So with the move to flat fee for the time being, can I drain and fill my pool for my fat fee this month? Or are they going to back charge me once they "fix" the glitch?

It's been about 7 years so it's about time to reset cya levels and if I can do it for no charge then it seems like a good as time as any

Half the pools gonna get fresh water if they are simply flat rating jt

Hang on we've had a pool for 22 years and I've never drained and filled it. Are we supposed to?

cryption said:

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Hang on we've had a pool for 22 years and I've never drained and filled it. Are we supposed to?

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If your CYA gets out of control a partial drain helps get it back to manageable level.

I've heard of the pool floating. I've always just checked the levels and adjusted my equipment accordingly. I learned something new today though.

AJ02 said:

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cryption said:

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Hang on we've had a pool for 22 years and I've never drained and filled it. Are we supposed to?

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We were always warned not to or the pool would "float".

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I had never in my life heard of this or of it happening. I work in the commercial insurance business, and had a commercial pool contractor as a client, and getting coverage for this was a major concern for them and many policies exclude it, and it apparently happens relatively frequently. I was shocked.

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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"Flat fee" water billing is just CoH's way of saying, "our water metering system is incomprehensible jacked up and broken and we have no idea what we're doing or how to fix it," right?

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Something like 25+ percent of the remote reading transmitters don't work, so the city has two choices: 1.) Manually read the meter, which they don't have enough people to read every meter every month; or 2.) Estimate your reading and then do a manual read when they can get to it. They city most often chose to estimate bills, which caused things to get screwy with bad estimates and huge catch-up bills. This was a problem when I worked at utility customer service 20 years ago, and it's apparently only gotten worse.

So my estimate is really high, I'm assuming when they finally get around to actually reading the meter they will give me a credit for already paid?

Rustys-Beef-o-Reeno said:

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So my estimate is really high, I'm assuming when they finally get around to actually reading the meter they will give me a credit for already paid?

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That's my understanding from the letters they sent out. I know I had a credit balance last month on one of my accounts.

Houston has an atrocious water bill rate I pay more for water than electricity it's a joke

I noticed several months ago that the city meter readings were supposedly showing I had used exactly 1k gallons, 2k gallons, or 3k gallons. Not just their billing protocol (which is also ****ing absurd), but their actual meter readings.

It's fabricated data, which I pointed out to whoever is dumb enough to be employable by the city.

Now the flat billing?

How is the not fraud?

I have an idea. Hire a person for a set number of meters in a certain neighborhood. Make them responsible for reading the meters and/or installing new readers over time. Pay the worker well and replace the worker if the job is not done. It is not complicated.
Our estimated water bill was 300 recently, which was ridiculous as it rained about 15 inches in that time period and the irrigation system was never turned on.

Did anyone else recently get the notification about the changing of the payment processing system for COH Water?

I logged into my account and added my credit card over to this new Chase system....and got charged twice.

Ryan the Temp said:

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Quote:

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Or are they going to back charge me once they "fix" the glitch?

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Yes.

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Curious why you say this and if it's actually based on anything other than an extremely low opinion of the City (one which I would share).

According to this, we're being billed based upon prior usage and you'll be credited if you use less but won't be billed the difference if you use more.

https://www.houstonpublicworks.org/sites/g/files/nwywnm456/files/doc/005-set_usage_and_billing_flowchart-english.pdf

Ryan the Temp said:

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ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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"Flat fee" water billing is just CoH's way of saying, "our water metering system is incomprehensible jacked up and broken and we have no idea what we're doing or how to fix it," right?

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Something like 25+ percent of the remote reading transmitters don't work, so the city has two choices: 1.) Manually read the meter, which they don't have enough people to read every meter every month; or 2.) Estimate your reading and then do a manual read when they can get to it. They city most often chose to estimate bills, which caused things to get screwy with bad estimates and huge catch-up bills. This was a problem when I worked at utility customer service 20 years ago, and it's apparently only gotten worse.

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I mean we have to be talking tens of millions of dollars is missed revenue right? My brother purchased his house like 10 years ago. He didn't receive a water bill the first couple of years. Then called in and has since only received a bill for less than the fees are supposed to be each month.

Putting together a team to analyze accounts for amounts that don't make sense and replacing the meters would net them more they would spend.

I work in the waterworks industry and we sell meter systems as part of our offering. This to me is absolutely insane.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Wild that in 2024 cities are so distracted with other bs that they struggle to provide basic city services.

Plays second fiddle to installing concrete medians, bike lanes that will remain unused, renovating abandoned cisterns and building dog parks inside the bank of a flood control bayou.

With all the money wasted on covid and other bs over the past 20-years the Astrodome could've been renovated and returned to original spec twice over.

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It is much simpler then that.

There isn't a clear and easy kickback way to fix water meters to run things properly and efficiently. And by "fix" i mean create a problem that needs to be "fixed" in 2-4 years.

AgLA06 said:

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Ryan the Temp said:

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ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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"Flat fee" water billing is just CoH's way of saying, "our water metering system is incomprehensible jacked up and broken and we have no idea what we're doing or how to fix it," right?

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Something like 25+ percent of the remote reading transmitters don't work, so the city has two choices: 1.) Manually read the meter, which they don't have enough people to read every meter every month; or 2.) Estimate your reading and then do a manual read when they can get to it. They city most often chose to estimate bills, which caused things to get screwy with bad estimates and huge catch-up bills. This was a problem when I worked at utility customer service 20 years ago, and it's apparently only gotten worse.

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I mean we have to be talking tens of millions of dollars is missed revenue right? My brother purchased his house like 10 years ago. He didn't receive a water bill the first couple of years. Then called in and has sense only received a bill for less than the fees are supposed to be each month.

Putting together a team to analyze accounts for amounts that don't make sense and replacing the meters would net them more they would spend.

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Probably hundreds of millions. Never mind the delinquent water bill debt the City refuses to take effective action on. I once proposed COH switch to the model they use in New York where every water bill is treated as a lien against the property. Right before the real estate boom of the late 1990s, New York had more than $1 billion in delinquent water bills. The real estate boom reduced that number by something like $700 million. I was able to show how it could result in a recovery of almost $200 million in delinquencies, but I was completely ignored. (ETA: This was around 2007-2008)

Anastasia Beaverhaven said:

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Ryan the Temp said:

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AgLA06 said:

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Ryan the Temp said:

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ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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"Flat fee" water billing is just CoH's way of saying, "our water metering system is incomprehensible jacked up and broken and we have no idea what we're doing or how to fix it," right?

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Something like 25+ percent of the remote reading transmitters don't work, so the city has two choices: 1.) Manually read the meter, which they don't have enough people to read every meter every month; or 2.) Estimate your reading and then do a manual read when they can get to it. They city most often chose to estimate bills, which caused things to get screwy with bad estimates and huge catch-up bills. This was a problem when I worked at utility customer service 20 years ago, and it's apparently only gotten worse.

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I mean we have to be talking tens of millions of dollars is missed revenue right? My brother purchased his house like 10 years ago. He didn't receive a water bill the first couple of years. Then called in and has sense only received a bill for less than the fees are supposed to be each month.

Putting together a team to analyze accounts for amounts that don't make sense and replacing the meters would net them more they would spend.

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Probably hundreds of millions. Never mind the delinquent water bill debt the City refuses to take effective action on. I once proposed COH switch to the model they use in New York where every water bill is treated as a lien against the property. Right before the real estate boom of the late 1990s, New York had more than $1 billion in delinquent water bills. The real estate boom reduced that number by something like $700 million. I was able to show how it could result in a recovery of almost $200 million in delinquencies, but I was completely ignored. (ETA: This was around 2007-2008)

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Putting a lien on a home for a failing to pay a public utility company bill? What could go wrong here?

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Detroit.

Ryan the Temp said:

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AgLA06 said:

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Ryan the Temp said:

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ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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"Flat fee" water billing is just CoH's way of saying, "our water metering system is incomprehensible jacked up and broken and we have no idea what we're doing or how to fix it," right?

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Something like 25+ percent of the remote reading transmitters don't work, so the city has two choices: 1.) Manually read the meter, which they don't have enough people to read every meter every month; or 2.) Estimate your reading and then do a manual read when they can get to it. They city most often chose to estimate bills, which caused things to get screwy with bad estimates and huge catch-up bills. This was a problem when I worked at utility customer service 20 years ago, and it's apparently only gotten worse.

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I mean we have to be talking tens of millions of dollars is missed revenue right? My brother purchased his house like 10 years ago. He didn't receive a water bill the first couple of years. Then called in and has sense only received a bill for less than the fees are supposed to be each month.

Putting together a team to analyze accounts for amounts that don't make since and replacing the meters would net them more they would spend.

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Probably hundreds of millions. Never mind the delinquent water bill debt the City refuses to take effective action on. I once proposed COH switch to the model they use in New York where every water bill is treated as a lien against the property. Right before the real estate boom of the late 1990s, New York had more than $1 billion in delinquent water bills. The real estate boom reduced that number by something like $700 million. I was able to show how it could result in a recovery of almost $200 million in delinquencies, but I was completely ignored. (ETA: This was around 2007-2008)

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Cut off the water and any other service to the property until repaid. That's the option.

I get where you were coming from, but the flip side is a bust leaves the city looking like a post apocalyptic novel.

Focus on being competent first. Ensure all meters are working. Ensure all accounts are audited for discrepancies or billing amounts that don't make sense. Put a maintenance / replacement plan in place so that every year 10% are replaced to avoid this going forward. All that would bring in hundreds of millions more than now for a city that needs the revenue.

Quote:

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Cut off the water and any other service to the property until repaid. That's the option.

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The city can't even do that right. There are customers who haven't paid their bill in YEARS whose water was never turned off. Besides, customers can just turn it back on (and they do).

There are eyelets on the shut-off valves at the meter that are there to be locked out. The problem is, as soon as you turn someone's water off (whether you lock it out or not), all the "organizers" are going to come out of the woodwork and talk about how you're trying to kill the resident by shutting their water off.

Once again, the removal of negative consequences for poor decisions rears its head.