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Vent: City of Atlanta is so incompetent
When I went to pay my bills this month, I couldn't find the water bill. I flipped my house upside down looking for it, but it just wasn't there.
Then yesterday, April 5th, I got the bill in the mail. Due date: April 2nd. Awesome. And since then there's been an endless stream of emails about it from my neighborhood list. Apparently this happened to everyone in our zip code. And the city can't tell us whether or not we'll be charged late fees.
The department of watershed management here is seriously one of the most incompetent organizations I've ever dealt with, and it's so frustrating, because there's no alternative. Water is kind of essential, and they're the only provider.
Perhaps I'm irrationally annoyed about this, but I just hate them. Our water meter was broken for the first year and a half we owned our house. They refused to fix the meter, and were instead just estimating our usage based on readings for the same month in the previous year. Yeah, we bought our house from a family of five. We wound up paying hundreds of dollars in excess billing, because they told us they'd shut our water off if we didn't pay.
rage. RAGE.
Re: Vent: City of Atlanta is so incompetent
Husbands should be like Kleenex: Soft, strong, and disposable.
They're doing stupid crap like that in Baltimore, too.
We think there's a hole in the water pipe (something caused the 3 foot deep hold in the sidewalk/yard that is partially covered by sidewalk) but since it's right where the street meets the yard, they can't/won't touch it.
I feel your pain. Watershed is the absolute worst of the city departments. At least with some of the other utilities you have a choice of providers so they somewhat try to provide decent customer service.
I fought with Atlanta water for months over the fact that they put new names on my account because there is a street perpendicular to my street that had the same name, but a different suffix (Avenue versus Terrace) and new people moved into the address with the same house number as mine on the Avenue (I lived on Terrace). At one point they closed my original account and when they reopened it tried to charge me an account set up fee. I hate them.
I know you don't know me but I feel your pain (I also live in Atlanta), but the big problem is that they are trying to spend so much money on fixing their sewer problem that other problems become second tier concerns. -- I mean when you're dumping raw sewage into the river every time it rains that has to be a larger priority than fixing your meter (btw this no longer happens, they have fixed that problem). I'm sure you could have paid to change the meter out (although they are fairly expensive).
I bet that if you fight the over due charges you will win. Just be calm and rational.
Another huge problem in Atlanta, is that the city grew so much for years but never really taxed or charge enough to keep up with its infrastructure -- which is why now we have the highest water / sewer rates in the county. None of this makes it much better, but its not completely the current water departments fault -- I know several people over there that are competent and hard working.
ETA: To clarify, the people I know work in the planning / engineering department not the customer service department.
Baby Boxer is coming! 5.23.12
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