George Nemeth · Why are people complaining about the Cleveland Water Department?

April 21st, 2009

Per Joel Libava’s tweet:

After living in my present house for over 12 years, and paying my water and sewer bills perfectly, I get to experience the thrill of joining over 2,000 other Cleveland Water Dept. customers who have been sent bills that out of nowhere, have gone up over 700% in one quarter.

There is a problem. It’s getting bigger. Are you one of the folks who have received these outrageous bills? If so, it is time to band together and demand real answers, and get some real solutions….NOW! 

Here is what I think may be going on:

The Water Company is in trouble. The recession affects every business, and every consumer. This is a public utility, I believe, but it is being run by the City Of Cleveland. I really think that they are hoping for a 20% payday. What I mean by that is that if 20% of the customers that they overbilled just pay their bills without a fight,  they can recoup their losses.

It’ll be interesting to see how this gets resolved. Suffice it to say that the Water Dept has enjoyed a special status for a long time.

via NEO Biz Blog: Cleveland Water Department Is Looking For Suckers.

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2 Responses to “Why are people complaining about the Cleveland Water Department?”

  1. om4padme1 Says:
    April 21st, 2009 at 10:09 am

    I have never paid for water/sewer living in Cleveland and the surrounding areas. But my boyfriend just moved here and got a house on Cleveland’s west side and will have to pay for water. He had to pay a $375 deposit just to get the water transfered into his name! Supposedly this deposit can be used toward future bills, or returned after stopping or changing service. I have never, ever heard of a utility company charging this much money as a deposit to turn on an essential service, even when your credit is great.

    - om4padme1

  2. lilatovcocktail Says:
    April 21st, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Count us in on the Water Dept. suckers class action suit.

    We got a water bill last summer for 6 times our normal bill and we’ve been fighting it ever since. They say we must have had a leak or something that billing period (and if we can show them a plumber’s bill proving we fixed this fictional leak, they’ll give us a discount).

    We’ve lived in this house for 14 years. Why won’t they accept an average of all the billing periods before and since? We’ve had numerous letters back and forth with no resolution.

    Just recently we also started receiving our neighbor’s water bill as well, with his name on the bill but our address. Something is definitely broken.

    So Joe, where do we go from here?