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madseattleconsumer
March 22, 2010
Unfair Billing Practices
ISTA is a supposedly a "billing company" for apartment utilities; primarily water and sewer. There are lots of things to complain about this company, but I will focus on billing due dates.
My billing date for April is due on the 6th.
In March (last month) it was due on the 12th.
In February (the previous month) it was due on the 17th.
This means I am getting billed about every 3 weeks! When I called to complain about the due date, the rep told me they have no control over the due date. I said, "what do you mean you have no control? Aren't you the billing company?". She said yes they are but gave me some lame explanation about it depending on when the bills go out.
I proceeded to tell I could not pay it by the 6th and would pay it by the 12 like last month and to make a note of my account. She said she would but she never asked for my account number! And the automated system never asked for it so I am fairly sure there will no notation on my account.
No other company I deal with has such an erratic billing process. Even the electric company bills about the same time every other month. A regular billing cycle is the only way most people can plan for a bill such as ISTA (these are not small bills by the way). But with ever changing billing dates, it is impossible to plan for unless I plan a full month ahead.
I am filing a complaint with the state attorney general office about their billing practices as soon as I have about 8 months worth of billing copies showing these irregularities.
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October 8, 2008
heat/water bill fraud
I lived at an aimco property for a total of 6 years. After two years I moved intoi a one bedroom after leaving my ex, here it was just my daughter and I. To begin with the heat unit was a fire hazard per the building inspector and was not in working order(ista had been out twice, said nothing was wrong) The so called meter had no history of inspection and to boot the record keeping inaccurate. How do I know this? Well, I lived at timber ridge where the Quad murders took place. Anyone can look at old papers and see at that time there were 7 ppl at least coming in and out of that particular apartment that lived there, ista did not keep track of how many ppl lived in each apartment so the dividing of costs was not accurate for pro-rating. Second of all, I recieved a copy of the master bill of which the tenents were charged for that month, my apartment building was not listed as far as the heat bill goes and secondly they calculated the common area cost into the charges and alsothe master bill had 2 months on it as opposed to the one month I was supposodly charged for. For a single woman and a child liviong in an apartment not even 600 square feet the charges should not have exceeded 200 dollars . well here is just some of the charges while I lived there( does not include electric costs from duke energy) first bill to start major problems 10/19/06-11/20/06-service fee-3.01heaT SERVICE FEE-1.75 MONITERED HEAT SERVICE100 CCF-117.03BASE ENERGY SERVICE-9.08 HOT WATER HEAT SERVICE-12.86 TRASH SERVICE-6.25 AND WATER SERVICE 8.63 TOTAL-158.62NOW HERES WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SPRING3/20/07-4/20/07 SERV FEE-3.01 HEAT SEV FEE-1.75 MONITERED HEAT SERV-72 CCF-84.25BASE ENERGY SERV-14.68TRASH SERV-6.25 AND WATER SERV 8.46 TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE YES, BUT IT GETS WORSE BEFORE I MOVED OUT THIS IS WHEN I REALLY WENT THROUGH THE ROOF 2/20/08-3/20/08 BASE ENERGY 71.78 GAS 2/20/08-3/20/08-135CCF-182.38 GAS ADMINISTRATION CHARGE-1.77TRASH-6.25 WATER-8.14 AND SERVICE FEE 3.01. i HAVE ALL BILLS FROM THE TWO YEARS OF LIVING THERE, i REQUESTED THEM FROM ISTA, ISTA NOTIFIED AIMCO AND A DAY LATER I WAS GIVEN NOTICE TO LEAVE THE PREMISES AT THE END OF MY LEASE. i WAS HARRASSED BY THE LANDLORD, ISTA WOULD NOT CLARIFY WHY THESE BILLS WERE SO HIGH NOR THE INCONSISTONCIES i HAVE FILED WITH THE BBB, CONSUMER COUNCIL HAVE NOTIFIED LAWYERS, THE EPA GOV STRICKLAND, THE CITY COUNCIL, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES THE I-TEAM AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF. UNFORTUNATLY THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION OVER WHAT THEY CAN CHARGE EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NO PROOF OF CONSUMPTION. THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY WE COULD HAVE USED AS MUCH HEAT OR WATER AS STATED.I AM A WORKING MOTHER WHO IS ALSO IN COLLEGE, my apartment was constantly freezing and to boot my daughters room was deemed a fire hazard and the air unfit to breathe per building codes via building inspector.Ista will take no responsibility even though thier techs per thier website state to be knowledgable and they as well claim to be "World Leaders" in the industry. I say world leaders of scamming me out of my money and making my life a living hell in the privacy of my own home at the time. They made my life and my credit a living hell. I had to drop all payments on everything else to pay these inflated apparent fraudulant bills all the while being harrassed by the landlord who lived directly next door.These people should either be put out of business or regulated, what they are doing is wrong and someone should put a stop to it.
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