• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

How much do you pay for water (utility)?

W

wiredspider

Diamond Member
My parents got a new place and the bill seems rather high for what they are getting. They used less than a hundred gallons for the quarter, but were charged the full ~$6 for the first thousand gallons of usage (which is fine).

However, there is also a $35 "Customer Charge" and $11 "Public Fire Hydrant Ready to Serve Charge". I can sort of understand the $11 charge, but the $35 customer charge is BS. They list it as "The customer charge covers administrative costs such as meter reading, billing, customer service and payment remittance."

Do other water companies charge this kind of fee? Where I live (which is actually less than 20 miles from their place), I get water from the city and only get charged for the water I use, it was just under $20 for this last quarter. There is no BS additional charges (albeit I do pay city taxes, but my trash is picked up by them).

Edit:
Low water usage because they don't live there yet.
Bill
Looking at it, I could be wrong about the < 100 gallons used, it says 13 gallons daily?
However, looks like their meter reading, only allows increments of one thousand to be used.
Regardless, the Customer Charge is rather outrageous.
 
Originally posted by: OILFIELDTRASH
I guess someone drilled the well and put a pump in there for free?
Click to expand...

technically no, Grandpa's a plumber he traded some work for having the well drilled.
 
WTF? I take it you read it wrong. How did they go 3 months and only use less then 100gallons. Do they shower in the rain and shit at burger king? A low flow toliet uses 1.6gallons each time. 1 flush a day is 144gallons alone.


But yes many places have a fee for reading meters and other BS. It is a way to raise taxs without raising "taxs". "Read my lips..."
 
Originally posted by: boomerang
Originally posted by: ahenkel
Yay for having a well. I don't pay anything for water.
Click to expand...
Me too.
Click to expand...

I have a well for my water, so I don't pay any usage charges and my water is A+++, but I'm also hooked up to the municipal waste system -- it's about $125-140 every 3 damn months -- but at least I don't have the maintenance costs and huge installation cost of a home septic system.
 
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
WTF? I take it you read it wrong. How did they go 3 months and only use less then 100gallons. Do they shower in the rain and shit at burger king? A low flow toliet uses 1.6gallons each time. 1 flush a day is 144gallons alone.


But yes many places have a fee for reading meters and other BS. It is a way to raise taxs without raising "taxs". "Read my lips..."
Click to expand...

They haven't actually moved in, so they don't shower there, probably don't shit there either, but I don't know that....

Anyway, it's not the price of the water being high, but this additional customer charge that seems outrageous.
bill
 
Originally posted by: notposting
See back of bill? Call water company?
Click to expand...

It just says "The customer charge covers administrative costs such as meter reading, billing, customer service and payment remittance."


I will be calling, as it it seems I am paying for customer service anyway, better damn well use it.
 
I had an electric company once that charged a monthly fee which the fine print said was to lease and maintain the meter on the power pole.

My water company charges $20/month for 2,000 gallons and there are no fees tacked on to the bill.
 
We also have a charge like that. There's a flat fee for having service, plus what you pay based on consumption.
 
Originally posted by: Perknose
Originally posted by: boomerang
Originally posted by: ahenkel
Yay for having a well. I don't pay anything for water.
Click to expand...
Me too.
Click to expand...

I have a well for my water, so I don't pay any usage charges and my water is A+++, but I'm also hooked up to the municipal waste system -- it's about $125-140 every 3 damn months -- but at least I don't have the maintenance costs and huge installation cost of a home septic system.
Click to expand...

That reminds me... maintenance time for my septic system. I'll get it pumped out this fall. Cost, IIRC, is $208

Well water also, but I purchase quite a bit of salt for the water softener, so it's roughly $8 a month.
 
Originally posted by: OILFIELDTRASH
I guess someone drilled the well and put a pump in there for free?
Click to expand...

We have a well, too, and no, it wasn't put in for free.

But, amortized over how long its been in so far vs. cost.....$1800 to drop a pipe approx. 480 ft. down (third aquifer hit, and a deep one) over what is now 11 years, comes to roughly $164 per year, and dropping every year it's used.

True, there is the small elect. use when the pump works, but that's not very often. Think most residential water customers are paying much more than $164/year for their water.....

And the luxury is we just had a small above ground pool put in.......24' x 52". Figure it holds about 9-10K gallons. Just got finished filling it. Cost for that? Electricity at 0.07 cents/kw. (Of course, the pool was a tad more but what the heck. Really will be nice to chill in the thing when it's 90F and 85% humidity as it is here in the summer.....sipping lemonade with the grille fired up with steaks cooking......)

So, don't diss a well even if it costs a bit initially. In the long run, it's way cheaper, esp. considering the OP's bogus $35/mo admin. fee his parents will have to pay. Cannot believe the water co. is doing that. Sheesh!
 
Thinking back on my costs i am paying about $65/quarter for my sewer (I do love having a municipal line for this) and $60-80/quarter depending on water use or the water.
 
I'm not exactly sure what we pay per quarter. I think it's like $110. Every year we also have to pay $550 front foot assessment fee that we will be paying for another 15 years or so.
 
The only extra fee on my water bill is a school tax. Other than that, it's straight water and sewage usage. Before the sewer was put in last year, my water bill was always between $23-$30. Now with the sewer, it's up around $60-$70, which sucks since the septic tank was working just fine.
 
I installed a new softener I bought online about 2 years ago. It's cut down my salt usage to less than an 80# bag a month. There's just the wife and myself here and of course it's all dependent on water usage.

Our water has a lot of iron content and some odor, but the softener takes care of it completely. When I put in the replacement softener, I put a large capacity filter in ahead of the softener. I did it partly to ensure the longevity of the softener.

The last time I talked of my septic system methods here I about got run out of town on a rail. I'm not going to go there again.

I haven't had city water in over 30 years. Can't even remember what it used to cost.

One can debate the pros and cons of city water over well, but for me, and I imagine everyone else with a well, it's not a one or the other type of thing. Well and septic is the only option here.
 
Originally posted by: peritusONE
The only extra fee on my water bill is a school tax. Other than that, it's straight water and sewage usage. Before the sewer was put in last year, my water bill was always between $23-$30. Now with the sewer, it's up around $60-$70, which sucks since the septic tank was working just fine.
Click to expand...
Did they make you pull the tank or break the top and fill it in? I've heard of that being a requirement in some cases. They've talked for years of putting in water and sewers in the township next to us. There has been no money for it for decades and there certainly is none now. I'd heard that removal or fill in of the septic tank would be required. Kind of an adding insult to injury kind of thing IMO.

And that cost covers a quarter - right?

 
I think my town must add recycling to the bill, as I've always been asked that when I go to get a bin. Doesn't matter to me I don't have anything to do with the bill. Free water FTW!
 
Originally posted by: boomerang
Originally posted by: peritusONE
The only extra fee on my water bill is a school tax. Other than that, it's straight water and sewage usage. Before the sewer was put in last year, my water bill was always between $23-$30. Now with the sewer, it's up around $60-$70, which sucks since the septic tank was working just fine.
Click to expand...
Did they make you pull the tank or break the top and fill it in? I've heard of that being a requirement in some cases. They've talked for years of putting in water and sewers in the township next to us. There has been no money for it for decades and there certainly is none now. I'd heard that removal or fill in of the septic tank would be required. Kind of an adding insult to injury kind of thing IMO.

And that cost covers a quarter - right?
Click to expand...

My costs are monthly. It's averaged out for a couple of months based on expected usage, then they actually read the meter every 3 months and catch you back up. Not sure why they don't just bill every 3 months like most here mention.

As far as the septic tank goes, it was mentioned very briefly on the bottom of the last page of the packet we got, but they seem very lackadaisical about. Quite a few of my neighbors and myself included have all said we aren't going to decommission our tanks until they come and make us.

They already charged any household making over $13k a year upwards of $1200 to run the sewer in our neighborhood. The shitty part is that it was required, and there was nothing anybody could do about it. The city basically said, "Hey, we're putting in a sewer and you owe us $1200." I got lucky in that they did the assessment for this shortly before we bought our house and after the previous owners had already moved out, so our property had zero income. We didn't have to pay shit 🙂.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top