Reply to Gouged by the DC government for...drinking water?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC Water is a disgusting disgrace of an agency. In most jurisdictions, if you have some sort of plumbing accident - like a leaky toilet, broken pipe, hose left on - you can get a one-off waiver. DC Water will never ever do this. I had my Councilmember request such an exception on my behalf, the CEO agreed, and then never replied to any one of my follow-up emails. Their agents have access to real-time usage data, but they refuse to push this to customers - so if you have a leak or similar such plumbing misadventure, you don’t find out about it until up to 3 days and hundreds of dollars later. And this is nothing compared to those who have been overbilled to the tune of thousands of dollars and had to go to hell and back to get it corrected.[/quote]

DC Water has to cover its costs somehow. If the choice is to have the people who leave a hose on or delay fixing a leak bear the costs of the water they use, or spread those costs across everyone, I prefer the former. Why should I have to pay because you left a hose on? Let's incentivize responsible behavior.[/quote]

You didn't read beyond the second sentence, did you? DC Water customer service reps have access to real-time data on water usage but yet DC Water refuses to give households access to that data. So instead of finding out about excess water consumption in real-time, DC Water makes you wait up to three days to learn about it. If DC Water were actually interested in "incentiz[ing] responsible behavior", it would give its customers the information necessary to reduce their water usage. But it's not. What they are interested in is maximizing water bills, which is why they have systems which unnecessarily delay customer notifications of excess water usage. But, hey, if you get your kicks from being the edgy DCumer who defends the most rapacious utility in the DMV area, more power to you.[/quote]

I'm all for real time data, but the kind of person who can't figure out that their toilet is running or their hose is on isn't going to log in and check regularly. And even if there was a high usage alert email or text, might not take action or figure it out quickly. There will still be a group of people who want an exception. And I would rather them not get one.[/quote]

The fact that some people won’t take action based on real time information is a justification for not providing real time information to all? Where do you people find this logic?

Anyone who has owned a house for any period of time knows that plumbing misadventures happen from time to time through no fault of the occupants. And it is for that reason that most water utilities - bar DC Water - are willing to waive the costs of such accidents on a one-time basis.[/quote]

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