Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  12/19/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Alderwood Water has been over charging me for years. My water bill was $1,200 last month. I called and complained. Now my water bill is $1,400. Whenever I call to talk about my bill they make sure my next bill is higher. I spoke to a manager on Friday after calling them multiple times. The manager said she will look into it and call me Monday. She didnt call. If I dont pay then they charge me 10% late fee. My neighbor pays half of what I pay. Alderwood water does treat everyone the same. They have very poor customer service as well.

  Business response

  12/20/2022

  Alderwood Water & Wastewater District is a municipal corporation organized under the laws of the *******************. The District is governed by an elected five-member board.  In reviewing the account, the water usage has steadily increased since June 2022 causing the increase in charges.  We have been in contact with ********************** today to go over possible causes of the increased usage.  A service order has been issued to pull the water meter data so we can see the usage amounts and the dates and time of this usage based on the hourly readings.  This is an effort to help find the usage pattern in hopes of assisting ******************** with a possible cause to the increase. 

  Toilet dye strips have been mailed to ********************** so he can do his part by testing all 8 toilets in the apartment unit to rule out any possible leakage. A late fee will not be charged on the December billing while we are investigating the data and allow time for the toilets to be tested.  An email was sent to ******************** to confirm this at his request.  

• Initial Complaint

  05/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Date of transactions were the months of October 2021, December 2021, February 2022, and May 2022.On March 8, 2022. Alderwood Water District staff came to the door to informed us of excessive water usage for a short period of time. They told us that there must be a leak between odometer and our house. Because odometer is immediately connected to our house, it ended up falling onto us as homeowners responsibility. Water **** payment every 3 months, **** amount started to increase drastically after October. However, they did not inform us until March.October 7, 2021: $293.56 Dec 8, 2021: $758.38 Feb 9, 2022: $771.26 May 9, 2022: $987.22 Aside from **** payment to them, we spent about $7,600 for fixing the leak, ended up our emergency fund we had on our savings. It was completed on March 18, 2022.They function as a utility organization, providing water/sewage services for residents and businesses within their district.We filed for the leak adjustment based on their policy by simply followed form they have had online. Form obtained from: https://****.com/download/108/other-customer-forms/6790/new-application-for-leak-adjustment-revised-07-2021-pdf.pdf The Leak Policy listed at : https://****.com/explore/notice-of-new-leak-adjustment-policy/They denied our request. Therefore, we have paid for the amounts above, afraid of being shut down our water. After leaving voice message at the customer service to demand explanation as to why they denied our claim and NOT getting ANY response(s) from them for 2 weeks, my husband called early in the afternoon to talk to the customer service representative. Instead of trying to understand our situations, their customer service representative did not listen at all, simply told us they would only waive late payment fee as all the bills are required to pay. There was NO explanation on leak policy was not applied in our situation.The letter stating the denial decision is attached.Our account number: **********

  Business response

  05/24/2022

  District policy was written and approved with specific deadlines for repair and submission of a leak application. This is so every potential leak adjustment is equitable to all District ratepayers.  Maintenance and repair of service lines are the responsibility of the property owner and we only offer leak adjustments to customers who qualify as a courtesy.  Policy allows leak adjustments to an account if specific qualifications are met, including repairing all leaks within 30 days of the District first notifying a customer.  Notification by ********************** staff means any one of the following notices: continuous usage alert on the ****, in a **** insert or letter. 

  The first notification was indiciated on the July 2021 **** statement by way of an alert message.  The alert messages continued through the March 2022 **** statement.  It is the customer's responsibility to review the billing statement so important message such as this are not missed.  We certainly understand this is not the outcome you hoped for but we cannot make discretionary adjustments under Board approved policies.

  Customer response

  05/24/2022

   
  Complaint: 17180517
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  At this point, we are only looking for a goodwill concession after spending over $12K from multiple repairs and high water bills. This expense is also happening within one year after we moved into the house and at a time of inflationary cost environment. It is fine to stick with your policy but we are hoping for some understanding since we did fix the leaks after we found out about it. 

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******************************

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