Houston man got an $820 water bill for an empty house. The city ignored him until one bucket test and a TV crew forced their hand
The employee refused to check the meter and said that he was not in that specific department
An $820 water bill for an empty house is outrageous, and while one might think the water company would rush to fix their mistake, it was the opposite in this story. Several Houston residents had complained about their unusually high water bills, and Edgar Zavala was one of them. He was surprised to receive a $479 water bill for July, followed by an $820 bill in August. Zavala contacted the Houston Public Works Department, but they took forever to respond. After he sought out ENOUGH's help, the Public Works Department finally sent someone to check the "leak." The story was reported by KPRC 2 Click2Houston on October 25, 2026, and the video reached 2,161 views, 46 likes, and 40 comments.
27,000 gallons a month
Zavala and his wife were currently renting while their house was on the market, so it made no sense why their July and August water bills were so high when they were not living in the house. The city also reported that he used 27,000 gallons of water a month, which was almost 1000 gallons a day. He reached out to the Houston Public Works Department to come and check, but they told him he had to wait at least 30 days before they could send someone.
Not a leak
Zavala checked the meter on his own by filling a five-gallon bucket with water. He wrote down the number on his meter before and after filling it. He was surprised to see that it showed "22 gallons" instead of five. He sent his findings in an email to the water customer service before they came to his house, but no one responded. A week and a half later, an employee from Houston Public Works came to check for a "leak." Zavala explained that the issue was his meter, but the employee refused to check it. He said that it was not his job, since he wasn't in that department.
Zavala contacted Amy Davis, an investigative reporter, who reached out to Randy Macchi, the Director at Houston Public Works. She showed him his original findings, which he recorded on video. On the very same day, Macchi sent employees to Zavala's house to replace the meter. The reason why his bills were so high was that the register was not the correct one for Zavala's meter.
Bad customer service
Had Zavala not reached out to ENOUGH Houston for help, his meter issues might still have gone unresolved. A Gradient Labs survey found that the majority of Americans (75%) said that "long waiting time" was their number one source of frustration when dealing with customer service. Surprisingly, only 11% of consumers said their issues were resolved, while 13% reported that most of their problems were rarely addressed, and for some, it wasn't even addressed properly. Lastly, consumers agreed that businesses should financially reimburse their customers for their poor customer service. In Zavala's case, the city credited him $872, with no explanation about what caused the high bills or how they fixed it.
'It's them, not us'
Zavala's story opened several viewers' eyes. Some who blindly accepted and paid their water bills were prompted to check if it was an issue on the city's end. @brit50ify wrote, "Fire the department director and have a massive shakeup at the department. Then teach the employees how to behave and start firing people. The top management at city departments are paid so much money. I was shocked." @GiaMariePacella added, "As Abbott sells out Texas to billionaires, Technocrats, Texans get $500 water bills, $600 energy bills."
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