Bucky Katt: Florida is easily the most corrupt state in the country.

Go back to NY or Ohio or Michigan or wherever you came from, then. Trust me, we won't miss ya.

At least they are paying the customers back. If this was in DC instead; they'd never see a dime of that money back.

I thought backflow was the thing that causes blue balls....

So the guy who used to do it retired/quit/got fired, and they didn't replace him.

I have been told by a few friends that work for utilities that the what they charge for services is mostly voodoo anyway

You didn't get your backflow in motion, baby?

Gonna have to penalize you.

iheartscotch: At least they are paying the customers back. If this was in DC instead; they'd never see a dime of that money back. In Seattle we saw our dimes . . . and they were taken away after a very brief sojourn.

Seattle Water was ordered by the court to repay rate payers for money charged for 'fire hydrant' surcharges for more than two and a half years. The water utility said, "Okay, we'll give you the money . . . but we're going to add another surcharge to your bill for 21 months to pay for our mistake. I got my bill reduced by $73 . . . and the next month $75 was added to my current bill.

Well, that totally sucked. . . .

BarkingUnicorn: HammerHeadSnark: iheartscotch: At least they are paying the customers back. If this was in DC instead; they'd never see a dime of that money back. In Seattle we saw our dimes . . . and they were taken away after a very brief sojourn.

Seattle Water was ordered by the court to repay rate payers for money charged for 'fire hydrant' surcharges for more than two and a half years. The water utility said, "Okay, we'll give you the money . . . but we're going to add another surcharge to your bill for 21 months to pay for our mistake. I got my bill reduced by $73 . . . and the next month $75 was added to my current bill.

Well, that totally sucked. . . .

That is priceless!  I noted TFA saying the case established that ratepayers were not to pay the rebate.  Did anyone go back to court about that?

I don't think anyone did. We were threatened that our water service would be cut off for non-payment. Sadly, because the entire affair involved a bunch of lawyers, we ended up not only paying for our own rebates . . . but a substantial amount for attorney fees (for both sides) to boot. There was no way out of the thicket; we (the ratepayers) were going to pay no matter what decision was reached.

A recent decision by our bus service has decided that people in my community have enough money -- and nice enough cars -- that we won't be needing bus service after 10 p.m. It doesn't matter that our baseball home games don't get over until 10:30 or we might like to go out for a show and a late dinner. Nope, doesn't matter. Apparently we should all be home in bed after 10.

When we asked why our community was singled out for this treatment the answer was mostly ''cause we say so, that's why."

You'd think that after being a homeowner for nearly 40 years I'd know to just pay whatever bills they send me and STFU. I'm a slow learner, I guess.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: More than 10,000 Sarasota County residents will soon be finding a little extra money in the mail. They're being refunded for services they paid for, but never received.


Sets an interesting precedent doesn't it? I wonder if the good people of Detroit can get paid back for the lack of police services they received (and Houston, and Dallas, etc.).

Considering it would have saved them half-a-million dollars in refunds, they should just have dedicated one schleppy, old guy to the task so it could be marked us "In Progress"