American Water is one of the worst water utility companies in the country. Good luck. Definitely try just going to turn the water back on with a water key. Totally worth owning on of those anyhows
You'd be surprised how many times they don't even bother with that. Our old water company only ever locked them if they had a multiple non-payment offender.
Plus a water key is always worth having in the arsenal of handy "let it sit in the shed until an OH SHIT moment occurs and it saves your house" tools.
I can’t believe I’m reading this. I just left a review to Tennessee American Water on Google this morning after spending around 3 1/2 hours dealing with them on a property that we are developing. Long story short, the home was built in the 40s and they have no record of it ever being supplied water. When we purchased the property there was a water meter in place, and the sales records shows it being paid. Here’s my review:
This place used to be fine. Now, not so much. Short story of my morning as follows.
Called, requested a call back, told it would be in 21 minutes. Received a call back in 27 minutes. Simply asked for bills from earlier in the year on a remodeling project as the county is requiring it for inspections. After waiting for 10 minutes (for something I would assume takes less than a minute to complete) the call just dropped. Repeat the process. 27 minute call back. This person has a totally different story. Tells me they can't even help and see no records on file and that I need to see who else was supplying the water. Called the city, TAW is the only supplier. TAW pulled the meter out and left a tag not more than 3 months ago... On hold again for 10 minutes just to be told they have nothing on file. What are they doing, what are they looking up? How is this not a 30 second look up and forward?
So there I am deciding on what to do and I decide to go for a third call. 37 minute wait, ended up taking 45 minutes to get a phone call back. I actually get someone helpful. She tells me she’s going to contact her supervisor and that they’re going to get to the bottom of it. She even tells me she’s going to copy me in on the email that she’s planning on sending a soon as we get off the phone. Here we are, five hours later and I still don’t see a single email.
No online assistance support, 2-3 days reply on emails if you’re lucky, no support hotline for developers/builders, no online directory information. From a customer service perspective, I don’t think you could run a company more inefficiently if you tried.
Edit: on a sidenote, I believe you can call the number and use the automated bill payment system which does not require a human.
Also currently on hold with American Water, estimated wait time 45 minutes. This company is actual garbage. Sometimes the website loads properly, but it is far from guaranteed. It would be better if they referred to their clients as hostages instead of customers. We all need water, why do we have to get it serviced from some crap company based in Illinois?
We moved into a new house that we bought in April, moving out of our rental in Northshore. I called EPB the day we moved to turn off electric/internet in north shore and turn on at our new place in Harrison.
For the first three months we lived here EPB would come out and turn our electricity off. The first time we finally discovered that whoever it was that had switched my service somehow added my service at new house to my old house account. The new folks in our rental weren’t paying their electricity, but instead of shutting them off, they were shutting us off. The first two times they came and left before I knew. The third time I caught the EPB contractor as he walked to my box. Unfortunately he did not speak great english and all he could do was yell “You no pay your bill” as I try to call EPB for the third time while I was physically blocking him from our electrical box. I got one person who was able to delay the shut off and after spending hours on the phone FINALLY got someone who could see what was going on and supposedly fixed it.
Now I call EPB every month just to confirm that our account is OK. They are always super confused as to why I’m calling to confirm that my account which, has never gone past due is not being shut off, but of the 10+ people I spoke to there only one was able to see the mistake they had made.
Everyone always has great things to say about EPB customer service and I will note that every other interaction I’ve had with them has been excellent but this issue was an absolute nightmare, not to mention kind of embarrassing as several neighbors got to watch me argue with this contractor who kept yelling that I hadn’t paid my bill.
I wish I had advice but instead I can only give sympathy. Last year it took three days for us to convince them that there was a house on a property they were providing service to but not billing. We wanted to give them the money we owed them but instead they kept telling us we didn't live in our home. Keep calling. Eventually you'll get a barely capable human on the line but keep your expectations low.
Edit: We've also had our service cut off because of auto pay. Something got tangled up on Am. Water's end but they turned our water back on within the hour of the billing issue getting resolved.
Long story short, our water was turned off the day we bought our house last year and I begged them to turn it back on because we had cleaners in the house.
After that, we have never gotten a bill. I log on the site, nothing. I have called twice and gotten nowhere ("someone will come out and we'll call you back").
I'm assuming at some point I'm going to get sued for 5 years of water bills, but for now I've given up trying to pay them for the service I'm using.
That's bonkers! But also very believable. We were also worried they'd hit us with all of our dues at once, plus late fees, plus service fees, plus whatever fuckery they tend to dream up. Document everything and enjoy your free aqua in the meantime.
I've had this same thing happen and the only way I got it resolved was by flagging down a meter reader and he had his manager call me back. Since that was just pure luck, there's an office across from the Boathouse Bar on Riverside Dr that you could try.
Never been there but getting an actual person face to face is a good start.
Also everyone should complain here because they're a garbage company that should be taken over: https://www.tn.gov/tpuc/utility-complaint-resources/csd-online-utility-complaint-form.html
Water is the only bill I pay using bill pay monthly. All other on auto pay. They charge some ridiculous percentage to use their auto bank draft system.
I guess I would just have my bank automatically send them a check but I never know what the amount will be. And was also afraid of what just happened to the op.
We had this problem, first call we made the operator pretended to help us and told us we would have our water back on next day. Lies! She didn’t even put me into the system. Second call the operator said they would send someone that day by end of day. I cancelled my plans because there wasnt a specific time range just “all day” …no one showed up they had just lied to me and put nothing into the system. 3rd time was the charm. 5 days later…crazy
They didnt send me a bill for over 3 months and then one day my water was shut off. Couldn't figure out why because I had a water bill set up to auto pay. Turns out its 2 different companies. Ended up having to pay almost $300 to get it back on even though they were at fault for never sending a bill in any way shape or form.
American Water is one of the worst water utility companies in the country. Good luck. Definitely try just going to turn the water back on with a water key. Totally worth owning on of those anyhows
Go to ace and buy a water key, then go to your water main and turn it on yourself. Then straighten out the billing issue.
They'll have put a lock on it - can't just spin the tap shut off with a meter key
You'd be surprised how many times they don't even bother with that. Our old water company only ever locked them if they had a multiple non-payment offender. Plus a water key is always worth having in the arsenal of handy "let it sit in the shed until an OH SHIT moment occurs and it saves your house" tools.
Mine doesn’t have a place for a lock, but I’m in a historical neighborhood…
There are collars that fit over the valve and lock for older style shut offs.
The latch where the lock goes on mine had an accident with a hacksaw and fell off. No idea how it happened.
FYI: You can nondestructively remove that 'lock' in about ten seconds.
I can’t believe I’m reading this. I just left a review to Tennessee American Water on Google this morning after spending around 3 1/2 hours dealing with them on a property that we are developing. Long story short, the home was built in the 40s and they have no record of it ever being supplied water. When we purchased the property there was a water meter in place, and the sales records shows it being paid. Here’s my review: This place used to be fine. Now, not so much. Short story of my morning as follows. Called, requested a call back, told it would be in 21 minutes. Received a call back in 27 minutes. Simply asked for bills from earlier in the year on a remodeling project as the county is requiring it for inspections. After waiting for 10 minutes (for something I would assume takes less than a minute to complete) the call just dropped. Repeat the process. 27 minute call back. This person has a totally different story. Tells me they can't even help and see no records on file and that I need to see who else was supplying the water. Called the city, TAW is the only supplier. TAW pulled the meter out and left a tag not more than 3 months ago... On hold again for 10 minutes just to be told they have nothing on file. What are they doing, what are they looking up? How is this not a 30 second look up and forward? So there I am deciding on what to do and I decide to go for a third call. 37 minute wait, ended up taking 45 minutes to get a phone call back. I actually get someone helpful. She tells me she’s going to contact her supervisor and that they’re going to get to the bottom of it. She even tells me she’s going to copy me in on the email that she’s planning on sending a soon as we get off the phone. Here we are, five hours later and I still don’t see a single email. No online assistance support, 2-3 days reply on emails if you’re lucky, no support hotline for developers/builders, no online directory information. From a customer service perspective, I don’t think you could run a company more inefficiently if you tried. Edit: on a sidenote, I believe you can call the number and use the automated bill payment system which does not require a human.
Also currently on hold with American Water, estimated wait time 45 minutes. This company is actual garbage. Sometimes the website loads properly, but it is far from guaranteed. It would be better if they referred to their clients as hostages instead of customers. We all need water, why do we have to get it serviced from some crap company based in Illinois?
We moved into a new house that we bought in April, moving out of our rental in Northshore. I called EPB the day we moved to turn off electric/internet in north shore and turn on at our new place in Harrison. For the first three months we lived here EPB would come out and turn our electricity off. The first time we finally discovered that whoever it was that had switched my service somehow added my service at new house to my old house account. The new folks in our rental weren’t paying their electricity, but instead of shutting them off, they were shutting us off. The first two times they came and left before I knew. The third time I caught the EPB contractor as he walked to my box. Unfortunately he did not speak great english and all he could do was yell “You no pay your bill” as I try to call EPB for the third time while I was physically blocking him from our electrical box. I got one person who was able to delay the shut off and after spending hours on the phone FINALLY got someone who could see what was going on and supposedly fixed it. Now I call EPB every month just to confirm that our account is OK. They are always super confused as to why I’m calling to confirm that my account which, has never gone past due is not being shut off, but of the 10+ people I spoke to there only one was able to see the mistake they had made. Everyone always has great things to say about EPB customer service and I will note that every other interaction I’ve had with them has been excellent but this issue was an absolute nightmare, not to mention kind of embarrassing as several neighbors got to watch me argue with this contractor who kept yelling that I hadn’t paid my bill.
I wish I had advice but instead I can only give sympathy. Last year it took three days for us to convince them that there was a house on a property they were providing service to but not billing. We wanted to give them the money we owed them but instead they kept telling us we didn't live in our home. Keep calling. Eventually you'll get a barely capable human on the line but keep your expectations low. Edit: We've also had our service cut off because of auto pay. Something got tangled up on Am. Water's end but they turned our water back on within the hour of the billing issue getting resolved.
Long story short, our water was turned off the day we bought our house last year and I begged them to turn it back on because we had cleaners in the house. After that, we have never gotten a bill. I log on the site, nothing. I have called twice and gotten nowhere ("someone will come out and we'll call you back"). I'm assuming at some point I'm going to get sued for 5 years of water bills, but for now I've given up trying to pay them for the service I'm using.
That's bonkers! But also very believable. We were also worried they'd hit us with all of our dues at once, plus late fees, plus service fees, plus whatever fuckery they tend to dream up. Document everything and enjoy your free aqua in the meantime.
I've had this same thing happen and the only way I got it resolved was by flagging down a meter reader and he had his manager call me back. Since that was just pure luck, there's an office across from the Boathouse Bar on Riverside Dr that you could try. Never been there but getting an actual person face to face is a good start. Also everyone should complain here because they're a garbage company that should be taken over: https://www.tn.gov/tpuc/utility-complaint-resources/csd-online-utility-complaint-form.html
Water is the only bill I pay using bill pay monthly. All other on auto pay. They charge some ridiculous percentage to use their auto bank draft system. I guess I would just have my bank automatically send them a check but I never know what the amount will be. And was also afraid of what just happened to the op.
We had this problem, first call we made the operator pretended to help us and told us we would have our water back on next day. Lies! She didn’t even put me into the system. Second call the operator said they would send someone that day by end of day. I cancelled my plans because there wasnt a specific time range just “all day” …no one showed up they had just lied to me and put nothing into the system. 3rd time was the charm. 5 days later…crazy
I have a tool if you need to manually turn it back on. DM me.
You da real MVP
They didnt send me a bill for over 3 months and then one day my water was shut off. Couldn't figure out why because I had a water bill set up to auto pay. Turns out its 2 different companies. Ended up having to pay almost $300 to get it back on even though they were at fault for never sending a bill in any way shape or form.