If all you got credited on TEN UNITS was $17.48 there is STILL something wrong. Did i miss something ?

thanks

You Missed.
Know what you are consuming, know what you are paying for it.

Lifetime Healthcare and 278k salaries have to come from somewhere

Does it really matter? Suppose that they did misread your meter and overcharged you 10 units. When they come back next time and read your meter correctly, they wil compare the new reading to the incorrectly recorded previous reading and think that you used 10 units less water than you actually did.

@Sam - yes this is a big deal, especially if this was in the summer. 10 units can easily put you into the penalty range. And our water department is quick to penalize.

Bill, that might be true if it happened in the summer, but since it didn't I don't see what difference it would have made in this case other than the people at the water department scratching their heads and wondering how Mike Austin managed to use about negative 3 units of water in his next bill.

I would have never thought of it until you wrote this but my usage was inexplicably 10 units higher than it should have been. Human error or systematic corruptions?

Another problem in penalties are if the meter reader cites your meter as "light" by 10 units one reading, then they correct it by reading accurately the next time, showing the missed 10 units in the following billing period.

By catching up to the true reading, the meter reading is correct this time, and there is no longer a way to show the old reading, so you are low one time, then up the extra 10 units the next time, and qualifying for a penalty.

I would say Michael Austin is the exception by charting his water usage weekly. I go to work 5 days a week, but if I were retired, then I could chart the water usage and challenge any errors in the manual readings.

Francis:

I am semi retired, own and operate a freight and cargo inspection service from my home office, Monday through Friday. I do my yard work Saturday. I read my water meter on Sunday, or when I see the city reader out there. It takes just a couple of minutes to remove the cover, to read the meter.

If you get started reading your meter once a week, I recommend wearing leather gloves, open the water meter cover slowly. There may be a variety of critters present, have a safe look, before putting in your hand, or face too close in.

Following up on Michael's comment, after I received a bill with penalties, I started tracking my water usage daily until I saw a pattern since my sprinklers ran on different days. I realized the timing was off and they were running longer than expected, so I made an adjustment and my usage went way down.

Reading the meter may not be convenient, but tracking the usage 1-2 weeks gives you a good idea how much you use on a regular basis.

For what it's worth, I reduced my water consumption by almost 20% in the last billing cycle, but my bill went down only 2%. Some incentive there, right?

When you receive your water bill, remember election for 3 of the Zone 7 board members is in June. We all need to pay attention to the voting records of the incumbents and vote out those that voted for the 30% rate increase not too mention the 15% raise for the general manager!!!!