I've read a lot of reviews where people impugn the character of an organization or unfairly attack the company. I have never experienced more blatant crooked behavior than from this company. I hope that you will read this story. It has resulted in many back and forth dealings with the State Utility Commission who, at least verbally, confirmed what I say below.
The story:
To begin with, there was a rather large and ever-growing leak where the private water company's line connected with our meter. This gushing leak was carrying dirt and debris all over our yard and driveway 24 hours a day. Of course when we returned home one evening to the mess on our property and the spewing water, we called the private water company's emergency number...several times...and left
repeated voice mails. Our phone records show lengthy call times to these numbers. In spite of a state law which requires 24 hour response to an emergency call, no one ever called back or showed up,
so for a week, water was continuing to spray from the growing hole in the pipe which was also located next to other utilities such as electric. Exactly one
week later, we FINALLY get someone from the water company on the phone (because we had to call again, not because they got back to us) who proceeded to argue with us saying ""Are you SURE they didn't just
come out and fix it already?"" and ""Are you really being truthful with us?"" Well, about an hour later, some guy from the company, smoking a cigarette shows up trying to rip our gate open (as i'm outside opening
it with the electronic opener and yelling at him to stop). ""Well...I hear ya got a problem *cough, hack, inhale*).
It took no more than 5 minutes for water employee #1 to say ""S*&t, this is really bad"" and run in panic to his truck to call for back-up which shows up about 10 minutes later. The guys are running all over the place and trying hard to keep water out to repair but it's gushing too fast. Meanwhile, I overhear water employee #2 say, ""I remember listening to the message about this."" They then come over to me and
inform me that they will have to return on Monday and shut down the water to the entire street to repair the damage. They show up on Monday, hours later then they told me they would, to inform me that they forgot to issue notice about shutting the water off so they would have to do it the next day. Meanwhile, the water is carrying our yard all over. They show up the next day and repair as promised.
So here's where it gets interesting. The State Utility commission called us to follow-up on another time when Rainier never returned calls after repeated attempts at calling their emergency number so we casually shared the new story. The Utility Commission encouraged us to give permission for them to begin an investigation as it is concerning that a water company is nonresponsive to emergencies and doesn't have a valid emergency number.
Well...the water company decided to lie...over and over and over again. They said we never called, so we submitted phone records. We also pointed out that the woman we finally talked to said she knew of our call but didn't believe that it hadn't been repaired. Our phone records clearly showed the repeated calls, from multiple phones (we thought well maybe one phone wasn't working) that we had made. Then, Rainier said no one ever talked to us that day the lady argued with us, so we again submitted phone records. THEN! The water company said the problem had been repaired much earlier then when we claimed so according to the Utility Commission representative we spoke to, they were unable to provide any documentation or records (because it never happened). The Utility Commission was able to cite them for improper record keeping in that instance.
But, now all the Utility Commission can do is log this case. I am really troubled by a company that so easily lies about its actions and seeks to cast blame on its customers who were trying to do the right thing.
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