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Erie County Water Authority complaints

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295 Main Street, Room 350
Buffalo, NY 14203 | Get Directions

(716) 849-8466

http://ecwa.org

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Total Amount in Dispute:
$738.00

Total Amount Settled:
$0.00

Complaint Experience

100%

Complaint Resolution Index (CRI)

Complaint Resolution Index (CRI) Explained The Complaint Resolution Index (CRI) is an indicator on how responsive a company is in addressing and resolving customer complaints brought to their attention by BCA. If they are considering doing business with the company, consumers can use this indicator to forecast the likelihood of having their issues addressed if a problem arises. CRI measures the company's customer satisfaction abilities through BCA’s complaint mediation process.

A variety of factors are considered when calculating CRI. This includes how quickly a company responds to complaints, the number of complaints against a company, whether the company addressed complaint allegations, and the outcome of the complaints. CRI is just a subset of the overall rating for the company. Consumers are encouraged to take into consideration the company's CRI, their overall BCA letter rating and other relevant information about the company so they can make a well-informed purchasing decision.

BCA's Summary and Analysis:

Our complaint history for this company shows that the one complaint brought to the company’s attention was responded to and given proper consideration.

Complaint Closing Statistics

1 complaints against Erie County Water Authority closed in last 3 years.

Complaints	Type of response
0	Making a full refund, as the consumer requested
0	Making a partial refund
0	Agreed to make an adjustment
0	Refusing to make an adjustment
1	Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement
0	Unanswered

1 complaints against Erie County Water Authority

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10/18/2021

RESPONSE: Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement Amount in Dispute: $738.18 Amount Settled: $0.00

Customer Complaint

9/9/2021

This letter is to advise of the unwarranted, deceptive, unfair, and fraudulent billing practices of the Erie County Water Authority. Between 3/4/21 to 6/3/21 my water bill significantly increased to $671.07 and then jumped to $738.18. This billing cycle contains 182,000 gallons of water usage. In June 2021 I spoke to an ECWA, Agent that insisted there were leaks. In early August after returning from taking care of my ill relative, I immediately contacted the company via certified mail. To this date, I have been back and forth with ECWA Erica Ambrose via phone and email who contacted me regarding this matter. She insisted there is a leak somewhere within my home and to this date has not been willing to adjust the bill. We have analyzed all possibilities of putting food coloring into the back of the toilets and on 9/1/21 had their Technician come out to my home only to find there are "no leaks". In addition, on 9/4/21 I had an independent company come out to my home only to find there are "no leaks". My defense of no leaks has not changed and has been proven accurate, since day 1. I have not changed or fixed any plumbing. According to ECWA Erica Ambrose, the company will allow a reduction of the bill, if there are leaks present and the problem is fixed. Why can I lawfully get the same reduction when their theory is not accurate and has been proven? I was forced to set up a payment plan only to stop the late charges. Currently, I have paid $163.45 int Resolution Sought Adjust the bill according to the facts

Company Response

10/6/2021

Regarding the customer's complaint I offer the following: • When a customer receives a large bill and questions the usage the Authority makes every effort to work with the customer to help them identify what could have caused the high usage. • The Authority provides high bill inspections for our customers as a courtesy to help them identify what may have caused the large bill; unfortunately, by the time we get into the property to do this many of the times the issue is resolved. It doesn't have to be a leak; it can be as simple as someone finding a toilet running and fixing a stuck flapper in the tank. • If the cause of the excess usage is identified by the customer, and it's due to any reason other than a water powered sump pump running or a lawn sprinkler system issue, we offer them a leak allowance which typically eliminates half the excess usage. In any case we also offer a payment arrangement to ease the payment of the remaining bill. • If the cause of the high bill is not determined, we cannot simply adjust the bill. The water went through the meter even if the customer was unaware of it. • The customer makes mention that ECWA bills were mostly estimated; in some cases the excess usage is simply a case of bills being estimated too low for the previous quarters. Postcards were mailed quarterly to the customer to obtain actual readings but no readings were ever sent into the Authority. The consumption for the large bill is based on an actual read. • A radio read meter that would give actual readings every quarter was offered to the customer but they declined. If they would like a radio read meter in the future, they can contact our Customer Service at 849-8444 to have this scheduled. • An email was received from the customer on September 8, 2021 with her attached independent report and the Supervisor the customer was dealing with responded to her by email on September 9, 2021, letting her know, at this point, we've done all we can and the bill cannot be adjusted.

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