Just catching on to CCUA's billing practice, wondering if JEA the same? (credit)

[mawipafl]

Recently we went from quarterly billing to monthly billing with CCUA (Clay County Utility Authority) for water/sewer. That was not really a problem, although I'm still scratching my head wondering about all the credits applied for prepaid portions -- far too confusing to know if we didn't get enough credit because during the switchover, CCUA also changed the pricing structure.

However, now on monthly billing I've noticed something truly unfair. The amount of water consumption is rounded up to the nearest thousand. I don't know for certain and I do plan to call them to ask (and will report back here as to what they say).

But it's logical to believe the consumption is rounded up because: for the past three months we've been billed for 5000 gallons, and yet October's days between billings was 41 days, November was 31, and December was 27. There was absolutely nothing different going on in our household during those three months: no extra showers, no extra dish or clothes washing, irrigation not included because we use reclaimed water. Calculating our usage daily, how the heck could we go from 122 gal/day in October to 185 gal/day in December????

Does JEA also bill this way?

When we lived in MA and WI, our meter readings were exact to the gallon and we were charged accordingly. That is how it should be.

[AnotherBravesFan]

A few years back, the city of San Diego went from bimonthly water billing to monthly, but the meter readers still only read the meters every other month. So, in the off months, they "estimated" usage (low). Because I had been keeping records of our water usage, I knew that we averaged 11 HCF every 2 months. Well, when the city went to estimated monthly billing, they'd estimate only 2 or 3 HCF used for the months they didn't read, and then, lo and behold the next month when they read the meter, my usage was 8+ HCF (sometimes with an accompanying higher rate for the "excess" water used over the base allowance). Thankfully, enough people complained, and a class action lawsuit stopped this billing scheme. After the lawsuit, each water bill included a line item rebate of the overcharges.

Stay aware!