I signed up for automatic payments and just got mail today, a year later that nothing has gone through and the only reason my power hasnt shut off is because they are keeping it on for everyone due to Covid. So, at some point, Columbus stopped my automatic payments without telling me, and surprised me with a huge bill. Terrible system, terrible portal; think of it as the USPS of utilities. Totally outdated and cant even get automatic payments right.

When I requested to have the water service discontinued I was advised they will need to get a final meter reading, which will take a couple days to send someone out, and if they do not have access they will continue the service until they contact the owner of the property to allow them access or provide a meter reading to discontinue the service! REALLY!!! So someone can CONTINUE to use the service in my name until they can get a final reading!! And this is the final bill you will give me to pay!!! This is simply a PREPOSTEROUS & INANE asinine Company! SMH!

I called to establish our new residence. My call was answered immediately and the staff member was courteous and very helpful. My paper work was in process and she helped me understand what to expect.

A trained child has better sense than most...

Honestly, not deserving of a one star rating. Poor quality of customer service, as hold times exceeds 20 minutes or so. No real strategic troubleshooting procedural steps in place to handle the call volumes for serviced communities or as emergent scenarios arise. AEP leads the charge with empowering and informing communities with right to know information and tools to stay abreast as situations arise. I challenge communities to start asking how can we start holding local government offices accountable for better supportive and quality services. I mine as well dig a well and ask Jack & Jill to fetch a pale of water....

Without any notification they parked a Ditch Witch in my backyard. They even cut down a bush and damaged my gas meter! They could have knocked on my door and asked me to move my vehicle rather than damaging my property!

If there was a way to give negative stars I would have. Im disgusted that they cant pick up a phone and help people. I waited 20 min on hold then hung up and called back and am still waiting now for 13 more min. What is going on that you cant properly assist people???!!!!! The website should make it easy to cancel stop service. Thats Columbus for you.. So glad to be out of this city.

City water was just on my street Glenmont Ave--doing several repair. Whoever was in charge of fixing the street after should not get paid. Worst paving Ive seen since Morse road repairs. Our street was perfectly flat-now it has giant bumps from piss poor workmanship. You guys would think you could get organized and do your repairs before a street is resurfaced-not 2 months later.

Ive never dealt with a more disorganized utility company. All I want is to receive my bills, pay them, and be done with it. What happens instead?It takes over a year (sprinkled with threats of shutting off my water) them to actually send me bills because of issues getting the water billing agreement with my landlord in place. Then, when the account is finally in my name, I dont get a bill. I call them and find the account is considered delinquent for non payment of bills. I pay it, try to set up ebilling to prevent this in the future, but cant because the address is tied to a previous tenants account. Whatever. Fast forward to today when I get a courtesy call from my landlord because my water account is delinquent and I could be evicted if its not paid. The amount is exactly what I paid before from the same unpaid bill. I check and the money was removed from my account. I try to call the customer service line and stay on hold until they close. I guess Ill skip my lunch tomorrow to call again, because their hours of operation are normal working hours.It is shameful how disorganized and terrible they operate. I cant pay bills they dont send and wont let me view online. Even if I do pay them by calling when I think there should be a bill, they tell my landlord its unpaid.Update: They are still just as bad as when I wrote this review. Just got another notice of delinquency for non-payment of a bill I never received. Paid within 5 minutes of receiving, because its not like I dont have the money set aside for exactly this expense. I just literally cannot pay bills that Im not sent. Im at my wits end.

Worst service I ever experience this is the third day that I’ve waited over an hour and no one answers to start a new account on a new house house that I bought. Does anybody work or is everybody out protesting. Go to work and get this job done for the customers that pay their high water bills every month whoever is in Who ever is in charge needs to be fired bad bad bad. I dealt with the electric and gas company with no problem at all what’s up with all this

HORRIBLE SERVICE!!! All around HORRIBLE! Customer service representatives are rude and lazy at handling requests in a timely matter. Online services is VERY disorganized. Field servicemen are not professional or care about letting home owners know they are on the property. (That’s a service that needs to be changed immediately. This overall service should be it least known to the home owner when this company is on the property). Supervisors & upper management have NOT done anything to make phone payments easier for the customers. The automated phone payment has been terrible for years. Overall, I’d rate this Company a 1/2 star if it would let me. The 1/2 star would only be for the water that actually comes into my home. Whoever reviews these reviews hopefully does their job and remedies these problems....WOW JUST WOW!!!

Is there a performance review or a review of any kind of how pathetic the customer service is at this department. Very long wait, cold and inflexible, customer unfriendly service. I wonder if stone-age times were more advanced. Needs a complete overhaul for such a vital service.

All I want to do is report a payment. Currently on hold for... 35 minutes. How many people work in the office? Why the hell are wait times so long?! What are they doing in this office!?

Columbus City Water is one of the top few in water quality in the country. There are extensive underground mega structures that have been added and now theyre adding blue light for further decontamination. Four enormous new reservoirs have been or are being built (out of town and under guard) to ensure we NEVER have a water shortage. Plus the huge efforts to update all the old potentially dangerous pipes, its all a truly amazing.So try looking into procedures for emergencies when nothings happening and if you think youre getting ripped off because of prices you most likely cant imagine how much is involved in keeping our water safe, clean & all of us healthy. Despite how it sounds No, I dont work there but I find it all very interesting, you can take a free tour of the Water Plant and ask questions - its amazing!

Horrible! Hate using this “service”

Despite our landlord providing proof of payment a month in advance of the deadline, our service was still terminated due to ‘non-payment,’ though proof was provided that the payment cleared (before it was due), but did not apply to the account. After weeks of communication, the only customer service that was provided was denial of accountability.

I dread calling Columbus W/S every time we purchase a house in Columbus or have a tenant move out. Horrible service, I have waited on hold many times for 30-45 min or better. Ive tried to email them for help, but they always tell me I have to call in. It is a horrible waste of my time and money to have to carve that much time out of my day to get water service.

I have had this Water/Sewer provider for a year, and utilized their autopay service. Well, the end of last May, they decided to revamp their website and wipe user account info - including autodraft payment methods. Next bill that comes Im handed a delinquency notice with no warning before the fee is applied. Also, you gotta love the limited hours and long hold times.Terrible customer service at this place - must be nice knowing youre unable to go out of business.

I called the water company about a water leak and we established that it was a problem I needed to fix even though it was the main water line because it was on my property. They then sent me to a sight of companies they recommended that were triple A rated according to them. The company I called did not fix the leak after charging $1800.00 And after giving us the run around and months of call backs I am not sure the drain is fixed yet. When I called the water company to ask if they had a sight to register a complaint so no one else would be duped they told me they did not and that they did not make recommendations but had listed these companies as A list companies for the consumers benefit. I did register a complaint on the BBB where the company DRAINS-N-PIPES IS NOT LISTED but the water company says they have a triple A rating.

Most frustrating utility I’ve ever dealt with. So many years of so many errors and customer service that truly doesn’t care about you. You will be placed on auto hold for 30+ minutes, only to talk to someone who will berate you & make you feel truly awful. I wish they would sell to a private utility company that would upgrade their equipment and train their employees on customer service. I don’t believe a city this big should operate its own utilities, too much of a monopoly. But hey you need water, so what are you going to do? I lived in Delaware County for a while. Their water company (Del-Co) was a dream to deal with compared to Columbus.

After calling multiple times this week to set up an account, I finally got a hold of a representative... after holding for an HOUR. As others have mentioned, there is no option to leave a call back number making this grossly inefficient. On top of that I was informed that there was a $140 deposit which I have to REQUEST to get refunded upon move out. When I have used AEP in the past the deposit was cheaper and was automatically refunded. You would think with all the money they probably keep from refunds they would have enough to staff more people and improve their website. The Citys Power division should follow in AEPs footsteps and actually try to be more consumer friendly.

Multiple calls, no answer... went to office and the security guard was offensive and said I had to call and get an appointment before I could talk to anyone.. how can you do that if they wont answer the phone??

I have never spoken to people this rude in my life. They answer the phone with an attitude and then proceed to act like you making a payment arrangement is somehow depleting their paychecks. It would be beyond wise to retrain them in customer service. No one should be disrespected or spoken down to when calling about a service they pay for. Disgraceful.

Terrible service. Ive been trying to report a SERIOUS water leak for over an hour and they cant answer the phone. Just unbelievable.

Got a delinquent bill from my previous address. Tried to call and make sure my services were cut off from old address. Waited on one line for 20 minutes. Called back and selected a different option hoping that would take me to someone else. Waited another 10 minutes. There are probably elderly people who have passed, waiting on hold for these people. And guess what, theyre still holding.

Absolutely abysmal. Terrible service.

I have been calling them for two days now, they dont pick the phone. The never call back. They probably have the worst customer service I have ever experienced. They recently switched to a new customer portal without informing their customer and without migrating any existing customer data. I hope I never have to deal with them again.

No human to ask any question concerning bill. Balance avail on line, but no due date. Infuriating. Used to be able to view bill on line. Might still be there, but I cant find it. Grrrr.

I called at 7am on a Monday morning and when I finally got through I expressed that my meter inside the home was in bad shape and that it needed replaced as it was leaking all over my basement. Shannon kept interrupting me saying that it was a valve and that it is the home owners responsibility. In a very rude manner. I really hope she doesnt deal with too many ppl throughout the day since she really set the tone for mine. So much negativity....

They dont deserve even one star. I have been trying to get ahold of someone for multiple days and no one picks up the phone. Over 45 mins at a time!! I only have a few questions about my bill that I need answered. Why is the costumer service here HORRIBLE?!

If I could they would get no stars. Turned my water off while I was at work and even had a payment agreement made with them. Than when I informed them of the medical necessity. Their representative had the nerve to tell me that they couldnt guarantee my water would be turned back on tomorrow by 5pm. They informed me that all the techs are off at 5pm. So at a quarter til they told me all the techs had already returned and were gone for the day. Im sorry but why are they gone before 5pm? Worst customer service I have ever encountered. The other worst part is that we are forced to keep this same stupid ass service with the same horrible customer service.

No customer service, they dont answers calls. Not sure why they have a phone line.

Have called twice in one day to get service. On hold for 15 mins with no answer, had to hang up and go back to work. Called later, on hold so far for 27 mins. Does this mean I cant have any water at my house or what?? At least let us let us get service on your website or SOMETHING!!!! This is horrible!

No one pickup the phone calls!!! Seems the government hired all the lazy people. Completely ruin the impress of Columbus!

I cant get a hold of anyone. Im trying to stop service and pay the remaining balance. This is the worst service period!!!

Customer service: Well send someone out to do a final reading on (day, time)Me: well, nobody will be there that dayCS: if nobody is there then someone will need to call with a reading within x days or the water will be turned offMe: okay, well go ahead and cancel the appointment for the reading because nobody will be there and well need to call in with the readingsCS: I cant cancel the appointmentMe: okay, well nobody will be thereCS: is (address) your correct address?Me: yes, but can you bill me onlineCS: we do not do online billingWow. Really?

Worst experiences ever with this utility company have to wait for hours to get someone on the phone then when you do reps line drops and have to call back to get help all over again. I’d give negative stars that was an option.

I just took over my auntie house after she passed away, prior to that I lived at a house me and my wife was renting. When we moved out, I didn’t get the water shut off because I thought the landlord was responsible for putting it back in his name. So to make a long story short I got a $300 water in the mail today for that passed address when I had been told back in 2015 that the landlord would be responsible for any bill after I moved out I am pissed. I’m calling tomorrow because I’m not paying this bill.

Worst customer service on the planet. Its almost like they dont have a customer service department. I have been trying to get my account closed for days but cannot get past the annoying elevator music. Ill just sit and sit and wait for an answer and nothing. When someone does answer they dont listen to anything I say and just transfer my call to another department who will not help. Even had a rep just flat out hang up on me. They are the worst, dont expect help.

We had the water turned back on 12/16/16 and the very next day it was turned off again? Why was it turned back off again? We have four people living here and we need water. We have always paid the water bill. Why would it be turmed off the day after the technician came here? This is unacepptable. I am reporting this issue to the better business bureau, to new stations, etc. We need this fixed today! Get a REAL technician out here ASAP to permanently turn back on our water. How awful and disrespectful of a company are you? I even took of work that day since it was an all day appointment. This is unacceptable.

On hold for 1.5 hours so far. Ever time Ive called them previously, its a minimum of a 30 minute wait. 0/10

Horrible customer service. 1.5 hr wait time. Made appointment to get my water meter installed. Never showed up and didn’t call to explain.

Easy to hook up both water and power in the same phone call. Answered relatively quickly, faster than with AEP. Didnt get the run around.

SWACO took away the public recycling dumpsters in the UA/Grandview area because they claim they were getting items that arent recyclable mixed in with recyclable items. Instead of sorting through and picking out rogue pieces of trash they took the service away. A whole community of people who were going out of their way to make a difference is being denied proper methods of recycling because some people were a little misguided about what is accepted and what is not. It is a poor excuse to cut their costs while the planet is in danger. We all have to do our part no matter what it is and they are denying us that ability.

If you dont want to read the long review: horrible service, move outside their reach if possible.Now, as to why I say that:There was a small water main leak on my road, so over a month after it was reported, they show up to fix the issue, and ended up removing the sidewalk across half my driveway, so they could move the water shut-off valve from my driveway on to the sidewalk.Cool , I thought. Then they left, and left a 4ft deep hole, across half my driveway. I was like OK, maybe the next day is repair. The next day came and went, and still I only have access to 1/2 my driveway. So I started calling. Let me stop here and say, if you ever want to see inefficient government in action, then call them, they have it mastered! I got voicemails, or just hung up on! So I reached out to Columbus Council, specifically looking for someone over the utilities. Finally the send out a fire hydrant inspector to look at my sidewalk, who says I dont know to any question pertaining to when it will be fixed but did say usually takes weeks(im sorry, weeks? Does the city really think it is OK to do this?), when asked why did they send him out, he answers I was the last one in the office at 4pm on a Thursday. While I appreciated the honesty that no one in the dept works, I didnt like being mocked. So again, I spoke with the councilman, who admitted that he was trying, but the city depts dont listen to council. WOW, so even elected officials in Columbus are powerless against this behemoth of government inefficiency. So, the next day, some workers show up and start working. YAY! I thanked the councilman, I thought this ordeal was over!Boy was I wrong! A small section of my driveway was damaged by them, enough to damage my tires. When I asked about that being fixed, the official response from the water Dept? We fixed this early for him. We are done with this, and will not be fixing anything else. So I start calling, and calling, and calling... Ahhhhhhh, you have to love government inefficiency.Finally, I get John Ivanic on the phone, who tells me because I didnt take pictures before they began work, I have no proof they caused this and I need to stop bothering them. You read that right, photographs of my driveway from before they started working. My bad for assuming the city of Columbus would do the right thing. Well I learned my lesson.Everyone follow this advice: Dont let ANY city employee start work on or near your property until you have had a chance to photograph the entire area in detail. Stop them from work if need be!

They don’t even have a working phone number, pathetic!!! RICK WESTERFIELD, I’d be ashamed to have my name let alone my picture associated with this mess

Horribly inefficient and difficult to work with. I dread calling them every time I have a tenant move in or out. The most archaic company I have ever had to deal with. Because profit isnt a concern and they have no competition, they have no desire to advance or become better at what they do, saaaad. Get your ish together ladies and gents!

Would give 0 stars if possible. These people are a prime example as to why there needs to be more than one provider in an area. After navigating their hellish automated system, thats more likely to hang up on you than help you where you need to go, youll be put on hold for at least a half hour only to maybe be helped. Dealing with these guys will be the worst thing you have to do all month

This is the third time I have called to try to get the water turned on. Each time , I have been put on hold for 15-20 minutes before giving up. Other times I have called only to get a buzy signal. Guess i have to drive there and set up an account in person.

*SELECT WATER/SEWER SERVICES IF YOU PREFER FASTER SVC/SHORTER CALL-TIME*SELECT ELECTRIC SERVICE IF YOU LIKE HOLD MUSIC AND EXTENDED CALL TIMEThe phone # to reach City Electric and City Water/Sewer Services is the same; I needed to transfer both svcs into my name and had decided to start w/ the Electric Svc. The automated system answers with options to be selected by callers in order to direct your call to the appropriate department for your needs. I selected Electric and w/o any further information offered, was immediately subjected to hold music, during which, still no info was offered: no status update for estimated wait time or how many calls were being answered ahead of mine - just the same music - a song without beginning or end. I wasnt prepared to wait an unspecified amount of time and had already waited a long time, so I just hung up.I called the # again after about a half an hour to 45 minutes later and this time, selected Water/Sewer Services. I was greeted first with a repeat of the nitrate announcement recording, which Id 1st heard at the beginning of the call (before the call direction options were stated) followed by different hold music than played when I had earlier chosen that my call be routed to Electric Service. Also notably contrary to that experience, the duration of my wait time with the hold music was nominal: under 5 minutes for sure - maybe 1-2 minutes or even less than a minute. I was prepared for longer and didnt pay much notice to that detail, other than it was very brief. The music went silent for less than a second, following a clicking sound a few times before the music was replaced by the sound of ringing over to an agent, after a few rings.An agent greeted me professionally & w/o indication of current mood or feelings; this remained consistant throughout the call. The man was easy to understand, due to good annunciation and efficiency of his speaking cadence: not too slow/not too fast. The agent, in general, gets an A+++++++ for his performance.To my surprise, the system allowed him to handle everything, setting up both accounts and making the arrangements for the preliminary meter readings in the one call. The whole process went very smoothly and the well-trained agent didnt hesitate to do what was necessary to notice and complete all aspects of the set-up of both svcs, making sure I had any/all info associated w/ all aspects of my new acct. For example, when he asked for our closing date (we just got our house put in our names), I didnt know it but before I could do anything, he suggested that hed check the auditors site & had the info, sharing it w/ me, as well; we were on to the next step in under 1 minute.His pace was steady and easy to follow throughout the call. He requested for each item of our info only once, unlike other CS agents at other companies Ive called throughout the years. Im not sure if thats more to do with his performance or that of their systems architecture but this made for a more concise process and shorter time spent in-call. The whole thing took less time (approximately) than in my first call, where Id selected to speak w/ Electric Services and had waited on hold, having never even spoken to any human agent at all, before Id hung up. Id say from automated answer to hang up, the call routed to H2O/Sewer Services was about 10-15 minutes.

There is no one to report an emergency to. This is totally unacceptable. Never seen any utility this poor as far as customer service.

Im on-hold waiting for more than 10 minutes to talk to a customer service representative to cancel service because of moving. The website is not user friendly for turning on and off service. You would think that would be the biggest use of the site. However, the City of Columbus doesnt think so!

Terrible service. They misapplied our payment to the wrong account and made us come in to prove that we paid - another reason this industry should be privatized. Lazy customer service with a sense of entitlement.

Terrible phone service. Didnt answer twice after being on hold for 10 minutes. Still havent answered. If anyone in the company is available to help me cancel my service, please pick up...

Cant get service to turn water off due to main break in water line from the street to the house. Front yard is flooded. All lines busy or on hold. Terrible!

Poor service and the inspectors need to be trained better

Absolutely useless. We rent the property and have been told it was handled by the realtor, and then without warning they shut our water off.

They take way too long to answer the phone. I have tried the last 3 days to contact them and every time i give up after 25 minutes of being on hold. insane

John Kasich why are you not doing anything about how this place is being ran???

Columbus phone service for water and sewer is terrible. I was on hold for too long and there is no way to leave a phone number for a call back.

Ask your landlord if you can have aep instead ! Terrible service , charge you 250 to hookup power even with good credit ..

Been on hold for 14 minutes! Seriously!! Who has time to sit and wait!! There should be a call back option!

All around poor service and they charge you a fee if you want to pay online.

Good work environment

Terrible, cant even get anyone to answer phone or return email.

The phones have been down for two days!! I sent an email yesterday and havent received anything back. This is unacceptable!

HORRIBLE PHONE AUTOMATION😡😡😡

Long wait time on phone

I need to talk to a actual person

No one every answer the phone!!!!!!!!

They suck

Answer the phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!