When Poor Quality Hits Close to Home

Last week, two acts of poor quality affected my family. I write this as the roar of fans and de-humidifiers deafens my ears. These are related to the first issue.

Last Tuesday, my wife called me at work in a panic. The water company had shut our water off claiming lack of payments since October 2005. No warning or heads up. The water was shut off. As we talked, she was in route to the utility to pay a $250 fee. This made no sense as I pay the bills and had recently seen the cancelled check for November's bill. I told her to go back home (she did) and look through the checkbook. She called back with the cancelled check number.

Next, she called the water company and informed them of the check number. After a brief investigation, they replied that our payments had been credited to another account. So, it was an error on their part. No harm. They said the water would be turned back on some time that evening. Feeling better, we left to go see my son's basketball game. Well, unbenownst to us, our seven year old had turned on an upstairs faucet after the water was shut off. When the water was restored, the faucet ran full blast and eventually overflowed. We returned home to find water leaking onto the first floor. End result: We are now drying the walls to prevent mold. The walls must be replaced. Total cost: appoximately $2000.

This is the classic five why scenario: Why are the fans in my house? Because I have moisture in my walls. Why is there moisture in my walls? Because a faucet overflowed. Why?... Why?... Eventually this leads to the water company's quality error as the root of my problem.

So what do you do when a public utility's poor quality affects you personally? Well, what do you do at work when a supplier ships you defective product? You ask for corrective action. And that's what I did. I'll expect them to pay for the damages and explain to me why this error occurred and what they will do to prevent it from happening again.

Second issue: During the water fiasco, I recieved a threatening letter from a collection agency saying I owed $1700 for medical treatment received in October. Yes, I received the treatment and had been seen previous letters informing me of the balance due. But, my wife and I have insurance and I did not expect to have a balance for this procedure (I had the same thing done two years ago and owed nothing after insurance). I was steamed. The letter changed my frame of mind. I snapped at my daughter for no reason. Long story made short: Turns out the hospital made a billing error. The error was corrected and we owe nothing.

Are the quality Gods trying to tell me something? It sure seems like it.

For years I have lamented at the lack of customer orientation in service industries. What do you do when poor service impacts you? You can call and complain but how do you know that the root cause was discovered and eliminated? Noone from the water company, DMV, bank, or hospital sends you a corrective action report.

They should and maybe we should demand it as customers.