Reading the snazzy new water meters

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Anyone know how to read the new water meters the city is requiring?

Our household just got the new meter (after a series of increasingly aggravating postcards came our way, insisting we get it taken care RIGHT NOW OMG IT IS !!!URGENT!!!), and there's nothing on the damn thing that displays how much water has actually been used (the old one did). You'd think that given the city's fairly recent history of inaccurate water meter billing, they'd make it easy for people to tell when they were being billed incorrectly.

According to the city's website, "The state-of-the-art water meters will allow for more accurate billing and easy water usage monitoring by both the City and property owners." But, um, that suggests there's actually a display ON THE METER, right?

Comments

Re: Looks like a scam to me.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

I don't think its a scam. I think its an attempt to fix the existing problem of water meters not being read very often by using Wifi technology, which is standard practice now. I am not sure why they put antitampering devices on the meters but maybe they've had a problem with tampering. It would be nice to be able to read my own water meter but to be honest, I doubt I'd do so very often. An accurate bill every billing cycle is probably good enough.

As a taxpayer I do want to make sure people aren't scamming the system by not paying for their water use, just like I want to make sure the City isn't overbilling me or neglecting my account and then sending me a $7000 bill to "catch up" after 10 years.