Dennis Kuecker: City should alert customers to changes in watering days
The city of Modesto water utilities is not adequately alerting residential customers to the changes they’ve made to the “latest” 2016 watering-day schedules. As a result, bewildered e-bill residents all over Modesto are unaware of these changes and are now receiving “Violation Notices.”
Utility personnel admit there are many, many customers who are unaware of the latest changes, yet they insist the information is available on their website, in the newspaper, etc, and they feel billing ‘Alerts’ are unnecessary!
A reasonable person would have no reason to sift through the myriad of website links unless alerted to changes.
An “alert” to billing changes could easily be accomplished by including a line (perhaps in red) at the top of the bill, indicating watering days have changed. The 2015 watering schedule was listed at the top of the billing page but was discontinued in 2016.
Most residential customers, in the best interests of the community, are willing to comply with water restrictions when they are clearly alerted to them. So why not inform e-bill customers, using a clearly visible billing alert?
Dennis Kuecker, Modesto
This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Dennis Kuecker: City should alert customers to changes in watering days."