Tidewater Utilities, Inc.

I have spoken to the company regarding my issue and they will not resolve it. I was a renter in Ocean View DE paying for water service. I bought a house and cancelled my water service. I noticed on the bill that I was charged 43.90 for a transfer of service fee...43.90 to transfer what? A name? I paid this but I will also be disputing the charges. I find this reidiculous that you charge someone 43.90 to transfer the bill to the next tenant.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I sent the complaint here because I called Tidewater Utilities 2x asking for a Manager or supervisor and was not connected to either. I had no choice but to bring to the Revdex.com. If this happens again I will not accept their response and will take this matter further I feel that when you request a final bill it should be generated in a timely manner so that both the company providing the service can get paid and the company paying for the service can get reimbursed.
Regards,

This is *** *** *responding to this Revdex.com complaint
I have spoken with *** *** and addressed the concerns of Mr& *** ***. Attached is the e-mail I sent to the *** as a confirmation of the telephone conversation I had with *** *** on May
5th

I wishI could use another water company. Tidewater is the only utilitiy that our development is hooked up to. They turned my water off without notice I mean I had a stoke and thought I paid the amount in full. So we arrived at our beach house to no water and my grandchild was there as well. I called the answering service they said that as long as someone is on the shutoff list there is nothing they can do as intructed by Tidewater. This situation stressed my a great deal I told them both about the infant and my stoke. All this for a missed payment of 175.00 Corporate greed.

Tell us why here...I am [redacted], the Customer Service Manager.  I have made contact with [redacted] today and she was able to provide me the identification of the properties where our response to her request for final bills have been tardy.  An investigation is being...

conducted to find out why this occurred and to correct whatever may be wrong with the process to see that this does not continue.

Tidewaters,.
Tidewaters turned off my water at my resident, in Dover, DE., because of a leak. They had alleged they made two visits and the water meter were giving evaluated readings. On the first visit, February 8, 2018, they indicated that the water meter were reading evaluated readings; they did not leave a notice or any contact information. They just indicated I was not at home. Everybody is not fortunate enough to be at home when they say they read meters. On the second visit, February 16, 2018, they left a note and turn off my water. That is when I found out my meter were transmitting evaluated reading. They would not turn it back on until repairs are made. I did get the repairs done. I requested a bill; the bill total was $3,800.00 for two months. I do not think they handled my case poorly; they have only mailed me letters saying they did their job. I do not think they did their job. They should have alerted me on February 8, 2018, rather than later. At least my water bill would not have been that expensive. The office manager sent me two letters via mail, but have refused to answer my emails and his/her staff will not allow me to speak with them on the telephone. This is bad business.

Review: ON 1/20/15 We have requested our Final Bill from Tidewater utilities stating that this is a bank owned property that closed and we have 10 days to submit final bills. They sent us a bill that was extremely high for a vacant property [redacted] from tidewater stated they read the wrong water meter and would adjust our bill and send our final bill I called today 2/10/15 and spoke to [redacted] who would NOT transfer me to a superviser or manager as I asked for I told [redacted] that we were past our time to submit final bills to get reimbursed and I needed the final bill TODAY This has occurred on 5 other accounts where they send the final bill 1 year laterDesired Settlement: I want final bills generated and sent to me in a timely manner all other utility companies send out final bills Tidewater is the only company that takes up to a year. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired

Business

Response:

Tell us why here...I am [redacted], the Customer Service Manager. I have made contact with [redacted] today and she was able to provide me the identification of the properties where our response to her request for final bills have been tardy. An investigation is being conducted to find out why this occurred and to correct whatever may be wrong with the process to see that this does not continue.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I sent the complaint here because I called Tidewater Utilities 2x asking for a Manager or supervisor and was not connected to either. I had no choice but to bring to the Revdex.com. If this happens again I will not accept their response and will take this matter further. I feel that when you request a final bill it should be generated in a timely manner so that both the company providing the service can get paid and the company paying for the service can get reimbursed.

Review: Tidewater Utilities turn off our water today without notice. I set up the account and provided them the address and our phone number and they listed our zip code incorrectly. They advised us we owed for 3 months, which means they had three statements get returned as undeliverable and did nothing to rectify their data entry error. Additionally, no one called to try and obtain a correct address.

This is just not a good business practice. I deal with invalid addresses and we have protocols in place to contact our customers to help them resolve bad address information - that is customer service 101.

Additionally, I have two 8 month old infants at the house and if we never realized the water was turned off, it could have posed a health issue/risk.Desired Settlement: I would like a written letter from Tidewater utilities acknowledging my home/billing address has been corrected and that they have my correct telephone number on file. Also, I need a commitment from them they will call me regarding any account issues going forward. My wife and I pay our bills timely, as long as we receive them.

Business

Response:

This is [redacted]responding to this Revdex.com complaint.

I have spoken with [redacted] and addressed the concerns of Mr. & [redacted]. Attached is the e-mail I sent to the [redacted] as a confirmation of the telephone conversation I had with [redacted] on May 5th.

Review: This issue involves the small sum of $63.90 and has two parts that make up the total. I sent a bank check to Tidewater in error that was meant for another vendor. As soon as I discovered my error, I contacted M&T and they stopped payment and told me to contact Tidewater to tell them not to deposit the check as payment was stopped. I also sent a bank check to Tidewater for the amount of their final bill, less $43.90, which is the second part of my complaint. I called Tidewater and told them of the situation, that the check had payment stopped and not to deposit it. They told me that their billing was handled by a third party and they could not correspond with them. I told them that I thought that was ludicrous. Tidewater told me that all they could do was to notate the file of the conversation on the matter. Tidewater's final bill to me included a charge for insufficient funds in the amount of $20.00. I called Tidewater and told them that I would not pay it because I had done everything that M&T suggested I do and that I thought that the charge for insufficient funds was excessive. The other part of the amount is the $43.90. This amount was on the final bill. I called Tidewater and was told that this is their charge for creating a work order to take the service out of my name. I had called Tidewater to tell them that the buyer of our property was renting from us and would be responsible for the electricity as of June 15th. I gave them the buyer/tenant's name and they notated their records accordingly. There was absolutely no mention that creating a work order for this transfer involved a cost. When I called Tidewater, their customer service person was very snotty and told me that they charge everyone that fee and that I had to pay it. I told them that I would not pay it and I was told that they would send the whole matter to Jefferson Associates for collection if I did not pay by September 17th. All of this relates to the sale of our home at [redacted], which finally took place in Dover on September 19th. None of the charges refers to unpaid amounts for services rendered. I paid for the electricity that they billed me for on time for the total of fifteen (15) years. I went out of my way to tell them of my error on the check as well as informing them that we were doing a short-term rental to the buyer of the property. At no time did Tidewater indicate that they were going to charge me for a check for "insufficient funds" and/or for creating a work order to record the change in ownership and creating a new billing account for the new owner. They have sent the matter to Jefferson Associates for collection and notified Experian Credit Bureau. I have always had a flawless credit report and although I am retired, renting an apartment and have no need to create any accounts which require monthly payments, I am still angry that Tidewater would be so short sighted as to take this tact. I have written Tidewater to this effect and I have also written Jefferson Associates. I have told both parties that I will not pay the amount due under any circumstances and told them that it is outrageous and ludicrous that subscribers apparently can be treated as if we are victims of a facist regime.Desired Settlement: My desired outcome would be a billing adjustment to zero, canceling the collection effort and retracting the notice to Experian.

Business

Response:

Tell us why here...See attachment response

Review: About a month ago I received a random letter in the mail from Tide Water stating that they have completed an Audit and have determined that my water meter was not registering water consumption accurately and that they have determined that since we began receiving water (which has been 2 years) that they need to retroactively bill me for the accurate amount that I would have been if the meter was working correctly. The bill was for $1,200. Prior to receiving this letter I had no idea there was an issue with my meter and received no prior notice that they were coming out to install a new meter. I have paid my Quarterly water Bill every quarter that I was sent a bill. I paid the amount that came on the Billing statement. I feel that I am not responsible for the inaccuracy of the meter. How would I have known the meter wasn't working. I paid the bill the sent. How can I be held responsible when I paid what they sent as a statement. I understand that they replaced the meter and it is working accurately and I will pay for the consumption that I use going forward now that the meter is "accurate" but feel that in no way should I be held responsible for something out of my control. Again I have paid every statement they have sent.Desired Settlement: I should not be held responsible for the back billing of $1,200 when the meter was not working accurately. I have paid every statement they sent and had no idea that the meter was inaccurate. I will pay for the consumption that I use quarterly and understand the meter is accurate now...but do not feel I should be held responsible for previous consumption when I had no idea the meter was not working accurately.

I was given no prior notice that the meter was not measuring accurately and that they would be out to check and or even replace it. The only notice that I received was "Oh by the way we did an Audit and you owe us $1,200 from the past two years"

Business

Response:

We are forwarding this to our customer service department for follow up.

If they need to speak to a customer service representative in the interim please call [redacted].

Consumer

Response:

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