding utility billing and to be able to resolve any issues or confusion that may arise.  If further explanation is needed, please contact Conservice and we can discuss this further.  Also, if you’d prefer, you can email Conservice with your concern at [email protected] and include your Conservice account number.Thank you,Conservice

Good afternoon,We bill residents using the same rates Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission uses to bill the property. The rate stayed the same from the billing period of 2/1/2015-3/1/2015 to 3/1/2015-4/1/2015, so the only factor that changed the amount you were billed was your consumption. I...

apologize for any confusion, but the increase in the amount you were billed for service from 3/1/2015-4/1/2015 was not caused by an adjustment for the previous billing period. It was caused by an increase in measured consumption on your water meter. Since 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 2/1/2015-3/1/2015. 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 reported. Your meter was not adjusted at all for the billing period of 3/1/2015-4/1/2015. 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 3,000 gallons per occupant. Since you have two occupants at your apartment, your consumption of 4,250 gallons was well within the national average. If you feel that your meter is not reporting the correct consumption, you can do a bucket test to see if it is working. To perform a bucket test, turn off all faucets in your apartment and check the read on the meter, then fill a 5 gallon bucket at one of the meters and check the read on the meter again. Your meter reads in 5 gallon increments, so it should advance one unit when you fill a 5 gallon bucket. You can also ask maintenance at your community to come to your apartment to check for leaks. A leaking toilet can use up to 300 gallons of water a day and a leaky faucet that drips at a rate of one drop per second can waste up to 2,700 gallons a year. I 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 meters. If 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 5/13/2015 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 unit. You will need to speak with her to get the exact amounts of the credits. She is also issuing credits to other residents who feel that the amounts they were billed are incorrect.Thank you,Conservice

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I have email trail of the discussion I have had with your customer service team. In addition, you also have records of my calls with your customer service team because everytime I call your office, they make reference to it. This means it is in your system that I have been trying to work with your team to dispute these  charges. You can't charge customers without informing them about potential charges. In this case, no one informed me that I will be charged vacant charges and hence I am disputing this fact.  I don't agree to pay for charges for which I am not made aware.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear [redacted] [redacted],We are sorry that this issue has been frustrating and the inconvenience it has caused you. As part of our company, we don't deal with any collections agencies at any point. We do not have any of your information that would be required to work with a...

collection agency such as your date of birth and social security.  Because of this, there should be no amount of money that is being collected on behalf of Conservice. When a resident has a past due balance, that is up to the property's discretion if they want to involve a third party collection agency, but it does not involve Conservice. An explanation of our final bill process will help clarify what happens with your utility balance. When a resident gets moved out of our system, a final bill is created that covers all utilities from the last day of the cycle from your most recent bill up to your move out date. Once the final bill gets created, those charges are then sent to the property. At this time your account is closed with Conservice and your balance is then transferred to the property resulting in $0.00 owed to Conservice. It is then the property's liability to collect that amount, if they were not able to receive a balance, they can turn that over to a third party collection agency, if they so choose. We have taken a look at your account and everything was processed correctly and accurately. You have no balance with us. If you could provide us with a copy of the bill that you received saying you still have a balance that needs to be paid we would be more than happy to further investigate this for you.Thanks you,Conservice

In reviewing your ledger with Progress Residential there haven't been any late fees against your account and payments are typically made around the 27th of the month. Conservice's goal is to get all applicable utilities on a consolidated statement for your home each month. The...

water bill that is generated from Las Vegas Valley Water District is typically created from the 12-15th each month. Once that bill is processed and paid by Conservice, the usage charges for your home are finalized within the same month by the 20th. If we were to not delay your billing for water, that would result in a higher move out bill for water charges. Residents do have the option to sign up for auto pay or log into the resident portal to make a onetime payment each month.  You can prepay for the utilities at any time. Thank you,Conservice

Ms [redacted],We have contacted your leasing office and they have agreed to settle the issue with your payment of $30.00.  Please visit your leasing office to resolve the issue.Thank you,Conservice

[redacted],On July 13, 2016 our Customer Service department received your call concerning your utility bill from Conservice. You stated that you had signed a new lease as of 5/5/2016 and were inquiring as to why you had received a bill for the billing period of 4/15/2016-5/13/2016 with charges...

prior to your lease sign date. Conservice called to verify this information with the property and May 4, 2016 was the date we were given for your move in date, but that you had taken over a lease from a previous resident. In the lease it specified that you would be responsible for all terms and conditions of the previous lease, including the Conservice account and all charges associated.  Given this, even though you weren’t living in the unit for the full service cycle of 04/15/2016 - 05/13/2016, you are still responsible for the complete balance of $53.58. Cindy also mentioned that you can contact the previous resident regarding the balance associated with the time you were not in the unit if you desire.You may call their leasing office and the Property Manager would be happy to answer any of your questions concerning your lease and the requirements of taking over the previous lease. You may also call Conservice Customer Service at ###-###-#### with any other questions or concerns you may have and we would be happy to help. Thank you, Conservice

Complaint: [redacted] -
I am rejecting this response because I have the past 6+ years of usage data. I will be happy to supply the spreadsheet. May I request the transmitter specifications and fail rates ?2011 - 2918.9 average2012 - 3906.4 average2013 - 4257.3 average2014 - 42525 average2015 - 4261.5 average (true average) (NOT including 18,175 and 8569 anomaly)2016 - 4224.7 average(true average) (NOT including 10,231 and 10,182 anomaly)The data does not support the "true up" contention of estimates. The "actual meter reading" contention is, clearly, impossible.If, for the sake of argument, these "true ups", in my apartment complex, are inaccurate you have billed the 600 tenants an overage of $238,200.00 over two years. ConService is a big company, 25 similar accounts would be an overbill of $5,955,000.00. Thus my request for $450.00 in reimbursement.Thank you for your prompt attention to this debacle, [redacted]           
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear Ms. [redacted],The ever-increasing cost of utilities, tied with the impact utility consumption has on the environment, has made conservation an important concern at your apartment complex, The Arlington at Eastern Shore. When residents are aware of their utility usage, they will be more likely to...

conserve. Because of this, you are billed for your utility usage each month by Conservice.This utility billing also includes an administrative fee. This fee is charged by Conservice monthly to service and bill your account for water and sewer. Services provided by Conservice include calculating the allocated amounts, maintaining the resident information, and mailing statements for each account. Residents currently pay a flat rate of $5.75 per month.  The Utility Addendum in your lease lists the $3.75 Conservice was charging previously, and also states, "If allowed by state law, we at our sole discretion may amend those fees, with written notice to you." Such increases are allowed under state and local regulations. Conservice included a notice on the utility bills mailed on October 15, 2016 with a due date of November 1st. It stated, "Effective on bills due December 1st, the fee for Conservice billing will increase to $5.75. If you have any questions, please contact our customer service department at 1-866-947-7379." The fee increase took effect on the next set of bills mailed to residents in November with a December 1 due date. Conservice has followed the terms of your lease to allow an increase in the administrative fee.Increases in the administrative fee are the result of increased costs. This can include postal service increases, inflation, government regulation, or other expense increases. In order for Conservice to provide utility services to residents these costs must often be factored in to administrative fees. Thank youConservice

On July 8th the resident contacted our Customer Service line regarding an online payment for the 5/14/16-6/1/16 billing period due 7/1. No record of any payment was listed in our system. It is possible that the resident did not complete the final confirmations as multiple steps are...

required to finalize the payment, or the site may have timed out before the payment was processed. Clarification was not given regarding if the resident received any initial payment confirmation or was just having issues with navigating the online payment system. The customer service representative attempted to resolve the issue by suggesting alternative payment options but the resident was not willing to pay the convenience fee associated with a one-time payment over the phone or on the website.We received payment for the 5/14/16 - 6/1/16 billing due 7/1 on 7/14/16. The payment was manually entered into our system. No late fees were charged for this payment. The 6/1/16-7/1/16 billing cycle due 8/1 payment was received and processed 7/28/16. No late fee was applied as payment was received before the due date of 8/1.All check payments are processed the day they are received. No payment has been processed for the 7/1/16-8/1/16 billing cycle due 9/1. The resident called in on 9/12/16 to verify if we had received payment, the customer service representative explained that no payment had been received. The resident stated she was going to complain to management. Because payment was not received by the due date of 8/1 and after the 3 day grace period, the resident was charged a $10 late fee. This fee has been removed as a courtesy. If the resident has documentation from their bank that the $44.32 check was indeed processed, we will correct the account. The resident would need to send the bank record to [email protected] you,Conservice

Conservice began billing Tower Place Apartments for utilities as of 4/20/2015. The electric meter reads were not available when we began billing and we have been working with the community to resolve this issue. Three actual reads were supplied to us by the previous provider. The actual measured...

consumption from these 3 reads were 247 kwh and 279 kwh. We used these two consumption amounts to estimate usage for billing which is common practice when actual read are not available. Consumption was estimated between 247 kwh and 279.53 kwh since we began billing. The community agreed to send a maintenance technician to the unit to take a picture of the actual meter read so that we can apply credits or charges for any discrepancies in consumption. After receiving a current read of 9463.04 today, 11/6/2015, we have calculated a credit for the resident in the amount of $[redacted]. This is the amount that was overestimated since 4/20/2015. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. The community will apply the credit to the resident's account and an accurate balance can be obtained from the leasing office.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.  With that being said it is very sad that I had to contact the Revdex.com to resolve a problem that they refused to settle when I called them myself.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

[redacted] and [redacted] Dear [redacted] and [redacted],We apologize for any miscommunication regarding the electric and vacant service fee charges on your Conservice statements and hope to clear up any misunderstanding. Each month...

Conservice calculates water, sewer, and trash utility charges for residents at Legacy Farm apartments, along with passing on any electric charges that residents are responsible for during the term of their lease. Legacy Farm was billed by Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division for two electric cycles associated with your apartment during the time frame you agreed to have services set up in your name, per the Utility Addendum of the lease (section 1E). Per this agreement, these charges have been forwarded to you with the corresponding fees. The first cycle billed is from your move-in date of 9/2/2017 to 9/21/2017 for the amount of $63.05, and the second cycle from 9/21/2017-10/20/2017 for $106.84. Each of these bills had an accompanying $50 administration fee applied for billing electric services that were not correctly set up per the Utility Addendum of the your lease (section 4). If there are any additional questions or concerns or you feel you did have utilities set up properly, please contact our Customer Service Department at 866-947-7379 where representatives are available to take your call Monday - Friday from 6:00am - 8:00pm MST, or at [email protected].  Sincerely, Conservice

[redacted],As a third party billing provider we are required to obtainauthorization from property management to release any property specific information.  California regulations does not require for properties to release information regarding utility provider bills.  We were unable...

to get authorization from the property to release provider bill information to residents. However, we are happy to send you a document showing how the bills at Fountains at Palmdale are calculated for each resident. We are sending this document to your property manager via e-mail detailing how you are being billed. You are welcome to obtain this document from your leasing office.  We apologize for any inconvenience and hope that we have helped as much as possible.Thank you,Conservice

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: For over 4 years we have been paying at higher rates that did not make sense and were ridiculous in comparison with others in the same neighborhood, and even though your explanation sounds like it provides the necessary data/info it really does not, here is why:Our bills have continued to be high for the duration of stay at North Bethesda Market Apartments, at times reaching close to $120 for the month The fact that you/community managers are adjusting these billing practices to bring our bills lower, already speak on the amount of pressure they have received in the past several month because of a group effort by the residents to tackle this problem, and they are trying to avoid a lawsuit. The fact that our bill is this month is only $48 in comparison to $112 same time last year, or 108$ last month, only speak to the fact that we were right all along and price gouging practices and inaccurate billing were utilized by your company and the management, and only confirms that facts that thousands of resident dollars were overpaid in the course of last several years. This is a gross violation!My suggestion is that your company creates a fund to reimburse residents, based on the formulas you so much love to refund the money you have over-collected for these years. I will personally expect $2400 in compensation which by my formula is what you over charged me for the past 4 years. Should you choose not to comply we will proceed with legal action and investigation into your past billing and bill distribution practices. 
Sincerely Yours,
[redacted]

Heather O[redacted]After researching your account, I have found that you have never been charged over $100 for monthly charges. I do, however, see where you might be getting that from. Your average monthly bill since January 2015 is $88.23, your total monthly charges since January is $[redacted], but we...

have only received payments totaling $[redacted] since January. When you don't pay your bill on time every month, your charges roll over to the next month along with a late fee, I am showing that this has happened quite a few times, so your bills have been stating that you owe over $100 each month (your current charges plus previous charges and late fees). Currently, your ledger is showing that we did not receive a payment from you in May, June, or July. In August we received a payment of $[redacted], but your balance at that time was $[redacted], leaving a balance of $[redacted] which included a late fee. That balance carried over into this month's bill of $[redacted].  As a courtesy, we have waived a late fee bringing your total balance owing to $[redacted], due 9/1/15.The last phone call that I'm showing we received from you was on 11/7/2013. We do keep a log of phone calls received from residents, so I apologize if you did call and it somehow did not get logged.Your property is set up to charge water and sewer using a formula based on the each unit's square footage. Please feel free to give us a call and we can give you a breakdown of your monthly charges and payments.Thank youConservice

Hello, We have reviewed your concerns and have some further information that will hopefully help clarify any questions. Your water, sewer,electric, and gas providers bill in arrears, meaning they do not send a bill until the service has actually been used. At the time you received your invoice...

due 12/01/2016, all provider bills that had been received had been billed back, so the billing was current with the provider cycle. The reason you received your final utilities prior to vacating the home is due to a recent change of how move-outs are processed that was requested by Progress Residential. Once a resident gives their notice to vacate, the move-out and final utilities are processed 60 days prior to the expected move-out date. At this time, final utilities have been prorated to the expected move-out date using the most current provider bills. When you vacate the home, your final utilities will be reviewed with the current provider bills that have been received, and will be adjusted as needed. If you have any other concerns or questions, please feel free to contact us. 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]

Dear Mr. [redacted],                 Thank you for providing us with the details of your concern. We appreciate the information that you have provided.  ...

                The lease that you signed with Stoneleigh Apartments required that you were to obtain electric service with OG&E in your name at the time of your move in on 5/27/16.  Conservice received bills for your unit from OG&E in Stoneleigh Apartment’s name for the periods of 5/27/16-6/17/16 and 6/18/16-7/20/16.  Therefore the charges were passed on to you with the service fees of $15 for the first occurrence and $50 for the second occurrence as outlined in the lease that you signed on 5/27/16.   Once you have the electric service in your name, the charges from Conservice will end. You can contact OG&E at 402-272-9741 or 800-272-9741 to get service in your name. Thank you,Conservice