Our local utility companies have been in the news lately for taking their sweet time to do ANYTHING. You can be easily on hold with them for over an hour before talking to a human being.

Try to get meters for new construction...Good luck!

The topper is they are hiring meter readers who don't know what they're doing. Almost gave one of my new tenants a heart attack when he saw the bill. He called the utility co and read them the numbers (dial type). CSR admitted the meter reader read it wrong.

A number of years ago I was going to do an entire house remodel for a client. For 3 days the utility company would not come buy and turn on services. So I let them a message, "Never mind, I'll turn on service to the property myself".

A team leader for the Water and Power company drove by and saw we had lights on, power equipment in use with water too.

He drove around the corner and called the police. Within minutes the police, utility supervisor and others showed up and was going to arrests someone for illegal tampering with the utilities.

I asked them why for 3 days they couldn't get a single person out here to turn on services. The police asked who was responsible for providing the power and water. I said it was all me. But I would not allow them to cuff me. I explained I owned the water and power being used. No one understood my plane English. So I repeated myself using several other languages.

Utility company went to shut off the water, and it was already off. Then he went to the meter and found my silent movie industry generator hooked up and a pump in the pool providing water. He know the goofed.

Can we not get Robert to speak at the Convention?

like the utility company touche!

So far my utility companies (except the water) are pretty good and they are responsive.

Unfortunately, the electric company got sued for a wildfire and now it is turning off power any time there is a high wind. I can't really blame them, but it is darn inconvenient for my tenants. Not inconvenient for me because I have a whole house generator, but I will not be buying those for my rental houses.

I think labor shortages are hitting extra hard in areas like meter readers. The city here had to drop back to reading meters once per quarter. They still bill it based on an estimate monthly and then adjust it once per quarter. Thoroughly ticked half of the town off. If their estimate is low then on the third month they catch up, problem is the rate increases the more water you use so they were making a killing by doing quarterly reads both in higher rates and by not having to pay staff to do it. They are also down by 50% on trash truck drivers so we are getting dumpsters emptied half as often. Again, they are paying half the labor.

No one here reads the meters. They drive by and the meter radios the reading out to their vehicle. In some areas, no one has to go by the house. The meter relays the information to their business office.

I was complimented at a closing today by title company because a property I sold had no sewer liens after 22 years.

I clean up outstanding sewer bills, with a $35 Service Fee, before returning deposit. The gals at the water company and I take care of each other. They call me when a tenant falls behind or closes account and we give each other forwarding addresses. Duke Energy has gotten easier to get to a human, but gas remains slow. Never had meter problems with either.