Everyday Randomness

I’ve noticed a trend in the “city” offices of small towns.  They have a habit of hiring employees who don’t know their job from their ass.  We’ve had a problem with our water company that has happened many many times in the past.  Actually I’ve talked to a lot of people in our town who have had major problems with them.  Our first problem is that you can’t be even a couple days late on your bill.  Even though your paper copy might say you’ve got 15 days before you start accruing late fees, they’ll cut your water off if you’re more than a couple days late.  We were 5 days late and there goes the water!  It happens a lot with a bill that’s only $16 or so.  We just forget to pay it.  I’ll notice on the 12th that I forgot to pay it on the 10th.  What sucks is a $16 bill then becomes an $80 bill because of a reconnect charge.  Oh well, I pay it, and I think my problems are over.  But then I receive my next bill.

It says they overcharged me and I have a $30 credit to my account.  The last time it happened I even called to make sure I had the credit on my account, and I was told that yes it was right and not to send in a payment.  Wow, that’s one less bill to worry about that month.  Then 5 days after the bill would have been due my water gets shut off.  I call city hall because that’s where our water office is.  They tell me I didn’t pay the bill.  I tell them I had a credit on the account, they say no I didn’t.  I take my bill down to the office and show it to them.  I tell them about calling to check to make sure the bill was correct.  Their computer and my bill don’t match up.  Not only do they refuse to turn my water back on until I pay them for what they say I owe, but they charge me yet another $50 reconnect.  I raise hell until they finally remove the reconnect fee.  This has happened on 4 occasions now.

I finally found to source to the problem.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have a problem with hiring family and or the elderly if they can do their job, but when the job isn’t getting done, I don’t care who the employee is.  They shouldn’t be there.  Apparently the issue with the water people is that the woman who takes care of the disconnects is close to 90 and a family member of the mayor.  The other employees in the office will admit that’s the only reason she still has the job.  When you get disconnected, she is supposed to add the reconnect fee to your account, but she forgets to do that a lot.  You stroll in to pay your bill and she makes the call to cut the water back on.  The amount you pay gets applied to your account, but she forgets to apply the reconnect.  Your next bill shows up stating you’ve got a credit, so you think you’re fine.  Then you found out little old lady forgot to apply the reconnects again and someone in the office fixed the account, so your account is really past due for that month, too.  You get disconnected again.

If that isn’t bad enough, the bills never seem to be correct.  A friend I used to work with came in complaining one day that his water bill was over $300.  He didn’t understand how because he’d been out of town for most of the month.  He marched in with his bill and was told that’s what his meter read, so he began to look for his meter and found it buried 2 feet under the grass.  How could they read a meter that’s buried, especially since our rinky dink town still manually reads the meters.  Then, my grandparents received a water bill for close to $200.  My grandma called to ask why and was told there must be a water leak on the property because the meter read that amount.  I told my grandpa to check the meter and compare the numbers.  He told me he knew it hadn’t been read because it was under one of the shade trees in their front yard and would have to be dug up.  Hubby and I grabbed a couple shovels and dug it up.  I took pics with my cell phone proving not only was it buried under 2 feet of grass and dirt, but there were smaller roots from the tree growing over it.  It took 3 months to get the problem resolved and my grandparents credited for what was obviously a number the water people made up instead of really checking.

Where am I going with this long rant?  I could have simply stated it, but I just felt the need to get out my true feelings.  I woke up today to discover my water was cut off again! There’s another $80 down the drain and another headache to look forward to.