WAPA Bill

Your best bet is to go in person to the WAPA office. Be polite and take whatever documentation you have, including your dated lease. Ask if there was a previous balance owed on the property. Request that a meter reader return to your home to re-read the meter. This sound like a simple mistake. If you are pleasant and persist ant, I think you can get it resolved.

Edited to stress: Your attitude should be "This is obviously a mistake and I know you (WAPA) are going to correct it" No matter how annoyed you are, you cannot say "you people are idiots and crooks and you must not understand who I am. I want this fixed and I want it fixed NOW." Calm and pleasant is the key.

I agree with the previous note.Be positive in what you say. You need to tell them that this can not be your bill. I have found them to respond in a positive manner.

billd

in other words.....kiss their ass. :-X

Not at all. But if you are trying to get someone to see things your way, being polite and patient certainly seems like the way to go.

Don't dispute a reading you haven't been billed for yet. I would bet they billed you for average usage while they update your account with a baseline reading. Your next bill should reflect your actual usage.

Has anyone had any luck disputing their WAPA bill? I just got a bill for over $200 for an empty apartment that no one is living in....no fans, no lights, no A/C....nothing except a small fridge. The bill is even much bigger than the typical bill when the property is occupied. Any suggestions on what I can do beyond going in to talk to them?

Is there any way someone can put a hidden camera by their meter, and watch each day on 100X fastforward to see if a WAPA meter-reader man actually comes? I would looooove to hear the results of such a "experiment" !

You could just write down your meter reading every day. If your number matches the number on your next bill, then they read it. Or they estimated really well, but then i think it will say "estimated" on the bill.

The date WAPA will read your meter is on your bill, so you can just read it the same day. I usually see the WAPA guy, plus we read the meters ourselves on that day, and 9 out of 10 times, we are right on the kwh. If it's off, it's only by a few, meaning they read in the morning and we read in the afternoon.

Unless the meter is changed out, it is a self correcting system. At some point the meter reader will read meter correctly and you get a credit on your bill, that might last for several months.
I made the mistake of telling WAPA that the meter had been read wrong by 1000kwh, (a common mistake), and they corrected the reading but didn't credit me the amount. Better for their guys to find the mistake and have it go through the normal system.
5 months later, i finally got it straightened out. (and over the phone! not in person).