Odd trip to the Water Dept.

[Lee]

For whatever reason we never received a water bill for last month. The water dept. has been quite good about this in the past----it has always been in the box right around the 9th of the month. When we got the bill, we would use GCash to pay it, and then forget it.

So yesterday we headed off to the water dept. to pay the bill in person. After parking the car, I returned to the office to find my wife and several others sitting outside in the heat. The guard had told her that there were no seats available inside. Seemed odd to me, so I took a look see and found that almost every seat inside WAS available. Rows of bench seating were empty, the air con was on, and fans were blowing in each corner. As my wife has a heart issue and can't tolerate much heat, I start making a fuss at the front door. The guards English vocabulary was quickly exceeded so another guard was quickly found who ushered us right in. I stopped her and asked about the other people sitting outside in the heat? She said that this is what the guards were told to do. So I asked her the obvious question of why people were forced to sit outside when the lobby was empty-----she didn't know.

When it was time tp pay the bill, we found that the monthly bill wasn't paid way back in Sept. This is the first we had heard of this. How did this non payment situation go on for 8 months with nothing ever being said? IDK. Strange people----strange place.

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Lee
spelling

[hk blues]

7 hours ago, Lee said:

For whatever reason we never received a water bill for last month. The water dept. has been quite good about this in the past----it has always been in the box right around the 9th of the month. When we got the bill, we would use GCash to pay it, and then forget it.

So yesterday we headed off to the water dept. to pay the bill in person. After parking the car, I returned to the office to find my wife and several others sitting outside in the heat. The guard had told her that there were no seats available inside. Seemed odd to me, so I took a look see and found that almost every seat inside WAS available. Rows of bench seating were empty, the air con was on, and fans were blowing in each corner. As my wife has a heart issue and can't tolerate much heat, I start making a fuss at the front door. The guards English vocabulary was quickly exceeded so another guard was quickly found who ushered us right in. I stopped her and asked about the other people sitting outside in the heat? She said that this is what the guards were told to do. So I asked her the obvious question of why people were forced to sit outside when the lobby was empty-----she didn't know.

When it was time tp pay the bill, we found that the monthly bill wasn't paid way back in Sept. This is the first we had heard of this. How did this non payment situation go on for 8 months with nothing ever being said? IDK. Strange people----strange place.

 

In our water office, for a while they actually stopped taking payments because the staff were getting 'harassed' by customers complaining about this, that and the other. Maybe the story above is somehow along the same lines in a way?

As for letting it go 8 months - no chance with our company.  A year or two back they came to disconnect us after 4 weeks of non-payment! To clarify, the issue was Robinson's department store had sent the payment to the wrong water company so we ended up having to pay twice as well as 100php penalty - we had no idea this had happened until the guy with a padlock turned up, fortunately we were home and able to show him the (wrong) payment!  Still waiting for a refund from Robinsons!

On the other hand, our HOA do not send bills nor do they chase delinquent payers.  One time they did make a tarp and posted it at the gate of all up-to-date payers - it would have been way more effective to name the delinquent payers but that's not the way they like to work here.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

34 minutes ago, hk blues said:

On the other hand, our HOA do not send bills nor do they chase delinquent payers.

The HOA where I lived got smart.  To enter the subdivision they started requiring an annual pass on your car.  To get the annual pass you had to pay at the same place you paid the HOA fees.  They would not sell you a pass if you were behind on your fees.  I got quite mad about it, when the guards would not let me in the gate to my house without a pass.  (Yes I had paid the HOA fees but felt the annual gate pass was BS).  The head of the HOA had a talk with me to calm me down and explain that it was better for all that the delinquent payers were encouraged to pay by any means necessary. 

[hk blues]

42 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

The HOA where I lived got smart.  To enter the subdivision they started requiring an annual pass on your car.  To get the annual pass you had to pay at the same place you paid the HOA fees.  They would not sell you a pass if you were behind on your fees.  I got quite mad about it, when the guards would not let me in the gate to my house without a pass.  (Yes I had paid the HOA fees but felt the annual gate pass was BS).  The head of the HOA had a talk with me to calm me down and explain that it was better for all that the delinquent payers were encouraged to pay by any means necessary. 

Ours is less stringent - cars need to get their pass at the HOA and therefore need to be up-to-date to get the pass but they can still enter the sub-division with no pass (go figure) but, in theory, the guards will not lift the boom - of course in reality they do thus negating the purpose of the pass.

In the past. they issued stickers to up-to-date payers and these were affixed to the house wall and the garbage collectors would only collect from those houses with stickers.  Lasted about 2-3 weeks until the complaints about rubbish lying in the street came.  

To me, the simplest solution would be to padlock the water meter - only affects the relevant homeowner yet the HOA repeatedly refuse this option.  A viable solution stares them in the face yet they refuse to implement it so obviously they don't really care about collecting the fees.  

[Lee]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

To me, the simplest solution would be to padlock the water meter

There are no provisions to padlock a meter at my house nor anyone elses in the vicinity of where I live. This always seemed odd to me.

There typically is no water running during the day so perhaps the shutoff plan is to simply cut the line and and cap it off. IDK.

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, Lee said:

There are no provisions to padlock a meter at my house nor anyone elses in the vicinity of where I live. This always seemed odd to me.

There typically is no water running during the day so perhaps the shutoff plan is to simply cut the line and and cap it off. IDK.

I see.

Our meters have the facility to turn off and lock the valve closed so would work perfectly for what I describe.  In the absence of such they would need to turn the main valve in the street (there will be a few around) and then, as you describe, cut and cap the pipe but that's a messy solution.  

 

 

[Mike J]

13 hours ago, Lee said:

There are no provisions to padlock a meter at my house nor anyone elses in the vicinity of where I live. This always seemed odd to me.

No padlocks because hacksaws are cheap? 

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, Mike J said:

No padlocks because hacksaws are cheap? 

If you cut the pipe you will need to cap it otherwise there is nothing to stop someone turning on the water at the valve if it's not locked off.  By the time you buy the cap and solvent you could've bought a padlock.