ComplaintsforGuardian Water & Power, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  12/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Unable to provide water meter reading to renters but insist on abnormal high rates for water and sewer. - does not routinely provide bills - if water isn’t paid credit alert comes up - lack of readings between bill cycles

  

  Business response

  12/08/2022

  In response to the BBB Complaint ID ******** filed by ****** ********* here is what we found:
  
  Guardian is billing the property in question with a Ratio Utility Billing system (RUBs).
  This means that there are NO meters in the units and that we take the Municipal bill and divide it based on the number of occupants per unit.
  Since there are no meters, there are no meter reads to provide.
  I am not sure is meant by “if water isn’t credit alert comes up”. Guardian does collect payment from the residents for this property. Bills are paid to the management company so we would not know if payments were made or not.
  Guardian has only processed 2 bills for all units located at this address. One in October 2022 and one in November 2022. The bill being sent in December 2022 has NOT been processed yet.

• Initial Complaint

  07/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Description: Constituent's checking account was hacked by someone so her bank put the account on limited status to allow all outstanding checks to clear the account. She had paid a water bill to Guardian Water and Power, which came back as insufficient funds from their bank, not hers. When Guardian Water and Power didn't cash that check, she wrote them a new one out of her new bank account. That check has not been cashed either. They are now stating that she owes penalties, amounting to almost $70, which includes the original bill of $22. She lives at ******** ******* ** ************ *****

  

  Business response

  08/04/2022

  The resident was billed $22.47 on 6/7/22.
  Guardian received a check via USPS on 6/22/22 in the amount of $22.47 (check # ****). Guardian processes the checks the same day they are received.
  Guardian was notified on 6/27/22 by our financial institution that the check was being return due to “Frozen/Blocked Account”. We were charged a $20.00 NSF fee that was then passed along to the resident.
  Guardian has not received any other payment by check via the USPS from this resident.
  We did receive a payment on 7/26/22 that the resident made via our tele-pay system with a credit card.
  Because we showed the $22.47 as a payment, but the bank did not cash the check due to the NSF, this amount and the NSF fee of $20.00 was add back onto the residents account. For a total of $42.47.
  Since the resident is the person that put her bank account on “limited status” they would need to talk to their bank to find out why the check was returned as “Frozen/Blocked Account”.
  Guardian had nothing to do with the payment not processing and should not be responsible for the $20.00 NSF fee.

  Customer response

  08/05/2022

  Much of this coThe  info they gave you ahgain todat is not correctmplaint has been left out of the response by that company. I definitly will complete my response after I talk to the agent at the BBB Bureau. This is not  going to be accepted, no one will agree to the response given by that conmpanu.  I have proof and paperwork from the Bank to back me up and I will not accept their tactics. The lawyer will also back me up. this company does not seem to understand how to run a business correctly.  I was in the business world my entire life and never did anyone ever try to pull these tricks on our people nor us on anyone else.  I will not take their demands just because they want to make them.  The info they sent to you today is noy correct. I do not owe more money and I will show the correct facts to BBB with all my paperwork and ststements from people involved. They don't even seem to understand howthe banks work or what they were even told. I will show the facts.        Thank you.
  

• Initial Complaint

  05/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On July 30, 2018, I entered into an agreement with Guardian Water & Power to install meters, collect data and provide utility billing service. Guardian was committed to collecting monthly data from each unit and provide bills for each unit. Starting 6-4-21 a problem with the Account Representative getting the bills out. Her response,"I just sent the tenant bill. I'm not sure why it didn't send in the first place." On 8/20/21 email from Account Rep. reference a problem with the data collector being disconnected and requested someone check the data collector because it was disconnected from the internet and she needed to do the pullings for billing. This pattern of request for the building Manager and the Internet provider to trouble shoot continued on the following dates: 8/21/21 CenturyLink Technician diagnosed no problem with internet service. On 8/24/21 Account Rep, sent instruction and 8/26/21 she inquired about ethernet cord being plugged into the data collector. CenturyLink Tech. came to the site and test the internet connection, no problem was discovered. The Account Rep, finally stated she would have her tech dept. to check the system. On 9/14/21 she informed me of LTE service could be turned on for wireless at an additional $30.00 per month. The Staff Accountant emailed (9/27/21) Guardian Account Rep to inform her that the last tenant bills was for June, 2021. October I signed an authorization form notifying Guardian of the transfer of the property. Guardian requested if the cancellation was done in error, to let her know so steps could be taken to move the account back to Guardian. April 18, 2022 an invoice ($350.) was attached to an email for the last seven months of reading fees. Stating a cancellation form was sent to me and I never filled out and returned the form. May 4, 2022 statement was received stating I closed my account in April with an outstanding balance $350 and will sent my account to collection. Services were not performed.

  

  Business response

  05/24/2022

  It is unfortunate that our client was unable to resolve the issues related to her equipment connecting to her internet service and was not interested in the alternative cell phone connection offered to fix the issue. We are not able to resolve issues related to a client's internet provider as that is their personal relationship. Because the required cancellation form that was sent to the client was not filled out as requested, the account was left open and per our contract, responsible for monthly billing fees. After many attempts to have the cancellation process completed, the representative finally cancelled the account, on her behalf, to avoid further costs and fees were charged for the contracted months. 

  Customer response

  06/03/2022

  Again, there were zero problem with the internet service at anytime .  The problem was Guardian employee lack of delivery of service.  Look internal for the performance of the employee. At not time did they do any physical trouble shooting.  The request and instruction was for us to do the trouble shooting.  Apparently, they do not have technicians locally. Guardian was paid for services and I will not pay now or ever a debt not owed.

   

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  03/18/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Description: Constituent states that she is not receiving water bills and is being charged for more than her actual water usage. The constituent not receiving her mail results in her being charged late fees.

  

  Business response

  03/28/2022

  In response to the BBB complaint filed by **** ******** here is what we found:
  
  The resident has on her complaint that her address is *** ***. We have verified with the property management and confirmed that the resident resides at *** ****
  We are mailing the bill to the same address as the service address, which is for *** ****
  At the time the resident moved into the unit, we received notification from the property management providing us with the move in reading from the meter along with the meter number to identify the meter installed on the home.
  Guardian is mailing bills monthly based off the reads we are taking from the meter installed on the home located on *** ****
  I have attached the monthly bills that have been mailed out to the resident during the months of January, February and March of 2022.
  Once the bills are mailed, Guardian has no control over them being delivered to the resident. This would be up to the USPS service.
  Per an email from the Property Management, “this property has always had some issues with their mail delivery for some odd reason”.
  Guardian did provide information to the Property Management about how to set up an online account. This was done so that any resident that had issues receiving their bills via the USPS could sign up online to start receiving E-bills.
  As of today, this resident has not signed up for E-bills.
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩