Dekalb County - Incompetent or Just Plain Lazy
I’m not sure how the national news plays it, but Georgia has been suffering from a severe drought for several months. We have also been under a water ban for some time and it is evident from the dry landscape. Personally, I would rather not water my lawn in the first place, so I haven’t had to change my behavior much. My water bills have increased from around $30 to upwards of $50 a month. But that’s not a big price to pay, in my opinion.
However, this month my water bill was $754.00! Say what!? How could this be? I checked and rechecked the water bill and I noticed that this month’s bill was an “estimate”. An estimate based on what, exactly? And why an estimation? I looked further.
There was a small note on my bill that said that the meter could not be read because it was “covered with landscape”. If I’m going to suffer a 1500% increase in my water bill because of a landscape malfunction, I had better fix this problem quickly.
The image below shows the state of my water meter and the “landscape” problem. A dusting of pine needles? Give me a break, Dekalb County! Get out of the truck, lift the metal plate, and read the freakin’ meter. Being lazy and/or incompetent is no excuse to gouge customers.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Hey- we’ve had a heck of a time with Dekalb water service too. Im glad you put this out there- its important for us to have a voice in this. As it is, there is no other water service provider, right? Do they think they can treat customers this way? Can they get away with it?
Maybe you should post ours too, and we can have a general complaint website for this issue- a service for the consumer, as we seem to have not other!! thank you!!
LindseyM
March 8th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Hi Lindsey, I’m not sure if we will get much headway with Dekalb County, but there is a certain amount of catharsis with venting. Besides, if they’re unable/unwilling to read a water meter, I seriously doubt they would make an effort to read a complaint. Oh joy!