| Midway Services |
| Midway Services, Inc. Utility Billing Division Hey, Midway, how does one person use $188 worth of water in one month? Clearwater, Florida |
| 21st of Aug, 2011 by User281418 |
In May 2010, the owners of my apartment installed water meters & contracted for Midway Services Inc to monitor each tenant's use of water and bill us. What they did was like unlocking the bank vault to make it easier for the thieves. I live alone. I never use my dishwasher. I probably use my washer as much or little as anyone else would. Here's what I've been charged per -month- just for water!!!
$ 72.61 53.19 135.00 139.82 70.36 70.00 74.24 51.50 52.66 38.41 45.51 66.92 129.05 157.56 191.49 Look at how high these are! A friend of mine lives in a house in my county with his wife and daughter -- and he waters his lawn frequently. He said that he pays about $40 a month. I've paid less than $40 a month -once- since this scam began! (BTW, who knows why the amounts are so erratic. Maybe they throw darts at numbers on a wall.) There's more. At the beginning the only way we could pay was by mail. A bill would be dated as 2-3-2011 for instance. It wouldnt arrive here until about a week later. Meanwhile the payment would be due on 2-18. Good luck getting that payment back to Florida on time. And if you're a day late, they slap you with a $7.00 overdue fee. If you're not late, not to worry-- There's that tidy little $2.79 "billing fee" you get to pay anyway. I was often late with my payment, so I was glad when they "let us" pay online. Now, I'm no longer in danger of the $7.00 late fee, but I still get to pay the billing fee PLUS the $2.95 "Convenience Fee" for being allowed to pay online. As an extra added bonus their "security-free" site remembers both your name and password, whether you want it to or not. Anytime I bring up the site, there it is already for me to click "Enter". No, I did not tell my computer to remember this information. I wouldn't be surprised if the site was an easy hack and people could collect credit card numbers any time they want. I talked with a neighbor today and asked him about his bill. He seems to be paying less than I do each month and there's two people in his apartment. Lucky, but also weird. In the meantime, he told me that the guy across the hall from him received a bill for $250.00 this month. Wow! That makes my bills look like bargains! I've tried talking to my state's Consumer Protection people but evidently there's a lovely loophole in the laws preventing them from dealing with thieves with utility meters. Their hands are also tied with the "gas meter thieves" known as Conservice. (Lots about them at this site.) Whatever you do, do not rent an apartment from owners who use either Midway Services Inc or Conservice for your utility bill! Check before you sign the lease. Check thoroughly. And if your apartment mentions they are going to start dealing with either of these thieves, begin looking for another place to live at once. Yeah, you may lose money breaking your lease but you'll lose more if you stay and have to shell out this kind of cash each month. I'm about to take my own advice and move out of here. Should have done it months ago before Midway conned me out of over $1300 for water in a year and a half! |
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While I feel your pain, as the owner/manager of a sub-metering company and water usage consultant, ther are a few basic things you should look at before making such broad accusations.
First of all; yes, I have seen utility billing companies grossly overcharge, usually however this is accidental and due either incorrect rates or a meter that is reading in the wrong unit of measure (an install mistake).
So the first thing to do is to verify your meter readings match the ones on your bill (the manager can help you locate the sub-meter), next is to find out what the city water rates are for your apartment building (or ask the manager for a copy of the bill for the whole building and work backwards to determine the rates) and then manually calculate what your bill should be.
Often people compare their bill to someone elses, this simply irrelevant, everyone uses water drastically differently, not to mention that water/sewer rates vary greatly, even withing the same city (your friend with the house for example may be on septic? and sewer is usually about 60% of the bill, just another factor).
The reality is that looking at your billing amounts, it looks as though you may have a toilet that is leaking by, that can even be silent... These toilet leaks are ver common ad can use 10-times as much water as two people! ths is usually what causes high usage and large bills... When you check your meter to verfiy the readings, make sure all of your water is off and pay attention to the odd shaped indicator on the meter face, this is the low-flow indicator and if it is rotating, you have a toilet leak.
Sincerely,
Moquey K. Marquross of MeterNet |
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Funny thing is that Midway provides no services to you. The water rights is probably owned by the county. The county hires a legitimate water servicing company to do WATER SERVICING and Deliver water to your location. A company can only do water servicing with a water PLANT. Midway has no such plant. And they do not own the water rights.
Midway pretends to be reading a meter. I bet if you took a look at it, the numbers do not match your bill. It may even have a different number of digits. Midway may also be pretending to have a wifi signal. An electrician can tell you that there is no wifi hooked onto that submeter. [Frankly, I doubt if a wifi can be picked up from out of state if the source is your apartment. Gas company has to park in front of the building to get a signal.] ... Plus, the electrical wiring may be unsafe. You can have it removed if an electrician is willing to say in writing that it is unsafe. Definitely not earthquake safe.
It's a total scam. You should be able to get your money back. Fraud is receiving money you should not receive, by deception, trickery, or some other wrongful way. It's totally fraud.
Water sewer rates are regulated by the state, not just made up by a fake utility company. And the rates are not to be transferable. If utility company A is assigned x rate for residential tenants, company B can not just use that rate. No company B have to go through the lawful process of gaining the rights to service, sell, and charge a particular rate for water. Within a state, different legitimate water utility companies have different rates. A state agency makes the determination. |
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A state agency regulates rates, late fees, water plants, etc. And a water utility company can not transfer it's rights to charge a rate, or to sell the SERVICING of the water. All utility companies must register, draw plans, get authorizations, etc. etc.
Check out the state Public Utility code/law. In some states a state agency only regulates the Private utility company. And the Public utility company is regulated by the courts and state code/law. |
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Oh, and the landlord does not provide water. The water pipes are attached to the building, so that is part of the real property, already included in rent. t
The pipes that deliver the water to the location belong to the real water servicing company, the utility company. |
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