ComplaintsforDepartment of Public Utilities, Columbus Ohio

• Initial Complaint

  06/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On May 31, 2024 I provided the City of Columbus ***** of Public Utilities a completed Water/Sewer Tenant Direct Billing Agreement. The water switch, which is required by my lease, was to be effective 5/31/2024 with an inside reading of 0895 and an outside reading of 0894. The Utility Lead Representative responded to the email June 3, 2024 at 08:35 with the following: Thank you for contacting The Department of Public Utilities on 5/31/24 regarding your Tenant Billing Agreement.We have received your Tenant Direct Billing Agreement. The agreement is missing information and therefore cannot be processed as received. Please make sure the following fields are complete and resubmit:* Tenants SSN we need a valid social to accept the formAt 08:39, I responded that I refuse to provide my Social Security Number (PII) for utility service and especially not via an unsecured email. I asked for other options. Later that day at 12:37 Utility Lead Representative responded, with our policy we are required to have the social in order to accept the tenant billing agreement and create an account for the tenant. No options were given. On June 7, 2024 at 17:41 I replied again citing the Ohio Administrative Code which clearly states utilities cannot required a Social Security Number to establish utility services. *** 4901:1-17-01 The Utility Lead Representative responded June 10, 2024 at 08:14 claiming that the *** only applies to property owners. This is not what is written in plain English in the above-referenced code. I offered to provide my Drivers License information and/or a letter of credit from another utility to prove my creditworthiness.I have resided in this home since 2018 and can provide any needed documentation to prove residency and/or credit worthiness, but the Utility Lead Representative continues to insist that the City of Columbus is not bound by the *** or that the *** only applies to property owners. Both claims are absurd.

  Business response

  06/25/2024

  Mr.  ******

  Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilites and allowing us to address your concerns.

  The Department of Public Utilites follows Columbus City Code, and we require social security numbers to start service.  As a tenant if you do not wish to provide us with that information, service will continue the owner's name. If you do wish to have service in your name but do not want to send that information via email you can come to our downtown ****** at *********************************** your SS card and the billing agreement and the *** can start your service. 

  I apologize for any inconvenience.

  Thank you

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

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  02/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My water got shut off without being told it was getting shut off yesterday. I only received a notice for the 13th, yesterday was clearly not the 13th. Then on top of that I had to call 3 times in an hour just to get someone to acknowledge my complaint/ concerns. They took my money, but dont seem to care to do their jib and get it turned back on a t a reasonable time. To me this is totally unacceptable.

  Business response

  02/08/2023

  Ms. ***********
  
  Thank you for allowing the Department of Public Utilities an opportunity to address your concerns.
  You reported to the BBB that your water had been shut off without notice and that you had received a notice for the 13th.  
  Please allow me to break down your account.  The last payment made on the account was for $100.61 made on February 17, 2022.  The reason this is important is we send 3 notices per bill so with multiple bills many dates would overlap and could cause confusion of due dates for each billing period.
  Any turn off process were stopped while you were on payment arrangements.   After the payment arrangement defaulted on December 2, 2022, I show that delinquent notices were sent to the property.  A new payment arrangement was added to the account on December 12, 2022 via our online smartsheet. This plan defaulted on January 20, 2023.  Per policy once notices are sent regarding a disconnection if they are stopped due to an activate payment arrangement no additional notices were sent.  A new bill for service dates September 15, 2022 – December 14, 2022, was mailed on December 20, 2022, and stated new charges due January 19, 2023.   
  The next notices sent to your property all concerned your newest bill.  This would have been the penalty notice and a turn off notice.   No additional notices were sent regarding your previous notices. 
  I apologize for the inconvenience and the confusion.   If you receive multiple bills with overlapping due dates, please call our office at ###-###-#### for a breakdown of each charge and due date.

  Thank you. 

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

  Department of Public Utilites 

   

  
  

  Customer response

  02/08/2023

  Bc there were deliquincies sent yes, however nothing on my end showing it was getting disconnected before the 13th of Feb. I also am not happy with the service i received with you all in general . Customer service reps were rude, all but the one guy. He was the only one who would even hear me out at all. Then you all rake my money, bit make me go a whole business day before bothering to turnnthe services back on. Rhis is highly unacceptable as a business! I work customer service. 
  

  Business response

  02/10/2023

  Ms. ***********,
  My apologies, but our system does show that all delinquent notices were sent to your billing address.  As for turn off dates, when turn off notices are sent out they are part of a process that sends the notices by days after the due date of the original bill.  If the process is stopped for any reason, the way it did anytime you were on a payment arrangement there will not be an additional turn off notice.  However, notices are sent regarding the default of the payment arrangement, the letter states that the water service has been rescheduled for disconnection due to nonpayment.  
  Unfortunately, it is not always possible to restore the service the same business day, this information is stated on turn off notices. 
   I will pass along your concerns regarding the service you received from the Customer Service representatives to the Call Center manager, she will have the supervisors review each call that came in that day regarding the water service at your property.   
  
  Thank you.

  ****** ******
  Department of Public Utilities

• Initial Complaint

  07/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Received a bill from Columbus Public Utilities requesting amount $228.74. Billing period Feb 22- May 19, 2022, which equals 87 days. During billing period, we were there for 68 days. Mathematical, the daily rate comes to 2.63 a day, we paid $178.84 of the $228.74. The remaining 19 days should have been billed to the new owners. Contacted Utilities company on or around April 25th to have services discontinued at **** ************ ** on April 30, and open services at **** ***** **** ** as of April 25. After receiving a notice in the mail at our current address from the Utilities company, it still stated a balance and no mention of the utilities at our present address. From all indication, which they are trying to blame me that they did not receive notice of disconnect. They continued service in our name, it was not until June 10 that the service changed to the new owner's name at the Constitution address. Not sure what has happened, but the water company is not very confident when it comes to tracking information. After escalating to Supervisor, Joshua, he first stated he would roll the remaining balance over to the owners. But at the end of the conversation he stated it was out of his hands even though the bill was passed the dates of us not living there, it would remain in our name and the balance needs to be paid. When I called the Utilities company procedures antiquated, Joshua agreed and stated the system was getting a complete overhaul to preform services better, but in the meantime this is all they had to work with. I told him I am not going to pay something I do not owe, he stated, take that up with the owners. I should not be responsible because the Utilities company can not service its people properly in 2022 technology. From all indication, if the Utilities company can not fit it in to their schedule/paper work it does not get done, and it falls on the consumer to pay even if they did not occupy the property. This is highway robber at its best.

  Business response

  07/18/2022

  Good Morning
  
  Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilities and allowing us the opportunity to address Ms. ******’s’ concerns.
  
  On May 27, 2022 ****** **** contacted our office.  She wanted her billing address changed to  **** ************ **. They were already owners of the property but they would now be living in the this property and wanted to update the information for her accounts. She did sate that the tenants had moved out of the property on May 1st.
  
  Ms. ****** stated in her correspondence with your office that she contacted our office on or around April 25th to have services discontinued. On April 29, 2022 we received a call from Mr. ******, he was calling to see if the Tenant billing agreement he had emailed  for **** ***** **** ** had been received.  I did see that the billing agreement was sent to our office on  April 26, 2022.  He did not mention ending service at  **** ************ **.  I am unable to find any calls or emails to end service at  **** ************ **.
  
  Our processes to start and end services for a customer are standard for a water utility.  We require a reading taken on the day the customer is starting or ending the service.  This reading can be provided by the customer or scheduled for one of our technicians to make a trip to the property.  However I am unable to find where Ms. ****** contacted our office to start this process. Without a meter reading we are unable to adjust the 19 days off the  final bill  for Feb 22, 2022 – May 19, 2022.
  
  I understand that Ms. ****** does not feel she should have to pay for usage when she did not live at that property but without a meter reading taken on the date they moved out of the property we are unable to adjust the account.
  
  Thank you
  
  Martha T

  Customer response

  07/19/2022

  I am rejecting this response because: you people have now come up with two different stories as to how this happened. Get ur lies straight. First u stated ******* contacted ur office to begin service on May 1 now u state she did not contact until May 10th. I am not responsible for ur errors and u can not push this on the consumer. If your office need to roll over the 19 days to the now present owners, like Joshua stated in my phone call to him a few days ago. Or do u not have a note on that call either. I am not responsible for the error of the Water dept. Ur system needs to be fixed and not at the expense of the consumer.  
  

• Initial Complaint

  05/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My water bill keeps increasing. I received a bill for $200. My last bill through 1/10/22 was $133.00. On 4/20/22 at 10:35, tried to speak with **** who seemed to be preoccupied. Called again @ 10:39am spoke with ********** who was very argumentative and ***** manager. They both insisted they knew what was going on at my property. ***** insisted that I had a silent toilet leaking--my toilet has blue that would show any leaks. Neither stopped to hear what I had to say. I am the only person that resides here and I am at work during the day. I had a leak in December, with water running for a few days and it was repaired December 31st and my bill was not $200.

  Business response

  05/13/2022

  Mrs. ******
  Thank you for allowing the Department of Public Utilities to address your concerns regarding the higher than normal consumption at your property located at  **** ********* Rd.
  
  When a customer calls in with concerns about usage that is either higher than normal or higher than average for the occupancy for the property, we try to help find the reason for the consumption with a series of questions.
  First we ask them to read the inside meter and outside remote
  you provided a meter reading of 1399, this shows that our meter readings were correct.
  Next would be to check to see if the test hand that is located on the meter is moving when you are not using water
  If you know you are not actively using water (i.e. doing laundry, running the dishwasher etc) then the test hand should not be moving –if it is moving then something is pulling water thru the system and you would want to have someone assist you in checking the property for leaks
  Also you can take a reading when you are leaving for the day and then check it when you get home the reading and location of the test hand should not have moved.
  
  We would also suggest that you take regular readings to see how much water is being used on a shorter time period than our normal billing cycle of three  months.  I recommend that you try taking the readings every couple of days for the 1st week or at least once a week, and then take a reading 2 weeks after the last reading you took. This will give you an idea of how much you use in smaller time frames.
  
  Once you take some readings please call in or send them in via email to  www.utilityleadrep@columbus.gov and discuss your consumption for the time frames a CSR will review your consumption and help with forecasting based on the current usage.
  
  We bill to the meter reading on the meter, if the reading is correct there is nothing we can adjust on the account.

  I apologize for the frustration you felt with the CSRs, I will have the calls reviewed and discussed with the CSRs by their supervisors.
  
  Please contact our office with your meter readings or  .
  
  Thank you

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

  Customer Service Manager

  Customer response

  05/18/2022

  First, I did not provide a reading of 1399. The reading I gave was 1998 on April 20th. I checked my meter again on Aoril 30 and it was 1400. That tells me it is being adjusted from the utility company. I an unsure whatvis going on but this seems quite fishy to me. i should not have to keep checking my meter. Thanks

   

  Business response

  05/20/2022

  Ms. ******
  
  I had another member of our management team listen to the call you had with the CSR on April 20, 2022.  They verified that the readings you provided were 1399 for both the inside meter and outside remote. Had your meter read 1998 on April 20th , the CSR would have told you that your meter had moved 599 CCF since our reading on April 7th.  This would have indicated a serious leak.  Your meter reading of 1400 on April 30th is not anything fishy, it had been 10 days since your called our office and at that time your meter read 1399, in those 10 days your meter registered additional consumption.  We are unable to adjust your meter unless we have a scheduled appointment to come into your property and install a new metering system.
  
  Regular checking of your meter readings is something I recommend to all customers. It is no different than keeping an eye on your credit card usage or bank account.  It is a good way to understand your usage and be an aid to determine 1. if there is an issue and 2. under what circumstances does it occur.
  
  If you do decide to take some regular readings and would like to discuss your usage patterns please call our office and a CSR will be happy to assist you.
  
  Thank you
  
  ****** * ******
  Customer Service Manager

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