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Aqua Pennsylvania Extremely rude customer service & poor payment processing Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania
I honestly believe Aqua America purposefully sends your mail to the wrong address and/or refuses to accept you payment when you send it so they can harrass you by phone and add additional charges to your account. When I moved, I gave them my forwarding address plus I had a forward on my old address. I did not need water service at my new address as it was only a temporary situation. December goes by-no bill. I call them up and ask them if a bill was sent. They replied yes, they sent it to my old address. (why did they send it to my old address after I gave them my new address?) I replied I have not recieved it and asked them to send it to my new address. Again, I gave them my new address. January goes by-no final bill to either address. I called again the end of January. They said That the deposit I paid was added on to the new bill and that my balance was $0. That is why I did not get a bill-although I was told by two representatives that two bills were sent 30 days apart.
6 months later, I moved to a new address that required water service-so I had to call Aqua PA for it. They then told me I had a balance on my account. I was told in January I had a $0 balance. She then replied I did have a balance, and she does not know why anyone would tell me that. She said not to worry, she would just transfer the balance to my new address. She said wait until the first bill and pay the balance because I would be issued a new account number. This was May 26. I had service turned on June 2. 7 days after I have service turned on at my new address I learned I recieved a 10 day shut off notice! They called my phone 7 times one afternoon while I was working a double shift. I was angry. When I called, they gave me an extension on the bill, since I just had my service turned on at my new address-plus I had not even accumulated a new bill yet. This was a new account altogether. I asked them why didn't I recieve the shut off notice by mail, they told me they sent the shut off notice to my OLD ADDRESS! I asked them why they would send the notice to an address that was over 6 months old when they transfered service to my new address? The representative could not explain why-nor did he offer an apology. I asked for my new account number so I could pay the past due and be done with it. So I mailed the previous balance right away. They returned it to me saying I did not have my account number written on the check! I wrote it on a check and a letter I mailed to them. After they returned my payment, they harrassed me via telephone again with another shut off notice! I called 3 times and spoke to 3 very rude customer service representatives that blamed me for the check being mailed back to me. Only 1 representative I spoke to was nice to me. Her name was Terry. The rest huffed and puffed very rudely and said it was returned because an invoice was not included with the payment and they do not look up names and addresses! How was I to send and invoice when I never recieved one? How obsurd! I had all my information included and due to someone's incompetence, my payment was not processed. So, I was requested to fax over a copy of my money order & reject payment letter and they would pardon the shut off notice-as long as I resent the money order. I am so sick of these people it is rediculous. They return my money then harrass me! Now they are charging me extra money in late fees despite my countless efforts to pay them. I swear they return payments to customers so they can charge them extra money. I believe that is the same reason they keep sending bills to an address I have not lived at for over 7 months! The utility companies in this state make me want to move. You cannot switch to another provider because there is none, so you have to deal with all the inadequacies at your expense. Watch this company if you have to do business with them. The water switched to Aqua Pennsylvania years ago, and they are no longer about customer satisfaction. They are about getting as much money from the customer as they can. I hope I don't ever have to call there again. All the representatives have attitudes and they are not very helpful at all. I am working on filing a report with the Public Utilities Commission. No one-especially a very pregnant woman like me-should have to go through this!
Pam
Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Studiogin
Glen Mills,Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
Me too, AQUA PA is the absolute worst!!!!!!!!!!!
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, August 07, 2008
Pam,
I am located in West Chester, about 20 minutes from you. I too have had many stressful, unpleasant, calls with AQUA PA. I too told them my new address after moving last november. Never received a thing in the mail until mysteriously 4 months after moving into my new address I get a call saying I owe like $200. If not paid in 10 days water is shut off. I asked why I hadn't gotten a bill, and they gave some stupid explanation that they weren't sure if the name on the account was correct!!! I was like huh?? So I bucked up and paid the money, not happy, but I did owe it so I did the right thing.
Just this month, I get a bill where the water usage in that current month is higher by 3 times than any other previous month. I called to ask for an explanation and they said they would send someone out for a "re-read". Of course, I wasn't home when they came and another bill comes in the mail. Nothing is adjusted, it shows my past 6 months usage with one month sticking out like a sore thumb at 3 times as much as all the others. I called today, got some incompetent minority on the phone, and they basically told me to go pound sand. She stated their reading was definitely correct, and that ridiculously high usage on a month where I had no difference in water intake had to be correct according to them. I demanding an explanation, and of course they had none other than the water must have been left on. I can assure you, I have no kids, just my husband and I, and one of us is always here, no water was "left on".
I swear they manipulate these things just to get more money out of consumers. The government should not allow one company to monopolize water supply, because if I had a choice, I would drop AQUA like a bad habit.