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The Water Flows…

Friday, November 15th, 2002

We got water last night. Here’s how:

For the past three days, I’ve been bugging the hell out of Arlington County. By my count, they’d sent four different workers out to our house to check the meter and make sure the water was at least flowing from their end. There’s an access panel out by the road apparently allows them to get to the pipes connecting the city’s water supply to my house’s plumbing. All of them reported back that the meter was on, the filter was fine, and that we should have water. All of them told me that the problem was with my house’s plumbing — that it’s a problem for my landlord and I to work out.

So we did. My landlord called a plumber, who came to the house and checked the plumbing. He also checked the access panel linking the city’s water to my house. He reported back that not only was the meter off, there was still a note on the meter indicating it had been turned off due to a delinquent account!

How, we were wondering, could no less than four separate city workers have come to a different conclusion, and not seen the note?

You know where this is going.

I finally got fed up and told the city to call up the same worker who had turned off the water to go out and be sure it had been turned back on. They sent her out and, yes, you guessed it, she found the meter still turned off, and the note still attached.

Four times the city sent workers to my house. Four times they assured me that the water was on. Four times they told me “it’s your problem, there’s nothing we can do.” And all four of them were looking at the wrong access panel!

Now answer me this: If the city had contracted water storage and delivery out to a private company — or better yet, if several private companies competed for the business of delivering water to Arlington County residents — do you think any of this would have happened? Would I have gotten smug, curt responses on the phone when I merely called to check the status of my account? Would I have been promised that my water would not be turned off, only to find my service terminated on exactly the day I was promised it wouldn’t be terminated? Would incompetent city employees have mistakenly flipped valves on the wrong pipes, then told me that the problem was with my plumbing?

The answer to all of those questions is probably not, but perhaps. But even if all of those things had happened, I’d at least have recourse. I could threaten to take my business to a competitor unless I’m reimbursed for the hassles of the last two weeks. If the city had contracted out to a private firm, there’d at least be more pressure on them to compensate me, or to better their business practices, lest I and other disgruntled customers raise enough hell to force the Arlington County Board to switch firms.

But we don’t have that in Arlington. We have a city-controlled monopoly on water service that’s answerable to no one. What do I get for two weeks of hassle and inconvenience? I get to be thankful that I have water again. That’s it.

I’m not done with this.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 15th, 2002 at 8:01 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

33 Responses to “The Water Flows…”

#1 | Frank | November 15th, 2002 at 8:56 am
Cool…This was like Survivor:Arlington, VA.

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#2 | Steve | November 15th, 2002 at 9:27 am
Maybe if you had paid your bill on time, then you wouldn’t have ever had this problem. Yes, the County water works appears inept, but it seems you put yourself in this predicament by not paying your bill when it was originally due.

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#3 | Anonymous | November 15th, 2002 at 9:43 am
steve, you obviously did not read radley’s earlier post on the matter. Maybe if you knew all the facts before commenting, you would not make an ass of yourself.

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#4 | julian | November 15th, 2002 at 9:47 am
What on earth motivates people to post smug little paragraphs like that? I mean, gee, I guess if the original water bill hadn’t been [gasp] a few days late, this wouldn’t have happened. Is there a point to that shockingly insightful observation, or is this just one more commentor determined to be a petty asshole?

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#5 | Joe Sims | November 15th, 2002 at 10:21 am
In my experience, 99% of all private companies will give you a cushion of a couple days after a bill is due to pony up the cash, or at least a portion of it; it helps promote goodwill and customer retention when they are willing to work with you on payment. But god help you if a public utility bill is even a day late, even if it’s through no fault of your own (i.e. Radley’s tale of bureaucratic horror). Why are they such assholes? Because they can be! I doubt that the People’s Republic of Arlington would’ve gone under if they didn’t get your $130 THAT DAY… I would keep on their asses until some sort of apology (at the very least) is given, because I doubt that this is a one-of-a-kind experience. There are current class-action suits out there regarding denial of service that have less merit, you know…

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#6 | jimmy | November 15th, 2002 at 10:21 am
yeah well if Radley didn’t use water then none of this would’ve happened. guess you have noone but yourself to blame Radley.

keep up the fight.

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#7 | Jill | November 15th, 2002 at 11:06 am
Steve obviously works for the county water department. He’s probably the supposed “supervisor” Radley spoke with.

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#8 | Jeff | November 15th, 2002 at 2:16 pm
Look at it this way, Radley… at least your state income taxes are paid… :o)

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#9 | Albro | November 21st, 2002 at 5:20 pm
I used to work for a city Public Works department. I remember one day the Assistant Director came by and one of the managers told him he saw a report on the news last night that a lot of water customers in a certain part of town were upset about a problem with their water service. He asked if he was worried about the bad publicity about customer service. The AD said, âIt doesnât matter what they think. They canât vote in the City elections.â I knew then it was time to find another job.

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The Water Flows…

33 Responses to “The Water Flows…”