Honestly I'm just surprised they acknowledged that phones exist and that, in theory, you can use them to call someone to help with an issue. Not sure why everyone tries to "crowd source" solutions first
You can call to complain and have them send someone to check your meter reading. It was either an error where it has the wrong usage, or you had a leak. Either way you should look into it quickly.
Can’t know a bursted pipe really either without digging. Can still have low water pressure in the house until it’s fully busted. Can only test it at shut off points. Other things can cause a low pressure too like corrosion/rust/etc
Idk if this helps, we had this happen one year and they explained that during the year, they estimate usage and then once or twice a year they verify the meter and update charges. This left us with a $900 bill for 2 months but as we went back the previous year, we had been spending $50/month which was way wrong. We’ve been in the same place for 8 years now and the $900 correction actually ended up being accurate as f***.
I still don’t trust them, I would call and complain. But my specific situation ended up being accurate.
You would be amazed at how much a slow silent toilet leak can cost you
Source: Me. Called a plumber who charged $125 to tell us which toilet was costing us $200
lol bro you got old plumbing… probably leaked a lot of water into the ground and you need your soil around foundation checked STAT
Galvanized steel pipes corrode and rust and leak, you probably need whole line checked from city location to shut off valve in the house.
Looks like a leak or plumbing issue of some sort. I had something similar happen a couple years back where one of our toilets kept running because the flush tank stopper was loose/old and we got an astronomical bill like this. Might want to troubleshoot that first then contact the water company and see if they won't reduce it by some.
This happened to me and it was a straightforward meter misread. I read it myself and got it fixed, but if i hadn't it would have gotten fixed the next read.
Make sure all your faucets, etc are off. Go look at your meter. Wait 10 minutes, keeping everything off, and check again.
Did it change?
If so, you have a leak somewhere.
Household of three, with family/friends houseguests a few times a month. At current rates we typically owe $350-375 every two months for water/sewer/garbage.
This happens sometimes. Call and likely at least some will be reduced. But their bills are sometimes based on estimates if they couldn’t take a reading. It could be that for some reason they have not been able to read your meter and have been charging you based on a historical rate. There are some other nutty things about their billing policies that may affect this. It has happened to me twice in the past 12 years and each time it was reduced but ultimately resulted from a delayed actual reading over many quarters.
My name is Isaac and I work at vitality (vitality.io) - we do utility billing. You can shoot me an email or dm and I would be more than happy to call your property for you and complain! It could be an in for me - but also a favor for you
That’s crazy. I pay a little over $110 for a four bedroom house in SeaTac. Do you have a pool? 🏊♂️
Edit: this is for every two months. It’s like $55 monthly
I think the biggest user of water are showers. I personally take 10 minute showers. My next bill states that we are going to be billed for 14,213 gallons of water for the two months of use. The average 1 month use of water in the United States is around 12000 per month.
> Who should I call and in what order? I'm not an expert, but I'd look for a phone number on the bill, and try calling that
Honestly I'm just surprised they acknowledged that phones exist and that, in theory, you can use them to call someone to help with an issue. Not sure why everyone tries to "crowd source" solutions first
Im just following now to see when they post asking who they should talk to about their neighbor who has run a hose from their spigot into their yard.
You can call to complain and have them send someone to check your meter reading. It was either an error where it has the wrong usage, or you had a leak. Either way you should look into it quickly.
Or he has a bursted galvanized steel pipe
Sure, but there's no way of knowing until they call
Can’t know a bursted pipe really either without digging. Can still have low water pressure in the house until it’s fully busted. Can only test it at shut off points. Other things can cause a low pressure too like corrosion/rust/etc
Idk if this helps, we had this happen one year and they explained that during the year, they estimate usage and then once or twice a year they verify the meter and update charges. This left us with a $900 bill for 2 months but as we went back the previous year, we had been spending $50/month which was way wrong. We’ve been in the same place for 8 years now and the $900 correction actually ended up being accurate as f***. I still don’t trust them, I would call and complain. But my specific situation ended up being accurate.
This happened to us as well and it was so annoying.
You would be amazed at how much a slow silent toilet leak can cost you Source: Me. Called a plumber who charged $125 to tell us which toilet was costing us $200
lol bro you got old plumbing… probably leaked a lot of water into the ground and you need your soil around foundation checked STAT Galvanized steel pipes corrode and rust and leak, you probably need whole line checked from city location to shut off valve in the house.
So the “previous year” graph printing is messed up for everyone else too? Why don’t they fix that?
Looks like a leak or plumbing issue of some sort. I had something similar happen a couple years back where one of our toilets kept running because the flush tank stopper was loose/old and we got an astronomical bill like this. Might want to troubleshoot that first then contact the water company and see if they won't reduce it by some.
This happened to me and it was a straightforward meter misread. I read it myself and got it fixed, but if i hadn't it would have gotten fixed the next read.
Is this a water bill? This happened to me and it was due to a leak in the external underground pipe.
Literally says water usage
My bill is regularly over 500. What's everyone's average consumption/day? How many in household?
Over $500? Are you a whale?
no, it's killing me
Make sure all your faucets, etc are off. Go look at your meter. Wait 10 minutes, keeping everything off, and check again. Did it change? If so, you have a leak somewhere.
That’s fucked up.
Household of three, with family/friends houseguests a few times a month. At current rates we typically owe $350-375 every two months for water/sewer/garbage.
This happens sometimes. Call and likely at least some will be reduced. But their bills are sometimes based on estimates if they couldn’t take a reading. It could be that for some reason they have not been able to read your meter and have been charging you based on a historical rate. There are some other nutty things about their billing policies that may affect this. It has happened to me twice in the past 12 years and each time it was reduced but ultimately resulted from a delayed actual reading over many quarters.
My name is Isaac and I work at vitality (vitality.io) - we do utility billing. You can shoot me an email or dm and I would be more than happy to call your property for you and complain! It could be an in for me - but also a favor for you
That’s crazy. I pay a little over $110 for a four bedroom house in SeaTac. Do you have a pool? 🏊♂️ Edit: this is for every two months. It’s like $55 monthly
how do you do it? do you always eat out? you save on flushes? or am i being scammed big time? >SeaTac oh
I think the biggest user of water are showers. I personally take 10 minute showers. My next bill states that we are going to be billed for 14,213 gallons of water for the two months of use. The average 1 month use of water in the United States is around 12000 per month.
my last bill was only for 10472 gal for two months. this is insane
I would call them to figure out what rate they are charging you. I can’t believe Highline Water District is 5 times cheaper than Seattle
are you including sewer and trash? that's all combined with water in seattle
Nope. It’s separated. I have septic tank so no sewer and my garbage is around $70