Thread by @cew821

🚨Cautionary tale of civic tech gone wrong (THREAD)🚨

On April 12, @dcwater replaced our water meter with a fancy digital meter and a cool online tool where you can see daily usage!

So far so good.

Except, since then they have billed us for exactly 10x more than we have used.

@dcwater Here’s a picture of the new meter from 4pm yesterday. The meter shows we have used 2,069 cubic feet of water since it was installed on April 12.

A few hours later @DCWater's fancy new portal shows a reading: 20,750 CF.

Note the extra zero. They moved the decimal 🤦‍♂️

@dcwater So @DCWater ’s billing system shows we used 190 Cubic Feet of water yesterday (actually, it was 19).

Sadly, I am now an expert on water bills so I can tell you that 190 CF is 1,400 gallons; enough for an 11 hour shower or 875 🚽flushes.

Our typical $90/mo bill is now $700/mo

@dcwater When I looked at our meter and realized what was happening, I thought this would be simple to fix. The problem is obvious and easy to see.

I called customer support, and that’s when things went off the rails.

Roughly, the past six weeks of conversations have gone like this:

@dcwater Believe me, I get it. This stuff is hard.

Tech has so much potential to make government more effective... But only if it is combined with more compassion, empathy and common sense.

A fancy new system should never be a substitute for listening to your customers.

END

Update: I reached out to the DC Office of the People’s Counsel (@DCOPC) and holy moly these folks are awesome.

More progress in 30 minutes than I had made in a month. They are like civic super heroes! So impressed and thankful.

Update #2: @dcwater just reached out, said they had confirmed a setting on the meter was incorrect and have fixed the problem. They also offered a genuine apology, which I appreciated and accepted.

Have an awesome weekend everyone, and remember to hydrate 💧💧💧!