If you value your sanity, part II

Don't call to inquire about your water bill from the City. (Please refer to if you value your sanity, part I; too bad there ever had to be a part I and part II). This time it took over an hour and a half, and only time will tell whether the results are any better than the last time. The bill arrived. It's the season for estimating summer water rates based on winter usage. Again, the water bill was estimated. Again the amount estimated bore no relationship to the amount used last year. And January was one of the highest-precipitation months in a very long time. I called the City. And was put on hold. And was told that I'd need to present my Social Security or driver's license number to get any information, even though I was plainly holding several months of bills in my hand right then. All apart from the fact that there appears to be no recognition that plenty of people (a) ride the bus and don't have a license, and (b) don't have Social Security numbers. I went from Suleekha to Ray to Antoinette to Eric. At Eric I was cut off, probably not intentionally. So, beginning again, I went from Suleekha to Eric's voicemail to Suleekha to Trent to Eric, who said he would involve Ms. B. and also Peggy. Various people said things that contradicted various things that other people said, both today and also last November when all this happened before. And by the way, the rereading of the meter promised in November never happened. After the shut-off valve that the City had broken had been replaced, though not before letting gallons and gallons of water wash down the hill before reading the meter (the meter should have been read and recorded before and after) and not before unhooking the garden hose and then replacing it wrong so that it hasn't come right since, the promise was that the new meter would be installed either later that day, a Friday, or on the following Monday or Tuesday. All unaware, we had foolishly assumed that the meter had in fact been replaced. Untrue. In fact, today when somebody referred to the record, the order for meter replacement had been cancelled. Cancelled when? Yet another call elicited the information that the order hadn't been cancelled; it had been "closed." As if that makes a difference. That particular call elicited the information that the new order wasn't started today; it had been started on February 3. Really?!? Yet another factoid elicited during that particular call is that the horrible noise in the pipes ever since the first visit is because the lines weren't flushed. And still, as before, if there's to be any adjustment made to the billing for any of this, some kind of claim process must be undergone. Not worth it! Will the meter be read? Will the reading replace the estimate? Will the new meter be installed? Stay tuned for further developments.