Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/26/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I contacted Department of Public Utilities about $25 returned eCheck charge and asked remove $25 charge from my account. I paid full amount of my bill on time before due date. I always paid full amount before due date in past and continue do this. This was only one time honest typing mistake. They refused remove $25 charge from my account because they do not want do that.I had problem before. My new water meter was connect wrong way. I received bill with much higher amount than real water usage. I wasted my time for waiting for their crew to come and reconnect water meter.They made mistake too. And they did not give me $25 for my time and unconvience. I do not understand why their choose treat me like this. This is cruel and unfair way to treat good customers. This problem only will be solve if $25 charge remove from my account.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/28/2025

  Good Morning

  Thank you for allowing the Department of Public Utilities to address the concerns of *** ****.  

  Her payment of $119.63 was received on time however it came back as a return.  The bank charges the *** for the dishonored item, this fee must then be billed to the customer.  

  Unfortunately, we are not able to remove this fee.

  Thank you

  ****** ******

   

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/24/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On May 31, 2024 I provided the City of Columbus ***** of Public Utilities a completed Water/Sewer Tenant Direct Billing Agreement. The water switch, which is required by my lease, was to be effective 5/31/2024 with an inside reading of 0895 and an outside reading of 0894. The Utility Lead Representative responded to the email June 3, 2024 at 08:35 with the following: Thank you for contacting The Department of Public Utilities on 5/31/24 regarding your Tenant Billing Agreement.We have received your Tenant Direct Billing Agreement. The agreement is missing information and therefore cannot be processed as received. Please make sure the following fields are complete and resubmit:* Tenants SSN we need a valid social to accept the formAt 08:39, I responded that I refuse to provide my Social Security Number (PII) for utility service and especially not via an unsecured email. I asked for other options. Later that day at 12:37 Utility Lead Representative responded, with our policy we are required to have the social in order to accept the tenant billing agreement and create an account for the tenant. No options were given. On June 7, 2024 at 17:41 I replied again citing the Ohio Administrative Code which clearly states utilities cannot required a Social Security Number to establish utility services. *** 4901:1-17-01 The Utility Lead Representative responded June 10, 2024 at 08:14 claiming that the *** only applies to property owners. This is not what is written in plain English in the above-referenced code. I offered to provide my Drivers License information and/or a letter of credit from another utility to prove my creditworthiness.I have resided in this home since 2018 and can provide any needed documentation to prove residency and/or credit worthiness, but the Utility Lead Representative continues to insist that the City of Columbus is not bound by the *** or that the *** only applies to property owners. Both claims are absurd.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/25/2024

  Mr.  ******

  Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilites and allowing us to address your concerns.

  The Department of Public Utilites follows Columbus City Code, and we require social security numbers to start service.  As a tenant if you do not wish to provide us with that information, service will continue the owner's name. If you do wish to have service in your name but do not want to send that information via email you can come to our downtown ****** at *********************************** your SS card and the billing agreement and the *** can start your service. 

  I apologize for any inconvenience.

  Thank you

  *************************

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/07/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My water got shut off without being told it was getting shut off yesterday. I only received a notice for the 13th, yesterday was clearly not the 13th. Then on top of that I had to call 3 times in an hour just to get someone to acknowledge my complaint/ concerns. They took my money, but dont seem to care to do their jib and get it turned back on a t a reasonable time. To me this is totally unacceptable.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/08/2023

  Ms. ***********
  
  Thank you for allowing the Department of Public Utilities an opportunity to address your concerns.
  You reported to the BBB that your water had been shut off without notice and that you had received a notice for the 13th.  
  Please allow me to break down your account.  The last payment made on the account was for $100.61 made on February 17, 2022.  The reason this is important is we send 3 notices per bill so with multiple bills many dates would overlap and could cause confusion of due dates for each billing period.
  Any turn off process were stopped while you were on payment arrangements.   After the payment arrangement defaulted on December 2, 2022, I show that delinquent notices were sent to the property.  A new payment arrangement was added to the account on December 12, 2022 via our online smartsheet. This plan defaulted on January 20, 2023.  Per policy once notices are sent regarding a disconnection if they are stopped due to an activate payment arrangement no additional notices were sent.  A new bill for service dates September 15, 2022 – December 14, 2022, was mailed on December 20, 2022, and stated new charges due January 19, 2023.   
  The next notices sent to your property all concerned your newest bill.  This would have been the penalty notice and a turn off notice.   No additional notices were sent regarding your previous notices. 
  I apologize for the inconvenience and the confusion.   If you receive multiple bills with overlapping due dates, please call our office at ###-###-#### for a breakdown of each charge and due date.

  Thank you. 

  ****** ******

  Department of Public Utilites 

   

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/08/2023

  Bc there were deliquincies sent yes, however nothing on my end showing it was getting disconnected before the 13th of Feb. I also am not happy with the service i received with you all in general . Customer service reps were rude, all but the one guy. He was the only one who would even hear me out at all. Then you all rake my money, bit make me go a whole business day before bothering to turnnthe services back on. Rhis is highly unacceptable as a business! I work customer service. 
  

  Business Response

  Date: 02/10/2023

  Ms. ***********,
  My apologies, but our system does show that all delinquent notices were sent to your billing address.  As for turn off dates, when turn off notices are sent out they are part of a process that sends the notices by days after the due date of the original bill.  If the process is stopped for any reason, the way it did anytime you were on a payment arrangement there will not be an additional turn off notice.  However, notices are sent regarding the default of the payment arrangement, the letter states that the water service has been rescheduled for disconnection due to nonpayment.  
  Unfortunately, it is not always possible to restore the service the same business day, this information is stated on turn off notices. 
   I will pass along your concerns regarding the service you received from the Customer Service representatives to the Call Center manager, she will have the supervisors review each call that came in that day regarding the water service at your property.   
  
  Thank you.

  ****** ******
  Department of Public Utilities

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/14/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Received a bill from Columbus Public Utilities requesting amount $228.74. Billing period Feb 22- May 19, 2022, which equals 87 days. During billing period, we were there for 68 days. Mathematical, the daily rate comes to 2.63 a day, we paid $178.84 of the $228.74. The remaining 19 days should have been billed to the new owners. Contacted Utilities company on or around April 25th to have services discontinued at **** ************ ** on April 30, and open services at **** ***** **** ** as of April 25. After receiving a notice in the mail at our current address from the Utilities company, it still stated a balance and no mention of the utilities at our present address. From all indication, which they are trying to blame me that they did not receive notice of disconnect. They continued service in our name, it was not until June 10 that the service changed to the new owner's name at the Constitution address. Not sure what has happened, but the water company is not very confident when it comes to tracking information. After escalating to Supervisor, Joshua, he first stated he would roll the remaining balance over to the owners. But at the end of the conversation he stated it was out of his hands even though the bill was passed the dates of us not living there, it would remain in our name and the balance needs to be paid. When I called the Utilities company procedures antiquated, Joshua agreed and stated the system was getting a complete overhaul to preform services better, but in the meantime this is all they had to work with. I told him I am not going to pay something I do not owe, he stated, take that up with the owners. I should not be responsible because the Utilities company can not service its people properly in 2022 technology. From all indication, if the Utilities company can not fit it in to their schedule/paper work it does not get done, and it falls on the consumer to pay even if they did not occupy the property. This is highway robber at its best.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/18/2022

  Good Morning
  
  Thank you for contacting the Department of Public Utilities and allowing us the opportunity to address Ms. ******’s’ concerns.
  
  On May 27, 2022 ****** **** contacted our office.  She wanted her billing address changed to  **** ************ **. They were already owners of the property but they would now be living in the this property and wanted to update the information for her accounts. She did sate that the tenants had moved out of the property on May 1st.
  
  Ms. ****** stated in her correspondence with your office that she contacted our office on or around April 25th to have services discontinued. On April 29, 2022 we received a call from Mr. ******, he was calling to see if the Tenant billing agreement he had emailed  for **** ***** **** ** had been received.  I did see that the billing agreement was sent to our office on  April 26, 2022.  He did not mention ending service at  **** ************ **.  I am unable to find any calls or emails to end service at  **** ************ **.
  
  Our processes to start and end services for a customer are standard for a water utility.  We require a reading taken on the day the customer is starting or ending the service.  This reading can be provided by the customer or scheduled for one of our technicians to make a trip to the property.  However I am unable to find where Ms. ****** contacted our office to start this process. Without a meter reading we are unable to adjust the 19 days off the  final bill  for Feb 22, 2022 – May 19, 2022.
  
  I understand that Ms. ****** does not feel she should have to pay for usage when she did not live at that property but without a meter reading taken on the date they moved out of the property we are unable to adjust the account.
  
  Thank you
  
  Martha T

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/19/2022

  I am rejecting this response because: you people have now come up with two different stories as to how this happened. Get ur lies straight. First u stated ******* contacted ur office to begin service on May 1 now u state she did not contact until May 10th. I am not responsible for ur errors and u can not push this on the consumer. If your office need to roll over the 19 days to the now present owners, like Joshua stated in my phone call to him a few days ago. Or do u not have a note on that call either. I am not responsible for the error of the Water dept. Ur system needs to be fixed and not at the expense of the consumer.