Because of the complexities surrounding the customer’s plumbing issues and the leaks, our investigation took longer than expected to work through. We have been in continuous communications with the customer throughout the process, and have recently completed our investigation. We have also recently completed repairs to the meter connection and will be completing site restoration around the meter box in the near future.
Our investigation determined that the primary issue was due to our equipment. As is our policy, we reduced his affected bills back to his monthly average.
During the investigation, we placed the customer’s account on an investigatory hold. This is our policy for any high use bill that we are investigating. Accounts on these types of hold may continue to accrue charges but will not be cut off due to non-payment of the charges in question.
In these cases, if our investigation determines Columbia Water equipment or an employee error caused the high use charge, our policy is to reduce the customer’s bill back to their monthly average. If the investigation determines the cause is with the customer’s plumbing or a change in their usage habits, we work with the customer through our bill adjustment process and can set up payment arrangements to help ease the burden of a large bill on the customer. We are also willing to reopen investigations if a customer has additional information about a high usage issue.
To learn more about Columbia Water’s bill adjustment policies, visit http://www.columbiasc.net/customer-care/utility-billing/plumbing-adjustments.
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Columbia Water is the drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utility owned and operated by the City of Columbia, SC. For more information, visit www.columbiasc.net/utilities-engineering.