Tubigggggggggggggggggggggggg!!!

Ok, so we've been at our new place for about a month now. More or less. Maynilad cut my water supply on the 6th of October. According to them, our account's under their condonation program. See, prior to us moving into the new place, my uncle had "sold" the unit to a lady who stayed there for about 3 months or so. This was over 6 years ago. The lady failed to make her monthly payments so she lost the unit. When she left, she also left a mountain of utility bills.

So over two months ago, when we decided we were to take over the unit, I had our maintenance guy at the office check on water and electricity. Found out that the old unpaid water bill racked up to about P11,000!!! We paid for this in CASH as this was the only way we could get a new water meter installed. Maynilad actually gave us the option of enrolling the account in their condonation program (pay the past due in installment), but we had opted to pay everything in cash and in full. Clean start. No problems.

No way. I received a bill on the 13th of September (this was about a week after we had moved in) and on it were the words "NOTICE OF DISCONNECTION". Way (nods head). So I brought the bill to the office the next day, called up Maynilad, and questioned the bill. Remember, we had paid all previous balances in full. But the bill came and on it showed I had owed Maynilad about P2,000 worth of previously unsettled bills. I asked the girl on the other line why this was so, she gave me a reference number and told me to check again in a week's time. This didn't sit well with me. I didn't want my water supply cut off (especially with a baby at home), so I asked our maintenance guy to go to the Maynilad business office to sort things out.

Turns out they made a mistake. I only had to pay current charges for the past 2 bills (which amounted to about P400). I didn't even see the other bill. But I paid anyway. Because, like I said, I didn't want my water supply cut off.

Last week, on October 6, someone from Maynilad rang our door bell, and told our nanny he was disconnecting our water meter. Our nanny told him we had already paid our bill, but the Maynilad guy refused to accept this as valid reason to check with his office. I mean, hello, couldn't he make one call to check?

Our nanny begged him to be allowed to get a couple of pails of water before they cut our supply, but the man yelled at her (and cursed!), telling her he'd get into trouble. He told her to have me go to the Fairview Business Office if we wanted to get our water back.

My car was coded that day so I got home late. It was too late to visit their business office so I called up their hotline. I spoke with a rep, KC Tutero (I think her name was), who couldn't help at all. She told me it was their protocol to cut off the water supply of a customer who fails to make payment on or before the due date, when the account is under condonation. I mentioned that we paid the past dues in full so how would that make my account under the darn program? "Yun po kasi patakaran ng Maynilad, pasensya na po."

I also mentioned that I specifically made it a point to send someone to their business office just to make sure they didn't cut my water off. How could I have paid all past dues in full on the 20th (she said this was when my Bancnet payment got posted in their system, but I actually paid on the 17th, a day after that visit to their office) then have their office issue a disconnection order on the 5th of October (that's two weeks!)? They could have checked the account first before they issued the job order!

No answer. So much for having a hotline. Yup, no thanks to her, we had to go back to the office to take a bath and get some water for washing, etc.

I personally visited their Fairview Business Office the next day, with our maintenance guy in tow. I was ready to hurl out a lot of angry words to the Maynilad people, since I was so frustrated with their hotline guys the night before. But the man we talked to was just so nice (a certain Mr. Dela Cruz). He was quick to help, checked my account and found out their corrections weren't committed until that same day! Turns out, they had mistakenly enrolled the account in their condonation program, hence a first installment for the original debt of P11,000 was being charged to me. But my account ISN'T under condonation because I no longer had past dues since we paid IN CASH AND IN FULL. He went down to this other lady who was very apologetic and promised to have their field people visit my house asap.

True enough, 20 minutes after that visit, we had our water supply back.

Two days ago, I received another bill from Maynilad. It still said "NOTICE OF DISCONNECTION" on it and reflected the P2,000+ past due from the old payables. Yesterday, I called up their hotline to check on this and according to LJ (the girl who assisted me), this has been corrected in their system and all my balances have been paid for.

Finally! If someone from Maynilad rings our door bell again in two weeks, he's sure to lose his ears.