# family gets water bill for 93,000 gallons



## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

https://www.wilx.com/content/news/G...HEMupiRA1YN6qSnY5KF3LRcgYNaQMnJwV_N3R7q64rTBY

They just installed “smart” meters. I wonder if those can malfunction. I’d either have it tested or be requesting a new one. I know when the old stile freezes and bursts the city charges you something like $300.


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## Fatpat (Nov 1, 2015)

OpenSights said:


> https://www.wilx.com/content/news/G...HEMupiRA1YN6qSnY5KF3LRcgYNaQMnJwV_N3R7q64rTBY
> 
> They just installed “smart” meters. I wonder if those can malfunction. I’d either have it tested or be requesting a new one. I know when the old stile freezes and bursts the city charges you something like $300.


A buddy of mine bought a house a few years ago and on their first water bill it was something like 160,000 gallons.

His wife says, “I’ve been taking longer showers” hahahaha

My buddy and I laughed so hard at her


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## ibeplumber (Sep 20, 2011)

Saw this on the news tonight.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

They’re up on Grand Mannor, just north of the tracks... 

I was thinking a malfunction of the new smart meter, but my wife came up with a good idea. Wife said the drive by meter reader thingy malfunctioned and read a bunch of duplexes.

****, I married a smart azz wife! Not going to let her know that though. Technology. Can’t trust it!


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## Alan (Jun 18, 2008)

OpenSights said:


> https://www.wilx.com/content/news/G...HEMupiRA1YN6qSnY5KF3LRcgYNaQMnJwV_N3R7q64rTBY
> 
> They just installed “smart” meters. I wonder if those can malfunction. I’d either have it tested or be requesting a new one. I know when the old stile freezes and bursts the city charges you something like $300.


I did post in that mystery leak thread that I have seen with my own eyes these electronic meters measure usage with both valves in the off position.

On the flip side we got a lot of calls from people who simply did not understand their water bill. They would call claiming 100,000 gallons of usage when the reality is that they are measuring cubic feet, not gallons.

Now the other token is the possibility that the existing meter there wasn't reading properly to begin with, so now that they've put in a brand new meter regardless of the style, it may be reading with 100% accuracy, where the other was picking up only 25% of the usage.


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

OpenSights said:


> https://www.wilx.com/content/news/G...HEMupiRA1YN6qSnY5KF3LRcgYNaQMnJwV_N3R7q64rTBY
> <SNIP>
> About 20 years ago, we plumbed a new house. Water billing was done on a quarterly basis. When they got the first bill the water consumption was atrocious. Nine Million Plus gallons. This created a pretty sizeable bill.
> 
> We found the problem. My guys has installed the meter with the little arrow going against the flow... IN OTHER WORDS BACKWARDS !!! Instead of starting to read at zero, it starting at full capacity, and was counting down.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

over $2700.00 for 93,000 gallons WTF is it bottles water? by me that would be maybe a few hundred bucks...


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> over $2700.00 for 93,000 gallons WTF is it bottles water? by me that would be maybe a few hundred bucks...


The sewer rate is based on water useage and added to the bill. Our water is horrible! I’ve never had mine tested, but many peon city water here have softeners. Believe me it’s a nonstop btch fest here.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

OpenSights said:


> The sewer rate is based on water useage and added to the bill. Our water is horrible! I’ve never had mine tested, but many peon city water here have softeners. Believe me it’s a nonstop btch fest here.





time to move..LOL..I just did plumbing for a friend and split the water meters(each meter cost from city $508.00 each) because the sewer charge was so much and they dont charge it for sprinkler water..


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Had a customer in a different town have us put in a second meter because he got a $750 bill.

My kid has to take a bath every night because of his eczema, plus the two of us, we do a ton of laundry. We recently switched to monthly instead of quarterly. 

Here’s my latest bill:


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

This might help....


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

the name of the game with these entities is to add as many fees as possible to raise the price of the product..years ago I got a gas bill with 1 total on it, now its split into the gas price bill and the distribution system bill and the 2 halve are much more than the old 1 total inclusive bill..just look at your freaking verizon bill all the fees and taxes are more than the dam price for the service...


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> the name of the game with these entities is to add as many fees as possible to raise the price of the product..years ago I got a gas bill with 1 total on it, now its split into the gas price bill and the distribution system bill and the 2 halve are much more than the old 1 total inclusive bill..just look at your freaking verizon bill all the fees and taxes are more than the dam price for the service...


I have a verizon prepaid plan for 43$ a month including taxes. I get unlimited talk, text, 3gb of data and I can roll over unused data to get me up to 5gb. Work pays us 50$ every 30 days for our phones. I can make a phone last one year so that extra 7$ covers me buying a mint used phone or two.

If you have a cellular contract you're getting hosed. You should check out google voice, not as a replacement, it just has a ton of handy features like voicemail to text.


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## Alan (Jun 18, 2008)

skoronesa said:


> I have a verizon prepaid plan for 43$ a month including taxes. I get unlimited talk, text, 3gb of data and I can roll over unused data to get me up to 5gb. Work pays us 50$ every 30 days for our phones. I can make a phone last one year so that extra 7$ covers me buying a mint used phone or two.
> 
> If you have a cellular contract you're getting hosed. You should check out google voice, not as a replacement, it just has a ton of handy features like voicemail to text.


My oldest just started high school and we got him a cell phone. It's 40 bucks a month to prepay it, he's got more data than my wife and I share, as well as unlimited talk and text. 

Granted his phone is not the greatest, but it's still a smartphone.


All that said, we had to yank it from him for a week, because his spanish teacher says he only gets a 50% participation because the phone is a distraction.

Next offense is switching to a flip phone. Honey badger doesn't even give a sh%t.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

skoronesa said:


> I have a verizon prepaid plan for 43$ a month including taxes. I get unlimited talk, text, 3gb of data and I can roll over unused data to get me up to 5gb. Work pays us 50$ every 30 days for our phones. I can make a phone last one year so that extra 7$ covers me buying a mint used phone or two.
> 
> If you have a cellular contract you're getting hosed. You should check out google voice, not as a replacement, it just has a ton of handy features like voicemail to text.



I wasnt talking about total price of cell phone bill, if you look at your bill broken down almost half of that $43.00 are fees and taxes, so without that your cell bill would be like $23.00....but all all the extras and its $43.00 so you are still getting hosed with all the taxes and fees...total price is not the issue..


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> I wasnt talking about total price of cell phone bill, if you look at your bill broken down almost half of that $43.00 are fees and taxes, so without that your cell bill would be like $23.00....but all all the extras and its $43.00 so you are still getting hosed with all the taxes and fees...total price is not the issue..



Without taxes my cost would be 40$ There is 3 and change in sales tax and a 911 "fee" which goes to local municipality to keep the 911 system working properly.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

skoronesa said:


> Without taxes my cost would be 40$ There is 3 and change in sales tax and a 911 "fee" which goes to local municipality to keep the 911 system working properly.



so is that like a trac phone deal?


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> so is that like a trac phone deal?



No, tracphone is a completely different company that only leases bandwidth on other networks towers and doesn't own their own equipment. Generally you buy "minutes" of talktime which have expiration dates. This is great if you rarely use your phone and don't mind only having good service in densely populated areas. You're also most likely to get your call dropped when there is heavy call volume.


Verizon prepaid is verizon cell phone service just like with a contract except you pay upfront. My plan is 40$ a month. Unlimited talk and text with 3gb of data. I can carry over up to an additional 2gb of unused data from the last month. I only use about 1.5gb a month. I could save 5$ if I enrolled in autopay.


The thing with most prepaid plans that people don't like is that you either bring your own phone or buy one of their cheap phones. If you don't mind buying a good used phone off of ebay or the like than it works great. If you always have to have a new phone as big as your face than stick with a contract and pay out the rear.


The particular model I use is the adr6300 aka HTC Droid incredible. It is about 10 years old and a near mint one can be had for about 20$ including shipping on ebay. I have broken or worn out about 13 in the past 9 years. I have many spare batteries and chargers and separate chargers just for individual batteries. I have a peanut butter jar in each of my vans with a spare phone, batteries, and charger. It is a very durable phone but I always keep mine in my pocket and they get dropped alot, almost always the screen is perfectly fine unless it lands flat on the screen. 



It is required for my job that I always have my phone on me and working. Because verizon doesn't use sim cards(mostly) if I lose or break one of my phones I can just turn on a spare and dial a number to activate it with my phone number. It will also automatically redownload all of my contacts.


Most of the large carriers have near identical prepaid plans so who ever you have now will most likely let you use your current phone and switch to a prepaid plan if your phone is paid off and your account is in good standing.


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

PLUMBER_BILL said:


> OpenSights said:
> 
> 
> > https://www.wilx.com/content/news/G...HEMupiRA1YN6qSnY5KF3LRcgYNaQMnJwV_N3R7q64rTBY
> ...


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Just talked with my Master, he’s on vacation until the Monday after next. He got a call from one of our apartments. We don’t have the exact numbers, but one building went from a $7-800 water bill to over $3k+! They went through all eight units, no obvious issues, no swimming pool in the crawl. So they called the board of water and light and had the meter replaced. Turns out the old meter was slow and their bill went up another $k. I guess peek usage is 11pm and 2am. 

When I get the actual numbers I’ll post them. Our first guess is they have one or more tenants pissed off at him and found a way to stick it to him.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

OpenSights said:


> Just talked with my Master, he’s on vacation until the Monday after next. He got a call from one of our apartments. We don’t have the exact numbers, but one building went from a $7-800 water bill to over $3k+! They went through all eight units, no obvious issues, no swimming pool in the crawl. So they called the board of water and light and had the meter replaced. Turns out the old meter was slow and their bill went up another $k. I guess peek usage is 11pm and 2am.
> 
> When I get the actual numbers I’ll post them. Our first guess is they have one or more tenants pissed off at him and found a way to stick it to him.


That's some payback you can't prove who did it! Imagine running hot water, a water bill and gas/electric bill on top!


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

Tango said:


> That's some payback you can't prove who did it! Imagine running hot water, a water bill and gas/electric bill on top!



depends how the building is piped, if home runs from the basement water main , flow meters can be put on each apartment and if found to be done on purpose both civil and criminal charges could apply..


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> depends how the building is piped, if home runs from the basement water main , flow meters can be put on each apartment and if found to be done on purpose both civil and criminal charges could apply..


Single meter, once it it comes through the crawl space wall it feeds all heaters (ng) and above ground.

We’re hoping the board will monitor monitor usage and call.... that or we’re going to have to camp out and watch the meter, wait for it to go crazy and open doors for a plumbing emergency without notification. Legal here.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

One of my customers had a terrible tenant. This guy didn't get along with the older neighbor lady. He decided to do some small things to piss her off. The landlord had to tell him to stop. So the guy spoke with a lawyer and found out he could legally play drums in his apartment until 11pm. So he got a drum kit. He also used the failing waste line to do even worse, he would flush just enough paper towels to clog the main but it would go through his line because it was copper and some nicer cast. He got that idea after there had been clogs on a bad sectionoutside we fixed. Next he was running the hot water on his tub like 12 hours a day. The landlords normal heating guy was trying everything to figure out why the 100 gallon indirect wasn't keeping up. So he had us add an 80 gallon hybrid electric before the indirect. Still was having issues but whenever we showed up to check all was fine.


I don't know the exact final outcome, he still had a couple months on his lease. The guy had been using the excuse of no hot water and the clogs as a reason not to pay his bill so when it finally emerged about what he was doing I think the landlord got his lawyer involved. I do know the landlord was being very nice and not forcing the issue of rent, he just wanted him gone as quietly as possible.




.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

skoronesa said:


> One of my customers had a terrible tenant. This guy didn't get along with the older neighbor lady. He decided to do some small things to piss her off. The landlord had to tell him to stop. So the guy spoke with a lawyer and found out he could legally play drums in his apartment until 11pm. So he got a drum kit. He also used the failing waste line to do even worse, he would flush just enough paper towels to clog the main but it would go through his line because it was copper and some nicer cast. He got that idea after there had been clogs on a bad sectionoutside we fixed. Next he was running the hot water on his tub like 12 hours a day. The landlords normal heating guy was trying everything to figure out why the 100 gallon indirect wasn't keeping up. So he had us add an 80 gallon hybrid electric before the indirect. Still was having issues but whenever we showed up to check all was fine.
> 
> 
> I don't know the exact final outcome, he still had a couple months on his lease. The guy had been using the excuse of no hot water and the clogs as a reason not to pay his bill so when it finally emerged about what he was doing I think the landlord got his lawyer involved. I do know the landlord was being very nice and not forcing the issue of rent, he just wanted him gone as quietly as possible.
> ...


 the playing drums till 11pm is not quite right, at least in my county the ordinance is if the noise( drums) bother someone in another residence and they want to sign a complaint the noise maker will be summonsed and have to goto court and pay fine..
sometimes getting rid of trouble tenant is blessing even if it costs a few bucks..and then claim 5X that amount as a loss on your taxes and make back some $$...


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