Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission

WSSC is without question the worst public utility in existence. They have an arrogant, self-​serving, my-​way-​or-​the-​highway approach to doing business. Why? Because as a quasi governmental agency that answers to no one, they can get away with it. Outrageously high commodity charges which go as high as $ 7/​thousand gallons of water, all kinds of trick fees to separate their customers from their money, and arrogant take no prisoners customer service.
Then they don’t maintain their pipes and wreak havoc on area roads with broken mains and floods. Wish someone would take them to task and hold them accountable, but nobody in MoCo or PG cares.

Website is a joke. WSSC should have an job opening for a web designer because they certainly need one.

I rate this service a ZERO despite them making you give them a star they don’t deserve. I live in Capital Heights Md and my bill has been over $ 230 a month WHY? There is something not adding up about this… I am willing to start a lawsuit but can’t do it alone. I wish I knew of an outside agency that will come an investigate these issues. Everyone needs water and they know you HAVE to pay it to survive.

I thought my first bill from WSSC was inaccurate — $ 176.72 for 3 months for one person who does not water outside and infrequently uses dishwasher and washing machine, but then I got a bill for $ 16,973.12!!! LOL! Now I’m on the phone waiting for customer service to resolve this.

Sad to have to do this, but given the fact that I’ve been wrestling with WSSC customer service over the fact that they charged me for the extra water «usage» incurred when THEIR water meter busted, I’m not really pleased.
Let’s break it down:
Water utility is billed quarterly. Our water bill amt is consistent as clockwork. Not long after WSSC’s busted water meter spewed water all over our lawn, we received a bill for $ 25. This is less than we normally pay for our quarterly bill so I set it aside. Not long after, we received our regular quarterly bill too!
So, let’s see… for the past six years that I’ve lived in my home, I’ve received a bill from WSSC 4x a year at about $ 62 each. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I get a FIFTH bill, this one for $ 25.
It doesn’t take an accounting wizard to recognize that they were trying to charge us for the ‘extra’ water usage incurred due to the busted water meter. Particularly in light of the fact that the two technicians warned us that we might get billed for it when they originally came out to fix it in May (see former review). But I didn’t freak out, because it just seemed so very obvious that they’d made an error. Then ensued a series of phone calls and missed communications, the bottom line of which was this — they insisted that our water usage must have gone up and that’s why we got the extra bill.
Wait for it — at one point one of the reps I spoke with told me they had sent a technician out to read the water meter and it turns out they HAD overcharged us – so we got a $ 4 credit.
Hooray for you, only $ 21 to go to make things right!
So now my options were:
Pay the bill and get in the (apparently very lengthy and backed up) queue to request a «hearing.» Yes, that’s right, a hearing that would determine my case.
–or–
Don’t pay the bill and get my water shut off.
Long story short, I paid the bill, requested a hearing, continued to follow up with them on the status of the hearing, and then, finally, gave up. Just as they probably hoped I would.
Thanks for nothin’ WSSC.

I have dealt with a lot of automated phone services in the past but the one that Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission uses is the absolute worst I have ever encountered. I have been trying unsuccessfully over the last month to simply switch the water service billing in the townhouse I have rented into my name. This endeavor has been fruitless and time consuming. I have spoken to a human only once and even then when she tried to switch me to someone else the call dropped. All the options are set up for you to input information without human interaction. They seem intent on avoiding talking to the customer at all costs. I cringe to even think about having to deal with these people in the future. Their phone system must have been designed by someone with Asperger’s. This place reeks of poor customer service.