Hey Las Vegas Residents & Homeowners, you need to see this...
Las Vegas Valley Water District may have over charged you in February! AND charged you a late fee, AND dinged your credit because of it!
I have had auto-pay set us for years on most all of my utility bills (All except sewer- for some reason Clark County Water Reclamation does not bill like the rest of the companies here in Vegas- but that's not what this is about.) So, back to my point... I was surprised when my water bill from Las Vegas Valley Water District was double this month of what the normal charges usually are. For my household it's not a big deal (my bill runs about $25 per month) so when it doubled it was noticeable, not critical, but for larger households, homes with pools, and higher volume users, this could be hundreds of dollars!
When I logged into my online account, I could see I was current on all previous payments (why wouldn't I be, after-all, like I said, I was on auto-pay.) Hoping, I did not have a water leak like the last 2 times my bill was abnormal/outrageous (by the way, previously it was a water-main leak on the water company's side of the valve, so they had to repair it at and credit my "so called wasted water usage" at their cost) and the time before that it was a underground sprinkler pipe that had frozen during an unusual cold front one January, that lasted longer than normal (which was quickly repaired by an AMAZING Company- ran my Tony Olteam- Future Yards of Las Vegas.) I decided I better call the water company and see what was up, I dislike wasting water especially knowing Vegas and California are in some of the worst drought years in history!
So, I called Las Vegas Valley Water District customer service to investigate, automatically getting a hold message that they were experiencing a high call volume (9 minutes), so I found other things to do while waiting on hold. (I find that is the best way to keep calm when having to deal with a company with long hold times.) Jann, a not so friendly customer service rep took my call and asked for my address, last 4 of my social security number, to confirm my phone number and give her my birthday before she would even allow me to ask my question- (account verification is one thing, it just seemed like an absorbent amount of information.) After sharing/confirming ALL my personal information, she proceeded to tell me I was late with my last payment, was charged a late fee, and my internal credit score had been docked! What! The online system said I was current with all past payments. I continued to ask questions; maybe I was misunderstanding the online system? (Naw- not me.) After a short hold, she came back on the line, and told me I was not late after-all! What? Now I'm confused and a bit frustrated, but happy.
Apparently, their auto-pay system had problems in February, where it charged account holders, but forgot to/ did not credit their accounts! It was a known issue, and up to me (the resident) to tell them there was a problem! Surprised, I asked her how to correct it, she said she would open a tech ticket and someone would credit my account for the over charged billing period in approximately 3-5 days, and I would need to follow up at that time. Surprised with her lack of apology on behalf of the company and concern, I asked for a confirmation number for my records, (I wanted to make sure it was actually taken care of if I needed to reference it in the future) she said that she could not provide one, she could only provide her name J-A-N-N. I said okay and thank you, and then decided to ask for a inconvenience credit. Surprisingly, she offered $5.00 off a future bill. (Better than nothing and a little compensation for my wasted time. Cool.)
Curious, I inquired further about her statement about a credit score. Apparently, Las Vegas Valley Water District keeps a credit score on each of their account holders to determine if a deposit will be charged, or if future service can be turned on after a move. Your score starts at a 100 points and is docked for late or returned payments. So they had automatically docked my score because of their internal error! No way. So she corrected that for me too. (I'm happy now.)
A few lessons and tips:
- Stay patient while on hold, everyone has a job to do, some of us more than we can squeeze in all in a day's work
- Watch all billing statements, even if on auto-pay
- Keep an eye on recurring payments and call if something seems abnormal, you may be being over charged
- Inquire about the refund process time frame
- Always get a confirmation number or name of employee for future reference
- Ask how it may affect a future account or credit score with their company
- Ask for an inconvenience credit, sometimes they are there for the asking, but not given unless asked for
So, Las Vegas, I urge you to take a look at your past couple of months of water bills with Las Vegas Valley Water District and check to see if charges may have resulted in late fees and a reduced internal credit score because of an internal known technical error. It may be worth your time. The call saved me about $30.00.
Las Vegas Valley Water District Customer Service can be reached at (702) 870-2011, www.lvvwd.com
Las Vegas Area Utility information can be found below.
Written by Nickel Lowman
Independent Blog Writer
Dave Radcliffe, The Radcliffe Group
Keller
Williams Realty Southwest
702-379-3401
The Radcliffe Group is your Las Vegas, Summerlin,
Centennial
Hills, and North
Las Vegas real estate connection. Ranking consistently as one of the top
real estate teams at Keller Williams Realty Southwest Las Vegas, Dave also
ranked number 1 in 2014 as the top producing individual out of 172 Realtor-
Agents in his office.
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