City of Austin, Water & Wastewater Utility Review

Unbelievable prices if you have a large family. Can you believe $500/month for water?

i have pneumonia and it tastes delicious! yumyuyymyuymym

In 3 months there has been a multi-day boil water notice and a rotting fish smell problem. Get it together. Will I ever see a refund for the bottled water I had to live on for a week? Or a credit for having to shower in rancid fish water? Doubt it.

If I could give stars for maximum effort in being pro-active to this situation, Austin water would receive zero stars. I thought I was taking a shower in cabbage water right now. Thanks again for dropping the ball Austin Water Utility.

Horrible customer service never dealt with such rude individuals. Sorry if you hate your lives but don t take your fustrariotions out on customers. You work for a public service so act accordingly.

I unfortunately ended up talking with Mr. Livingston who is too old to care about reviews , regarding valeries attempt to shut my water off even though my bill says that the due date is 25 July 2019.

I very simply asked Mr. Livingston how customers like me are to know of impending shut off by valerie if the bill says due date 25 July 2019?

Mr. Livingston laughed and said for me to get a lawyer and to call my cousins and the media and anyone else I wanted to complain to.

All of this conversation as well as the previous one are recorded in case anyone wants to hear the patronizing, condescending, incompetent, harassing attitude that pervades the Austin water municipality.

We customers deserve better than some good old boy who seems too old to handle his business, let alone the business of a water company very obviously on its last legs, and certainly one who could care less about the illegal harassment of a terminal disabled American vet.

SHAME ON YOU MR. LIVINGSTON, some people still have respect for military, women, and human beings you so obviously lack. Hope you laugh as much at this review as you did to me while trying to convey a very big issue with your employee Valerie and simply trying to get some help. What a stain of repugnant odor your lack of character leaves on us all.

I rented a home in Austin. On the third month, August, I received a bill for 2,700.00 dollars for using 180,000 gallons of water that month. It didn't happen. 3 months later, still can not get them to pull their meter and check it. Customer service? Poor is being kind. Just getting a continuous run around and accomplishing nothing. I will not be brow beat into getting robbed. I will move first.

It did not stop there. In December i received an electrical bill for 735 dollars. In January it was over 900 dollars. This on a one story, 2400 sq ft home with no pool, one ac unit and only two people living there.

I have paid the city of Austin over 5000 dollars in utilities in a four month period. They pulled the water meter finally and found nothing wrong. They blame it on the sprinkler system. 180,000 gallons of water is 6 swimming pools in a four week period. Did not happen. 6000kw of electricity is enough to power a typical home for four months they say i used in just a four week period. Did not happen.

There is something seriously wrong with the City of Austin Utilities. Class action kind of wrong. Moved and currently living in a 3200 sq ft home in Houston. Two stories, 2 ac units, a swimming pool and a sprinkler system with 5 separate zones. My water bill? Around 90 dollars a month. My electric bill? Around 200 a month, have gas water heater, oven, dryer and heaters.

There is a sign at one of the Whole Foods water fountain that says "do not drink the fountain water" so I made some tea with it and now I have an infection.

Water pipe broke down the street, was fixed within 30 minutes, I'm impressed

Austin water utility is a rip off!
beware if you have a pool and you have a leak...Austin wont give you any relief. Yet they continue to drive their own conservation program with an ever exploding Austin population.
I was told by an Austin Water manager that rates were increased because residents had 'over conserved' on water usage and revenues had dropped which required a rate increase. We have some of the worst water rates in the U.S.
Many people own pools and leaks are bound to happen. Austin water needs to understand that their revenues are greater because citizens are filling pools. So the water department benefits.
Yet when a resident has an accidental lead, even with underground pipes that are not easily located, or you are on vacation and can't identify the leak timely, Austin turns their head when you get a $1,000 water bill.
Austin water just had their own leak situation which resulted in them raising the water restriction level and again penalizing the community (not being able to water lawns, wash cars, etc)
How is this fair!?!?!?
Keep ripping us off, Austin!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine how many zebra mussels must be down there for the water to get so smelly

Austin Water should have informed people earlier about the water emergency we re currently experiencing. Management must have known this was about to happen and if they didn t they should all be fired. Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros should step down for failing its customers and the City of Austin.

Water has smelled strongly of dead zebra mussels for 5 days now! Having to buy bottled water and bathing is disgusting!

ZOMG! I'm not going to provide any context for what I'm complaining about, but instead jump right in, even though I've had no need to complain for the last however many years I've been here!!! They should fire everyone involved in this mess for letting us down and failing to predict things that are unpredictable. Everyone. Hire ALL new people with NO experience who don't know how to fix the problem so nothing can get figured out ever. Also, spent insane amounts of our, the citizens', cash money (that's right, cash money) so that we can have three times the necessary functionality, so that when we encounter this ONE event, that happens once every 99 years, we don't have to be inconvenienced. You know what, they should also create water that wipes me when I'm done going to the bathroom, too, so I don't have to do anything. ANYTHING! There is nowhere else that money could go, and our schools aren't facing an $18M deficit next year. Hashtag WatergateATX, bro! (Get it? WATERgate? Get it?)

Seriously, the recent flooding and boil water notice is a big inconvenience, but this happens, and I don't know what they could have done. The local government and community are coming together to try to assuage as much disruption of everyday life as possible in the face of unforeseeable natural occurrences. My rule of thumb: if you're going to complain, offer an alternative. Firing the only people capable of fixing it doesn't solve the problem. Thanks, Austin Water Utilities. I know you guys have mixed up bills in the past as well, but you're handling this pretty well, so thanks.

Horrible. Got water bill of $1100 when the bill was $60 the month before. When I call, they only want to talk about making payment arrangements instead of trying to solve the issue of why a damn water bill is over 1K in a month for 2 people living in a small home. And for the people posting positive reviews of this monopoly, I had absolutely no problems with COA water for 20 years...until now.

Something crooked is going on with this utility.

Almost never ever had no water; the reliability amazes me! I use water to shower, to brush my teeth, to drink, to wash my hands, among other things.

I love water! The water tastes delicious and it keeps me clean. I appreciate water the most during the summer!

Yay for water! I love indoor plumbing!

They can't even bother to provide me with clean water SMH

Horrible customer service, which I could give negative starts

How can we have so much problems with our water? You need more qualified staff!

Are we going to get credit for all this extra gas usage to boil water?

As a home owner and property manager I've experience both their residential and commercial service and sadly both have been below normal expectations. As for my home, I was receiving unusually high water bills, 2-3x our normal usage for a few months. After calling several times they sent a technician to check the meter. They stated the meter was fine and it must have been something on my end. Interesting enough, my water bill went back to normal for a couple months and then back up to unusual usage...To add more interest I saw one of Austin's local news stations run a story how Austin Water Utility was over charging home owners...coincidence? I think not. As a property manager, we continue to be plagued with water shut offs due to testing. I understand maintenance is required but after several requests to be notified ahead of time a luxury community of 500+ units is left with no heads up and no answers. This leaves a lot of unhappy customers.

First dead animals in the water supply, now small brown particles.

Water rates are outrageous. They had watering restrictions during a drought which makes sense. The drought ends and the restrictions stay even while they release water from Lake Travis.

Horrible service I don t even live in the house because we are trying to sell it and every month they are charge in 300 dls . The people in customer service they are rude and they never help me.

Water is great and still is running after a historic flooding. You have to boil the water to be extra safe BUT at least I still have running water!

perhaps next time, move more funding to the water department to make more water plants and bigger capacity

50 bucks a month for one bedroom apartment and now I need to boil water??

I have been on hold for 1 hour and 57 minutes and just received an automated message stating that no one was there to answer my call. The absolute WORST customer service I have ever experienced! Thank heaven I don't have to deal with them at my home! Would give them NO stars if possible!

bro i literally can't drink water unless i boil it what is this #garglingszn

Our safe to drink water smells like a dead whale s blowhole.

The previous gentleman that posted is actually accurate. For what you receive, Austin Water customers have some of the highest prices for water. My impression is the employees seem to be one of the most "bunkered" agencies in the city. if you have a leak you get to pay. Austin water utilities leaks millions of gallons of water through leaky water lines and valves throughout the city every year. They don't pay for it, you do. Like most city agencies and utilities, they really not looking out after the consumer anymore, they're just looking out after their own interest. If they were really interested in conserving water you would see construction crews in all sections of town repairing leaking lines and valves and connections..

On the 6th of March countless sprinklers on the Road shown in the picture have been pouring water on 6 trees non-stop, 7 days a week, 24 hours over 24.

This is causing the following:

1) Waste of water, and the road constantly wet
2) Constant annoying background noise for us - we live above this
3) Potential killing all the 6 trees, that have been under the water for one month and a half.

We have called three times the Austin Water Utility, to report this.

The Last call to the Austin water (17th April) was taken by a demotivating and grumpy operator. The most important questions she wanted to know, was: what TIME did the sprinkler started (??!)

Unbelievable inefficiency in a First world country"

Given the numbers of calls made, the time to resolve the issues (unresolved as per yet) and the efficiency of the operators: Austin Water gets a ZERO stars score.
(Unfortunately we need to give 1 star, in order to write this)

Address of the photo: 1120 South Lamar Blvd, Alamo Drafthouse

Very unprofessional. They turned off water for my whole complex and fail to update when it will be turned back on. It was supposed to be back on 2 but is not. My leasing office has attempted to reach out to them with no response. Unacceptable service

Normally my bill is around $200/month. No pool, just normal water consumption. So in one month they triple my bill to over $800. No leaks at all even hired plumber to check. So now it's my word against mine. They're the only water company in town, so no need to have customer service and not lie!