Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  10/25/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Details: 1. I have two water meters. Sprinkler system and home. 2. Meters are reversed on my bill incurring a large water bill due to sewer cost. 3. I have contacted the department 3 times to fix the issue to no avail. 4. I was told not to pay the last month’s bill and now it has ballooned and will be facing a shut off if not resolved. I am a combat disabled veteran on a fixed income and only have until the 31st for the department to assist me and my family.

  Business response

  10/27/2023

  We have determined that the meters are crossed.  But we are in the process of changing out to our new AMI metes.  Mr. ******* is one that has recently been changed out and I have to wait until the new meter updates on his account so I will know which one to change since the meters are different since the customer called originally.  I have called him and left a message about why the meter has not been changed out.  We will adjust the bills once the change out is done.

  ******* ********

  Office Manager

  ************ ****************************   

• Initial Complaint

  09/12/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  they are overcharging my account every single month. now they have an extra $8.00 for sewer city +68.00 for extra sewer fees +1.00 sale tax. Why I have to pay $1.00 for sale tax for ???? after overcharging me already for every single month water that you can smell the bleach, water that is over bleached and contaminated. why the city of Chattanooga do an investigation on all these overcharges to all of us???? if they said that the reader is not working so why they overcharged and never refunded me for the extra $$$$ that I paid. Eastside Utility district is taking advange. Overcharges fees and they do not refund money that they overcharged.

  Customer response

  09/20/2023

  after overcharging for a water that smells Clorox they overcharged for sever over $40+ now a city sewer fee $8.00 now they are taking $1.00 for sales tax ???? why have to pay sales tax ? why the city of Chattanooga or Chattanooga governor investigate companies overcharging ? this company is overcharging and taking advantages taking every single home $extra $$$$$$ this is the worst.
  

• Initial Complaint

  08/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I've always paid my water bills (home & irrigation) through online banking, w/o issue. My bank sends the checks to EUD. On July 4, 2023 I realized that the checks for my June pmts hadn't cleared my bank, so I contacted EUD via their website "Contact Us" option. I explnd that the checks hadn't cleared. On July 5, I rcvd a response that they hadn't rcvd my checks. I responded on July 5 with screenshots of confirmation of the checks which were mailed. On July 10, I rcvd a response from EUD that they still hadn't rcvd my checks. On July 11, I exchanged a couple of emails with EUD "Customer Service" and the last email from that day was from me to them at 2:54 pm where I advised them that my bank was placing stop pmts on both checks. I provided them w/ both check #s and advised that if they do receive them, to shred them. I went into the EUD office the next day and paid the bills for both accounts. On Friday, Aug 4, I received 2 separate letters from EUD, one for each acct. The letters state that they received the checks from my bank and they didn't clear and that I need to take care of them with cash, money order or cc by August 8 or my meter will be locked. They also charged a $25 Return Check fee for each check. I immediately emailed them to advise that I had notified them in advance that stop payments were placed on both checks. I also advised them that I had come into their office on July 12 and paid the bills in person. I informed them that I didn't appreciate the threats of locking my meter and I didn't appreciate the late charges when they were notified in advance. I nvr rcvd a response to my email. I mailed a ltr to them on Tues, Aug 8, and in the letter, I included print outs of my email to them where I notified them in advance of the stop payments, copy of my debit card pmt from July 12, and copies of my pmts for July bills. My accts are current, as always. I received an email today that they would "look into it." I will follow up once there is a resolution.

  Business response

  08/18/2023

  The customer had stopped payment on two checks and had been in contact with customers service to see if payment had been received.  We did eventually receive the two checks and had posted them.  We did not have a note that the checks had a stopped payment.  We have taken the customers returned check fee off of her account.  

  ******* ********                                                                                                                                             Office Manager                                                                                                                                                                                Eastside Utility District                                                                                                                                                                         

   

  Customer response

  08/18/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  Yes, they did remove the check fees AFTER I brought it to their attention that they processed them with knowledge that both had Stop Payments placed on them, and I had immediately come into their office and paid in person. They also sent letters demanding payment of my “overdue bills” which were not overdue at all,  and threatening to lock my meters. No one bothered to look at their file notes. After making them aware of the problem and sending all necessary documentation to support the error, the message I received was, “We’ll look into it.” When they finally responded, the only message I received was, “I have removed the return fees from your account and noted the account of the stop payments.  If you have any questions please let me know.” 
  The customer service is a joke and their office manager is incompetent and rude.
  
  ******* ******

• Initial Complaint

  12/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We are reaching out to dispute a billing issue with Eastside Utility District out of Chattanooga, TN. We have had them since living in our home for over 2 years. Back around June their employee was giving fraudulent readings off of our meter. Reflecting in inaccurate billing statements for the following months June, August,September and Ocotber of the 2022 year. Their company is now advising that we are responsible for paying for that employees mishap and are now sending us an "averaged " amount based off their assumption of usage. We are being told that we consumed 5,600 cf of water in a 4 month period of time. I have a report from their company directly showing our consumption month to month from 2020-2022. I have taken last year's consumption and have totaled that out to be 2,800 cf of water that we were not billed for. Meaning they are doubling the consumption and billing us for it at 5,600 cf. We have not made modifications to our home, verified that there are no leaks and there are no pools or hot tubs at our residence. Therefore there have been no substantial changes that we have made to cause such an increase in consumption overall. I have contacted Eastside several times and they have no way to give us readings or consumption to show proof we owe them for 5,600 consumption usage. They are calculating their own average and estimations without any real proof or facts of what we used in our household. I can attach the report from their company so you can see our consumption stayed identical/similar to last year's reports therefore being a better representation of what we would have consumed these months that were calculated in error. Now they are billing us nearly $300 for water. Not only did their company not report these issues for almost 6 months, but no proof is able to be conducted to show what we actuallyconsumed. Their numbers are all estimation as they can not get readings from prior months.

  Business response

  01/06/2023

  I explained to the customer that we had a meter reader that was estimating reads and that her November bill was a catch up for the underreads over the past 4 months. If I took her high bill of 5600 cubic feet and added the four low bills, she received July through October her average for each month would be 1.300 cubic feet.  If I look back at last summer, I can see where she has used that much water before. I ask the customer to think back over the summer months and see if she remembers using more water outside maybe the kids playing in the water outside, pressure washing, washing cars or maybe a small leak they fixed. I did not hear back from the customer about the water usage that was billed in November.  Eastside has verified the read on the meter and it is correct.  Eastside has had this issue with several customers that were affected and have been working with setting them up on payment arrangements which I also told the customer we could do.  I have included our response that we had given to the news channel 9 in regard to customers high water bills.

  Thank You,

  Malinda M*******

  Office Manager

   

   

  Customer response

  01/10/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  They are billing us for water that was not used. If you refer to the screenshot in my original message we only consumed 900 units of water most summer months. They are giving us an estimate of 1300 plus the 300 that they already billed us for in June, August, September and October. Meaning we are being billed for 1700 total units of water per month. That is illegal they have no proof or documentation supporting this.  They are calculating usage by estimating what we "could have used/consumed) if they would refer to the same months last year we would be at around 2800 units of water total for those 4 months that their employee under read the meter. Meaning we would owe them for 2500 units of water not 5600. 
  
  

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