San Jose Water Company

The water tastes awful. It’s undrinkable without reverse osmosis. It’s so hard that it destroys all appliances and faucets. The service charge is $ 70/​mo for a town home and our usage is usually less than $ 20/​mo.

Like some other Unilocalers here I continue to receive solicitations for damaged water lines in my mail. It seems we are receiving a relentless supply of this junk mail directly from SJWC. It seems like an unnecessary expense and I question how this might affect water rates. In my case I’ve already replaced the water line from the street to the home so the ads are a continuing annoyance for me. I’m guessing I’m not alone with these sentiments…

Hey
Bob D at San Jose Water… you guys are scandalous…
1. My bill due for October 21 is the HIGHEST EVER… REALLY???
2. I have a new account #… big variable
3. San Jose Water came out and installed a new meter about 3 weeks ago, and I understand that this bill due for October 21 probably has no connection to having a new meter, big variable #2.
4. My latest bill due for October 21 is $ 76.00 higher that my highest bill ever…
5. this is totally scandalous, talked to lots of residents that have outrageous bills this month…
Whom should I ask for to talk to when I call in???
Thank you Bob D…

They get 1 star for lack of communication within the office staff. Had a 1 ½ water main blow out waisting mass amounts of water. I called at 8:30 and reported the problem, spoke w Sonia. She told me someone was on the way. 2 hrs later no one shows. This whole time mass amounts of water is being wasted. This time a tenet calls and asked when are they coming out? Their response was «no one has reported this problem to us»…Way to drop the ball while we are in a drought, guys.

I just don’t get it, why my water bill would be doubled compared to my neighbors I’m doing the water rationing! What is really going on?

Well, I don’t know how they do it but from 2013 my bill went up around 25% and in 2015 another 25%. And this taking in to account that I stay within drought limits and even use less water than in 2013. Good job SJWC on jacking up rates without any improvements in service or in quality of water. At some point I’ve stopped counting rate increase notifications and proposals I was receiving from this company. I’ve objected and wrote several times my comments about these unreasonable rate hikes, absence of rate comparison with other service providers, and lack of transparency and disclosure of about company finances and revenue but as everyone else I was ignored. I wish we didn’t have monopoly on utilities in San Jose, I would gladly switched to another water provider.

I am soooo tired of dealing with these people! In the drought conditions we are all in my husband and I have let our lawns die and done all the other conservation measures that are required of us… including bottled water instead of tap. We began this process sometime during 2013 when the media started shouting ‘drought’. Well, in 2014 both our kids moved out and then moved back in 2015. I called SJWC and explained our position because I was worried that our water usage would be too high, however we still managed to keep it lower than 2014’s usage (Which by the way means it was lower than 2013 as well). The representative on the phone stated they were strictly using 2013 as the comparison as well as allowing all homeowners a four person per house allowance.
Here’s my question: Why then is SJWC supplying 2014 as their comparison for water use to this year.
Also, why was my water bill more than doubled when we used less water than last year… and according to my husbands calculations SJWC expects us to have cut our water usage by ²⁄₃ after we already have let our lawns die and all the other measures we are taking without considering the kids moving back!

I also asked SJ water about using technology to track (near) real time water usage
like so many other utilities are doing already. I got this response
«
At this time, San Jose Water Company is not pursuing this technology.
Please visit our website
for helpful tips on how to track your water usage.
«
Yikes, so much talk about drought in California and water utility company in so called ‘capital of silicon valley’ is so far behind.

Try to setup an online account to view your usage (so we can see if we are cutting back by what %) — IMPOSSIBLE!

I got my water main pipe burst last Saturday. I called SJ water company immediately. The technician came and shut off the water. He kindly explained to me that I had to pay for the leaked water since the pipe burst happened at my house side of the meter. The meter showed that water leaked a lot. I’d like to know if I will get penalty from SJ water company. If yes, how to resolve it since the pipe burst is an accident rather than the over use. Can Mr. Bob D from SJ water company please help me find the answer? Thanks

Water taste disgusting, the PPM level is more than 350. Service charge is outrageous in a new development ($ 70 for a 1.5″ meter). Why don’t these people just hold up a sign that says they like to rob people. My service charge alone is more expensive than my utility bill, pure BS from a utility company.

I am sick and tired of receiving offers from Home Emergency Insurance Solutions for «protection» against my water main breaking masquerading as an official SJWC mailer. If the line did break it likely wouldn’t be covered thanks to the fine print exclusions. The BBB doesn’t trust HEIS, why does the San Jose Water Co. like them? $$$

so frustrating. I moved out of the San Jose area and cancelled my service when I sold my home in Nov. 2014. They kept sending me bills and I kept calling to tell them to stop the account. I was no longer the owner. Needless to say I was forced to continue paying them through January 2015 or else the would send me to collections. I am just hoping after the third try to cancel the account they might actually stop billing me. You’re welcome SJWC for paying you when it is not my account and you’re welcome to the new owner of the house for paying your water for 3 months. Guess it was a nice housewarming gift for you. Too bad we have no choice but to use SJWC.

I had an incident with this infamous outfit! My water was disconnected for non-​payment. It’s been a year now since I moved to SJ and my bank continued the auto payment that was step up from my previous house — so I thought. My account has always been on a surplus for many years!
When I notified them of my move, they did not tell me that my account number is going to change so I did not do anything with the autopay.
After ONE year, my water was disconnected for non-​payment!
But here’s the hammer, my bank continued monthly payment to the original account. Do you think they would say something about the money going to them that they no longer provide service? Heck NO!
What do they do? … they disconnect the service! Upon reviewing my account, they said I have large sum — sitting in an account not getting service! Because I raised hell, they said they would «waive the restoration fee» … and that it would take few hours to restore service. The call happened around 11am and was told by 3pm +/​-​I would have my service back. I came home from work at 9pm and no water. 9:30am the following day, I got my service restored! It took the guy not even 5 mins to turn it back on.
I guess they wanted to punish me more so they took their lovely time to reinstate my water!
The city of San Jose is the pits! — police is not responding to people’s home getting burglarized, auto theft, etc. Their waste service — yard waste had to be dumped on the street so their service can come and rake it over to a forklift (?) to haul it away. They leave so much debris on the street. Worst of all, you can not even (or should not anyway) collect true compost from kitchen scraps due to rodents. I guess to those who do, this is another reason why the city is rampant with rats!
I am so glad to be moving out of this pit!

Biggest irritant yesterday: San Jose Water company partners with practically-​criminally-​deceptive HomeServe that sends official looking letters making you think you have to pay for insurance. The letters are very deceptive. I know many people that have been fooled by the deceptive letters into thinking it was a required government fee. To top it off, HomeServe sends a harassing volume of these letters. I could tolerate one of these letters, but they seem to send them every month or two, non-​stop. The letters say to go to
to opt out of getting the letters. I went to the website and could not figure out how to opt out, and had to put up with more of their selling their product on their site.
Biggest irritant today: Got a past due notice but never got the bill, and as a bonus, the past due notice doesn’t tell us how much we owe!
Biggest ongoing irritant: the water quality is awful. A ridiculous amount of calcification that builds up on our tea kettle, pots, shower head, toilets, shower walls, faucets, and water filter.
It’s time to get rid of the members of the water board and upper management and replace them with people that will get the water company to behave more ethically and to improve the quality of our water.

Like a lot of my reviews, this one regards a service provided to my HOA.
When visiting to ask SJWC questions about sub-​metering for our HOA (I was prompted to call by the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) for a question they said only SJWC could answer), I was put off by each person there. They were having a quiet day, with three windows unoccupied by customers.
They would not entertain getting my representative from SCVWD on the phone to engage in a conference call and hear the issue directly from SCVWD, but instead stiff armed me.
On another matter, I asked just when SJWC would quit sending out a dedicated mailer soliciting insurance on damaged water supplies to homes. As this insurance is only available to individual homes and not multiple domicile dwellings like our community of sixty (60) condos, I’m miffed that the SJWC would spend a tidy some every quarter sending out such a glossy, highly produced letter to so many of us each quarter. This unnecessary expense is added to all of our water bills and passed on to everyone. At my company, such a solicitation costs $ 0.71 each when 5,000 are sent out.
I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of such notices a year are sent to people dwelling in condos, townhomes, or apartments where there is no ability to pursue or obtain the service in question.

This so-​called company is a prime example of why monopolies are heinous. Their pricing scheme is egregious. Their service is appalling. And they could not care less, because they know that you cannot get water from someone else.

This place is a joke, the staff is terrible. This place needs to have all of it’s current employees purged and re-​staffed with real humans and not these old overworked hags.
This is one of those places where they know you need their services so they treat you like you are trash.
I give this place a rating of one star, a thumb and my middle finger.

This is my first time setting up and paying for water so here are my initial findings.
It’s impossible to set up a new account. Going to the website directs you to a phone number (hello, it’s 2013)… Then you proceed to go through an automated voice menu which is completely inefficient.
:Hold for ~5 minutes:
Once talking to a representative, everything was fine and an easy setup.
There is an initial deposit in addition to your first bill, which i believe is refunded at the end of 11 months. not quite sure how that works either, but time will tell!
#adultlife

Unbelievable! Our normal usage since we’ve lived in CA for the past 3 years is 9 units per bill (2 months). Suddenly we have a bill that is for 227 units. They say we used 168,000 gallons of water in 2 months. That is 1,700% increase!!! That is the equivalent of 20 swimming pools! The read is exactly 2 hundreds place off from what would have been normal.
After having them out for a re-​read and a water audit — which as expected turned up no leaks or problems, I assumed they’d realize the ludicrousy of the situation and would correct it immediately, but instead they say that since the meter says that is the usage, there is nothing they will do about it. WHAT!!! So apparently logic, reason and fairness are not relevant. The next step is to remove the meter for testing, if not found to be faulty at the time of testing, then we are screwed, but even if it is found to be faulty then they will need to contact the manufacturer to find out how to determine the correct adjustment — AGAIN WHAT!!!
I will be contacting the California Public Utilities Commission to file a complaint and I will be attending the testing, but regardless I am stuck with buying water from an organization. This is why I will never vote for govt to run services. The free market is not perfect but Govt. as the sole provider of services… that sounds like a nightmare! Thank God this is just about water and not my health.