Letters to the Editor
I live and work in the downtown Wimberley area. I moved here about a decade ago because I fell in love with the beauty of the place and the warmth of the people. Recently, I have become alarmed at the controversy surrounding the partnership with Aqua Texas. I understand that our area is experiencing dramatic growth and that this will call for updated infrastructure that is necessary to serve the ever increasing number of families who move here. I also understand that our wonderful town will need to address budget issues that are extremely challenging and will ultimately call for new strategies in order to solve ever increasing costs of operation for Wimberley. Given these issues I decided to step back and explore whether a partnership with Aqua Texas is a viable option.
It didn’t take me long to discover an extensive number (over 100,000) of
complaints about this company from a myriad of cities in Texas and throughout the United States. Among the complaints are hiring of unlicensed subcontractors, warranty issues, questionable back charges of significant amounts, inability to contact service members for repairs, substantial delays in repair work, a multitude of complaints to the Better Business Bureau, serious discrepancies in rates among neighbors on the same street, high “connection” fees, dramatic rises in cost of water, insistence to regularly pay for “services” that are very expensive, double charging for services that have already been paid for, dubious promises about service and rates, charges for services not rendered, delays in refunds for overcharges, unreliability of service, blocking of phone numbers of people who’ve had to call repeatedly and complain about incorrect billing (until attorneys became involved), non-existence of local offices to deal with complaints and issues, questionable denial of payments for work completed for their own service technicians and staff, extreme wait times (over two hours) for phone calls regarding complaints, refusal to fix issues that were under warranty…and that’s just some of the repeated complaints in the first 500 complaints of over 100,000!
Furthermore, those people who had their service switched over to Aqua Texas had commentary such as, “corporate profits trump consumer rights every time,” “Aqua Texas has a monopoly here, we’re out of ideas and can’t afford an attorney,” “if it is Aqua Texas, I would run fast,” “Beware consumers, if you can avoid Aqua Texas, I would,” and “How can you get Aqua Texas to provide sound, quality service when they technically have a monopoly?”
As distressing as the number and tone of the comments were, I still tempered my opinion based on the fact that the internet isn’t always the most reliable place for source material. Then, one day when I was working a gentleman walked into our store and we began to chat. He eventually mentioned that he heard about the lively debate and asked if I lived in town. When I answered yes, he continued that he was from Baytown, Texas and they have had serious issues with the quality of service since they partnered with Aqua Texas. His and his neighbor’s rates have increased dramatically and that prior to Aqua Texas being handed the water service the rates were minimal. As he was leaving, he turned to me and said, “You should keep Aqua Texas out of Wimberley no matter what you have to do. They have seriously hurt our town and caused division over a resource that should be available and affordable for everyone.” He then provided me with his name and contact info and said that he would be happy to speak with anyone in Wimberley if that would help Wimberley prevent making the mistake that his hometown did. Wow. I was convinced then and there that there are too many questions about this company to engage in a contract that could have a detrimental impact to the quality of life in Wimberley as well as people’s bank accounts.
In my work downtown I get to meet people from all over the world who love this town, its small town charm, and beauty. I love this place too. Can we stop all of the ugly fighting and work together to preserve this precious resource, and ultimately our town? The mayor and council members should honor our existing contracts because that is precisely what the majority of their constituents in Wimberley voted for.
Please protect our beautiful town and keep our water clean, dependable, and affordable. Don’t make the mistake of letting Aqua Texas ruin our town.
Sincerely,
Janie Reynolds