Giuliano Alexander

Review of Philadelphia Water Department

Around 10:45 pm last night (7/17/20) my wife went ...

Around 10:45 pm last night (7/17/20) my wife went downstairs to our basement to check our sewer line because I went to use the kitchen faucet and water was very slowly trickling out. When she went downstairs to our finished basement there was already about 1"- 2" of water flooding the entire basement and back basement storage area where our water heater and AC unit is. The water pipe running from outside burst before the main water valve reaches the joint connector, so it had to be shut off from the outside - we could not simply shut off the water ourselves.

She immediately called 911 and the Philly Fire Department showed up around 11:15 pm. While on the phone with 911, they told her to call the Philadelphia Water Department so someone could come shut off the water from the pipe that runs out to the street on our sidewalk. About 30-45 minutes went by and no one arrived yet as water is still bursting out from the busted pipe. I then called PWD at 11:29 pm to see if someone was nearby because we desperately needed them to simply come and shut off the main water valve so there wouldn't be any additional damage to our already flooded basement. I spoke with a woman from PWD who said that "they cannot provide an estimated time for arrival and we were added to the list" - she then hung up on me after I asked to speak with a supervisor or someone who could give us more insight as to when to expect someone to come help us.

I tried calling PWD back again at 12:07 and waited on the phone for 17 minutes, and then I was hung up on again. I made another call at 12:26 pm (nearly 2 hours since the pipe burst flooding our basement) and still no answer. By that time, a plumber we were finally able to get in touch with to come help us arrived on the scene and was able to shut off the main water valve for us. At this point, the water was 3" high and still rising. PFD waited at our house for about 90 minutes until the plumber showed up and eventually left. As they were leaving, the Philadelphia Fire Department told us to file a complaint with the Office of Emergency Management because of the negligence on behalf of PWD - which I did today the day after 7/18.

It wasn't until 1:00 am or later that someone from PWD showed up at our door but the plumber had already taken care of the issue. This guy that showed up looked totally clueless, didn't even introduce himself or ask any questions what so ever to see if we were even okay. He simply asked if the plumber took care of everything because I suppose he was in a rush to go be 3 hours late to someone else's emergency on this supposed "list" we were on. If the PWD had not taken about two and half hours to arrive at our house, we could've salvaged much more of our property from any further damage (floors, dry wall, furniture, etc.).

These damages will be costing us $10,000+ because PWD didn't get to our house sooner to turn off the main water valve. The Philadelphia FIRE DEPARTMENT even said that PWD is literally the worst department you could imagine. You should seriously be ashamed of yourselves PWD! You don't even deserve this one lousy star you're getting.