Water Co. lost payment, refuses to restore svc

[autumn_whispers]

What is the name of your state? Alabama

Hi, everyone. Pardon me for just jumping right in like this, but
we've been without water now for six days. The water company refuses
to turn our water on until they can "find out what happened to the
money." We have a receipt, something they've been supplied with
twice now, and we've urged them repeatedly to look at the video
surveillance tapes for that day to show we paid.. in cash.. since
they aparently view their own receipts as worthless.

They originally shut us off for late payment, but we had made payment
arrangements due to hurricane Ivan leaving us without work for a
week, then only 2 paychecks since with only close to 40hrs. But even
after the bill was paid in full they did not turn the water on.

We fear someone has pocketed the payment since it was in cash, but we
have a receipt. We can't take showers, can't flush the toilet or
wash dishes, and we simply can't afford to pay for a motel until they
straighten this out.

PLEASE can someone advise us where to start?? we called a couple of
local attorneys offices, but I guess they're reluctant to deal or go
head to head with the water company because no one has attempted to
call us back since yesterday. We're desperate at this point, we're
completely stressed and don't know what to do. We don't even know
anyone here locally to ask to use their shower... because it's gotten
bad enough where we would do that if we could.

please. any advice at all would be a godsend. I'm at my wits end.

Thank you for listening.

 

[FarmerJ]

assuming your water utility is owned by your city go see your city council person or your towns mayor and bring another copy of your rcpt and make a huge stink , tell them you want this resolved in one business day or your going to make a bigger stink with any local television station that has a consumer advocate that helps people investigate problems . BTW by chance are the mayor or city council people up for re election this fall ? im sure they dont want bad media coverage if they are .

 

[autumn_whispers]

Thank you SO much FarmerJ

My fiance got home about 30min ago and told me that he called two attorneys today to see what to do next. The first attorney was very honest and said he was "not going to take on the water department." But the second attorney said he would send a letter to be delivered tomorrow to start the ball rolling.

He's asking for them to restore our service immediately and is asking for compensation by way of an adjusted bill of 2-4 weeks (with no charge).

We wont know if this will do any good until tomorrow, but we're on the edge of spilling our guts to the media for sure. Bad thing is... neither one of us have had anything more than a 'sponge' bath in nearly a week. LOL How embarassing. We're really hoping the letter will get their attention because they aren't at all interested in the fact that we have a receipt for payment.

Water dept. office is now closed and we're one more day without water.

Thank you for your suggestions. We're seriously considering all you've suggested if the attorney's letter doesn't work.

 

[logical252]

Water problems

I would not wait for an attorney's action. If I had a receipt of payment for the water bill, which is legally acceptable, I would go directly to the Mayor's office and demand that my water get turned on. I never heard of disregarding a receipt, much less turning your water off. I have been late by 4 months for a water bill in the past, I live in Maryland, and not once was my water turned off. Something is fishy here, and I would be raising a fit, like the other guy said, call everyone, media, mayor etc.

 

[JETX]

I would not wait for an attorney's action. If I had a receipt of payment for the water bill, which is legally acceptable, I would go directly to the Mayor's office and demand that my water get turned on. I never heard of disregarding a receipt, much less turning your water off. I have been late by 4 months for a water bill in the past, I live in Maryland, and not once was my water turned off. Something is fishy here, and I would be raising a fit, like the other guy said, call everyone, media, mayor etc.

And if you had taken the time to READ the post, you would have seen that your non-relevant droolings were made to a post that is almost TWO MONTHS old!!!
I would imagine they now have water.... making your post even LESS relevant (if possible)!!!

 

[autumn_whispers]

The post isn't that old really

I'm the originator of the post, and this is still an ongoing problem. As of today we had to contact the attorney again for them losing yet another payment.

I don't want to get in the middle of anyone's arguments, but what was posted here actually helped us.

Thanks to those who posted some great advice.