Seattle Public Utilities

This same garbage man has pissed in our driveway four times so far, maybe more. I finally have a video I will post soon. The number on the garbage truck is 363 089.

I’m a glass-​half-​full kinda gal, so I’m basically really happy that my garbage does get picked up weekly, that water comes out of my tap, and that, when I flush the toilet, it goes away. I have had good experiences with their customer service and also with the people who pick up our trash. In 7 years, I have not had a bad experience. Thank you, Seattle Public Utilities!

Prices have gone out of control at SPU. Water is more expensive in wet and rainy Seattle than in Las Vegas, Phoenix or LA. It’s absurd!

When I first moved into my house in January, seemed like it was going to be nice to live in Seattle. That was until I got my first electric bill. My first electric bill was $ 1338 and change! Now I live alone, I have replaced all my light bulbs with LED or fluorescent upon moving in, replaced appliances and went to gas appliances, turned off the heat in the basement. The people who had lived here before lived upstairs and they rented out the downstairs to a family of 4. They had a full kitchen utility room excetra, the whole house was heated and they had old light bulbs.
When I called to ask about the bill, I got the runaround. They told me that that was historic use for this house. Yeah, when there were eight people living here I’m sure the bill is pretty high I told her. I told her I live alone and what I’d done and changes and she thought that maybe since the house was vacant for 2 years and electricity was never turned off it may be there were some light fixtures or something in the house using electricity while the house was vacant before I bought it. There where no liens against the property when I bought it because there was nobody to send the bill to because seattle City Light forgot to remove the meter. So now they’re expecting me to pay for the two years before I owned this house even though they had never declared it into escrow and everything was clear. So a couple weeks later they shut my electricity off. They have fined me over $ 1000 and so now they tell me they will not turn my power on until I pay them $ 2,000.
On their website they list some medical issues as well as other issues, it says id you have one of theae conditions they would not turn your power off but you would still owe them money and have to pay your bill. I wear a CPAP machine for sleep apnea as my father and many other males in my family have died from heart attacks do to the sleep apnea. It’s very important that I use this machine every night. So I filled out the proper paperwork, send it to my doctor. My doctor sent it in and they still refuse to turn my power back on. I now live off of a generator and I will never ever give seattle City Light a dime of my money again. Whatever Mafia is running the show, screw you. Show your face, we’re not afraid of you. This kind of Miss handling of public utilities is the kind of thing is since families into poverty and only strengthens organized crime and whatever else they have their sticky little fingers into. I’m planning on moving soon if I can sell. I will contest their little fines and their fees and it’ll end up in court when I sell my house.

I have used SPU for 17 years now. I think the service is generally fine.
The reason I gave them a 1 star review is the price gauging they do.
It appears the city is using the utility to balance some of the books.
Water and garbage have risen during the years far more than the rest of prices.
I recently stumbled across a 2002 bill that had essentially the same usage, however the price in 2002 was slightly less than half! of the current cost.
Wages have not doubled in that time period.

I’m going to make this short, and not so sweet:
1) You posted my 400 $ payment on someone else’s account…
2) I pay my bill when it is due and yet you say I have a past due balance.
3) When I proved I had paid the 400 $ you then say I need to pay my bill that is currently due as well.
OK TIME OUT!
4) I need water so I go back the next day at 4:30pm to pay ALL that balance (600 $) and you then say «I can turn it back on myself.» because there was no lock on it (why wouldn’t there be a lock if they shut my water off? Definitely not following their protocol)
5) I called my husband to check to see if he could turn the water on and guess what, we have a lock on our street meter.
6) «ALL (I emphasize all because there is close to 5 area servicers in each seattle metro area) have left work for the day at 4:00 PM (what about the average 9 – 5 worker? they have to wait until 10am??)
WHAT IS GOING ON! They totally have taken advantage of Seattle people by not communicating our billing situation, by not knowing how to work the billing system, disrespecting an on-​time customer and then lack of protocol. I serious cannot believe the ignorance that Seattle Public Utilities has put me through (I am a renter who still has the «Owner» name on my bill, so therefore they can jerk me around because I“M the one paying the bill, NOT the owner (FYI if you do not know it is law that you CANNOT have your name on the Utilities if you are NOT the OWNER of the house!!).
Needless to say I feel helpless at times because I have been doing as expected but I think the owner of my house may have a past of bad utility payers and I am getting the riff-​raff for it. I need to call Jesse!

I wish you were better about actively communicating with us. When the snow stops you, don’t tell me to put out my garbage and then it sits there for over a week.
I also really wish you’d hire people to talk to me on the phone that didn’t tell me rudely to slow down, I was going to confuse them.
I do like that you don’t ever REALLY shut me off when I forget to pay my bill. You know I will pay you, I just forget and wait for the angry one to come and then do it online.
What I also like is you offer green option, which I pay more for.
What I don’t like though is that your water/​sewer prices are really high.