City of Tampa No Help with Water Bills

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tampa, Florida, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 24, 2011 -- I am a City of Tampa Water customer and have been since 2005. My bills average between $65 in the low season to $150 in the hot summer season when additional water is needed to keep grass and plants alive. I was shocked last November when I received a bill for $625.69.

Here is my story:

After receiving the outrageous bill, I started to wonder what happened. I immediately contacted my lawn service to check my irrigation lines for leaks and none were found. We had new home construction going on around us and I thought maybe the workers were somehow using our water lines, but concluded that wasn't the case either. I ended up just chalking it up to the unknown and paid the bill. My December bill fell back to the average range and I quickly forgot about the large sum I forked out a few months before.

In mid-late January I started seeing news reports about other Tampa Water customers experiencing large increases for the same time frame and decided something must be wrong. On January 31, 2011, I gathered my information and decided to call the water company. After waiting on hold for 24 minutes, I hung up and filed the complaint online.

One week later, I still hadn't heard a response, so I called my local councilman to add my name to the list of people complaining. He did and then I started waiting. And finally today, February 24th, 2011, I got a call back from the water department....

They informed me that the rate increase was because of my water use and their new 14% rate increase that has really affected the tier pricing. They insist that they read the meter every other month and everything was accurate. There really wan't a whole lot I could say, because I have no way to argue the usage numbers The phone call ended after about 10 minutes with the agreement to disagree.

After the phone call, I decided to crunch some numbers and found the following two problems:

1. Assuming the usage numbers are correct, by only reading a meter every other month, it can throw you into a higher average tier rate causing your bill to be inflated.
2. Also assuming the usage numbers are correct, If the meters weren't read on a regular basis, and were read after 120 days, the rates could double or even triple.

From looking at my water meter, I can honestly tell you that it doesn't look like its been read in 6 months, let alone 60 days. Its covered with dirt and mud that has been building up for quote a while.

In conclusion, it appears that nothing will be done to satisfy the problem, and it certainly is a broken system. Its a classic sign of a government run organization that is failing its people. I am not the only one, the last news report I saw mentioned over 500 complaints and climbing with bill increases from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

To be fair, the City Council is still looking into the problem and has yet to finalize a report. They're probably waiting till after the March 1st, 2011 election.

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