Bloated Water Bill Leaves Customer All Wet

What would you do if you water bill shot up to $ 800 ?

Louise Rice is a Brooklyn retiree living on a fixed income. She owns a house and was used to paying about $120-$130 quarterly for her water bill. Then all of a sudden this February 2009 she got a water bill for $819.68!

Louise immediately contacted the water company to dispute the bill and was told that there may be a leak in her home and she'd have to hire a contractor from DMC Honeywell Services to survey her house for possible leaks.

Louise called Honeywell, they came, inspected her house and found no leaks.

Louise then forwarded their survey findings to the water department, thinking everything would now be fixed. She was flabbergasted then when she received her next water bill, this time for $317.00!

When she called again to find out what was going on with her bill, she was told by a customer service representative that she should be happy that at least it wasn't as much as the last bill !

Frustrated, Louise called Help Me Howard.

We called the New York Department of Environmental Affairs, who handle water & sewage matters for the city. They promised to look into it and just three days later a new water meter was installed in Louise's house. She also received a credit on her next bill and is looking forward to a regular water bill the next time around.