I bring you good news of a miracle! The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities Department (CMUD), historically one of the touchiest, most thin-skinned governmental service agencies on the planet, has now admitted that theyve caused problems for customers. If youve ever tried to get CMUD to admit to a mistake, youll know what a miracle it is that CMUD Director Doug Bean came out from behind his curtain today in the daily paper.
CMUD has come under heavy criticism lately for overcharging customers, mostly through inexplicable price spikes. Bean, though, downplays the extent of the spikes, even as hes admitting theres a problem. Sometimes we make a mistake, Bean says. And, you know, it just takes too darn long to research all these high bills weve been sending out in the middle of a deep recession, so come on, were sorry, but give us a friggin break. No, those arent Beans exact words, but they would have been, if his prose had properly matched his tone.
And from the tone of this blog post, you can probably guess that Im one of the people whove had problems with CMUD. At our house, weve seen incredible pricing spikes during the past two summers. In 2008, like an idiot, I thought I could call up the county and get things straightened out. I mean, surely our bill couldnt really go up in one month from our average, around $50, to nearly $300. Oh yes it could, I was told, people are watering their lawns this summer and bills are high, and theres nothing we can do about it. Except that we dont water our lawn. Ever. Which went in one of CMUDs ears and out the other. They never did send anyone, or do anything. This past summer? Same damned thing. About $50 one month, nearly $300 the next two months. And the month after that? A sudden swoop down to around $20, as if we'd quit showering or washing stuff. Was CMUD trying to make up for overcharging the two previous months? Is their meter reading equipment that screwed up? I dont know, because like others I know, I gave up trying to get anything other than a runaround from CMUD. Which is why Im grateful that enough people have called the utility on their billing problems that it may actually do something about them. I guess miracles happen.