ELGIN, S.C. — An Elgin couple received a positive phone call on Monday, after seeing their water bill was more than $11,000, for just the month of December.
"$11,223.22—There was no way that we used that much water," said Jim Haggard, Elgin Resident.
Haggard said his family moved into a newly-built home on Dec. 3. The first water bill they received was $223. The next bill was 50 times higher.
When they tried to call Columbia Water, they say they got inconsistent responses.
"One representative said that we've been having a leak since November," Haggard said. "Another representative said we’ve been having a leak since October, which, either time, we would not have been responsible for either bills."
On Friday, Haggard requested help from News 19. Later that day, Columbia Water began an investigation to the billing. This came after more than three weeks of the couple trying to contact the agency to figure out what happened.
The investigation reveal that the couple was not responsible for their high water bill.
"It was a relief, it was elated, it was some excitement within it," Haggard said.
On Monday, Columbia Water issued a statement to News 19 that said: "When we replaced the transponder a couple months ago, there was an error in recording it the the correct address. Essentially the customer was getting the bill for someone else's usage. This is the first time it has ever happened with the new meters. We have corrected the issue, adjusted the customers bill accordingly and have put in steps so that this does not happen again. We have also called the customer to explain the situation and apologize for the inconvenience."