I've live in this house for over 5 years, and my water usage has ALWAYS been between 2 CCF (living alone) and 10 CCF per month (3 room mates, 4 people total). My billing cycle is from the 4th to the 4th of every month. I just received my March statement, which would have run from Feb. 4th to Mar. 4th, and much to my surprise it was over $800!
Immediately thinking I screwed up a payment or something, I logged in to my online account only to find the issue: the claim my Jan. 4th to Feb. 4th water usage was 73 CCF!! That's over 55 THOUSAND gallons of water! This is an "actual" reading. The guy drives around pinging the meter and it just compares the previous reading to the current reading and bills accordingly. Thing is, my usage the previous period looked normal, 11 CCF, and my current usage from Feb. 4th to Mar. 4th was 7 CCF.
I called, and talked to 3 different people who said "must have left something on" and that the reading is the reading. I know for a fact that nothing was leaking or left on. The outside water is off, the downstairs toilet that's never used is off, and I have people in the house almost 24/7 to alert me to an issue. I know my home, unless there's a new swimming pool somewhere that I don't know about, this is insanity.
The only thing they said they could do is remove the meter, at MY expense, test it with their "calibration equipment" to verify it's readings, and install a new meter. Again, at MY expense. This is the craziest thing I've ever heard.
I have a sneaking suspicion that there's no way out of this, you know what they say: you can't fight city hall. I'm just wondering if anyone else has been through this, and what the outcome was.
To be clear, this is what the usage shows:
12/4 - Actual reading 806
1/4 - 817
2/4 - 890
3/4 - 897
I'm so glad I'm dumping this place, home ownership is a pain in the rear. Not that this couldn't happen anywhere, but still. It's starting to nickel and dime me and I'm sitting on 100k in equity in 6 short years. I'm out.