October 07,2015
Jane Shinozuka
They assured us they are owed the full amount billed – it not being THEIR fault that they didn’t have the manpower to do anything but estimates for 6 or 7 years! Customers not changing their phone systems for better monitoring to suit Water’s purposes is not an excuse. Where is the genuine attempt at a public awareness campaign? This is outrageous. I’d also like to know if this new calculation is based on current rates. Have those rates been the same for the last 7 or 8 years? At which rate is the catch up bill measured? With each re-calculated bill should come a full reconciliation of each account from when it was first considered underpaid. They insisted they are indeed entitled to the whole amount and offered us a 24 installment payment plan. I’ve since heard from someone else that had a similar problem that he too called to raise the issue and was offered a 15% discount over 5 years… I’d love to know who rates a sweet deal and who doesn’t!
If anyone has an opinion or has dealt with this, please enlighten me. I am always very supportive of all things Ridgewood, even when I’ve had to give the benefit of the doubt – but this is Not Right! Even if every re-calculation turned out to be correct – this is no way to run a business!! Who is “minding the store” ?!
I wonder exactly how many of these bills were simply fabricated by pulling a number out of a hat and mailed strictly on the hope that an “I can’t be bothered” resident would just write a check out without asking “WTF?”
This may be the Village Manager’s new plan to help pay for the parking garage.
Word of advise to all: Start taking a close look at your property tax bills as well.
Would love to hear from anyone who actually challenged one of these bills and found out that it was actually bogus.
File a complaint with the police department for fraud.
Read the fine print. That’s the “Extra chlorine and lead surcharge”.
Please United Water, can you do take this small town mickey mouse incompetent operation over? Please??? Preferably before the taxpayers of Ridgewood have to pay out a settlement to Wyckoff, Glen Rock and Midland Park, who are not taking this kind of nonsense lying down. Apparently we in Ridgewood have no choice. Lucky us.
I got a couple of mortgage-sized bills this year and I sent an email to them. I got a boiler-plate response back about possible leakages, etc. I had a plumber visit, and he assured me that no leakages were occurring. I then went back to RW, this time, going straight to the head guy. That was delegated back to the same guy that answered me before, who seemed more annoyed that I had gone to his boss. I told him about my plumber visit. he had a guy come over to my house to inspect my meter, etc., and sure enough, everything was functioning correctly. The bills were enormous and were way off from my regular summer usage. It simply ended up with me paying, because “that is what the meter said”. You simply end up banging your head against the wall.
Only comment here that makes sense is from the person who has asked about challenging the bill, the others just sound like the usual complainers.
hummm a $6500 water bill is no big deal ????
Bogus I say, and I’m sticking to my story.
Another thing that bugs me about Ridgewood Water is they are the only company I know of that charges a “service fee” to pay your bill by electronic transfer from a bank account. WTF?
What is the problem? Readers could not get in the home? Then maybe they need to have them contact homeowners and go out in the evening.
There should be a limit to these accumulating bills. Water Dept should work harder and smarter.
They all sit around and think they they have a great job. I called once and spoke to a very rude woman who had a “breathless” voice.
They must do outreach before things get out of hand. CUSTOMER SERVICE!!
Ridgewood Water needs to be audited nine ways to Sunday. Heads would roll, and there would be jail time. Well, maybe not jail time. As long as you work for the Village, you can steal almost a million dollars and not spend a day behind bars.
Go Jane!!! thank you for bringing this up. Ol’ Roberta was silent and smiling last night. Could she have possibly offered you some words of explanation? encouragement? Nope, silent dead-pan faces is their M.O. Really appreciate that you came to Council with this and that you posted it on The Blog for all to be informed.
Looks like Frank Moritz “retired” just in time to avoid a review or audit. Perfect timing and his son Greg blew out of town right behind him.
Coin Boy involved…?
Just bend over forward, spread your legs, hold on tight to the examining table, and bite your tongue. It’s the same feeling when you open your water bill, ins’t it?
Hmmm…Isn’t this the same Ms. Shinozuka that ran against our current Council majority 4 years ago? They do have a history of being more than a little vindictive. Perhaps there was another “anonymous e-mail” sent
They should review all bills that have estimated readings for more than 1 year. Homeowners should be notified of the potential problem.
To sit around and wait to drop a big bill on a resident is unconscionable. Ridgewood Water has a responsibility to reach out to the affected customers. They need to remember that we are customers. They are lazy and arrogant.
What’s wrong with you people?
This is Ridgewood and this is how things work.
You are simply asleep at the wheel as you have been for years and now you want answers/results? Sorry, you missed that boat years ago,
Look, you getting screwed and your going to continue to get screwed simply because this IS Ridgewood…it’s how it works. No go back to bed.
Ridgewood Water should be called ( LETS MAKE A DEAL)
United water is sounding good
Isn’t there a statute of limitations on how long a company can back-bill a consumer? I read that if you make a payment recognizing the debt it sets the clock back to zero so don’t pay until you talk to someone. If a bill appeared in my mailbox with 7 years of back-billing of which I had no prior knowledge I wouldn’t pay it. Talk to a lawyer. You snooze, you lose Ridgewood Water.