Possible fraud at S&WB (1 Viewer)

[jumpingoff]

You were lucky. The guy who built the house next door to mine broke some water line when he poured his driveway, but poured it before it was fixed. (Why the City is paying for something he broke is beyond me, but S&WB came out to fix it).

It was leaking for several months and then they suddenly showed up on a Sunday morning with 4 trucks and about 12 guys. They spent all day standing and sitting around and only managed to cut a 6 foot by 6 foot hole in the street and tear a 4 foot by one foot hole in the driveway. They then under filled the hole in the street and left in the late afternoon.

They came back with just any many trucks and workers couple weekends later and tore out the entire driveway.

A month later a plumbing company shows up that says that they were a subcontractor for S&WB and fixes the leak. (Why are we paying a subcontractor to fix a leak that my neighbor caused?)

A couple weeks later S&WB showed up in the middle of the day and poured a new driveway for my neighbor. I have no idea why he gets a new driveway paid for when he broke the line in the first place and the leak was on his side of the sidewalk.

The 6 foot by 6 foot under filled hole is still int he street with a white and orange barrel in it.

IIRC their work tickets are priority based. So for you it may have been a possible city water line break or something that could lead to one. Supposedly that is why they might show up at weird hours, weekends, overnight etc. Once they realized it wasn't a big issue it became a regular job with less priority and subject to getting bumped by other priority jobs. Probably have a higher rate of priority jobs in NOLA due to age and condition of infrastructure.

 

[GhostFace]

All those people on the clock and no one could tell us about the water boil advisory. lol

 

[Dre]

When they were repairing a broken sewer line in front of our house, they were joking about their hangovers.

However, in their defense, they were quite efficient and got it fixed quickly.

They've also efficiently repaired the water main break by my house...4 times in the past 2 years.

 

[Alan]

You were lucky. The guy who built the house next door to mine broke some water line when he poured his driveway, but poured it before it was fixed. (Why the City is paying for something he broke is beyond me, but S&WB came out to fix it).

It was leaking for several months and then they suddenly showed up on a Sunday morning with 4 trucks and about 12 guys. They spent all day standing and sitting around and only managed to cut a 6 foot by 6 foot hole in the street and tear a 4 foot by one foot hole in the driveway. They then under filled the hole in the street and left in the late afternoon.

They came back with just any many trucks and workers couple weekends later and tore out the entire driveway.

A month later a plumbing company shows up that says that they were a subcontractor for S&WB and fixes the leak. (Why are we paying a subcontractor to fix a leak that my neighbor caused?)

A couple weeks later S&WB showed up in the middle of the day and poured a new driveway for my neighbor. I have no idea why he gets a new driveway paid for when he broke the line in the first place and the leak was on his side of the sidewalk.

The 6 foot by 6 foot under filled hole is still int he street with a white and orange barrel in it.

My entire take on this....


You got a BARREL?!?!?!

 

[James Spader]

Water is wet. The sky is blue.

 

[St. Widge]

IIRC their work tickets are priority based. So for you it may have been a possible city water line break or something that could lead to one. Supposedly that is why they might show up at weird hours, weekends, overnight etc. Once they realized it wasn't a big issue it became a regular job with less priority and subject to getting bumped by other priority jobs. Probably have a higher rate of priority jobs in NOLA due to age and condition of infrastructure.

The leak had been ongoing for several months before they showed up on a Sunday so I don't think it was ever much of a priority and if it wasn't a priority, why come out on a Sunday (when overtime is paid) and why hire a private company as a sub-contractor to come out and fix the problem? It seems clear based on the Zurik report that they do stuff on weekends and with extra workers to scam extra money for work that could have been done during regular hours and with many fewer workers. As for the private contractor, I'm guessing it's some sort of kick back scheme. Basically it appears that they have "no work" jobs, where guys just show up and don't have to do anything, built into almost every job.

 

[St. Widge]

My entire take on this....


You got a BARREL?!?!?!

Not anymore. I went out of town on work for two days and when I came back the barrel was gone. Now we just have a big hole in the street.

 

[MGC]

I have not lived in Orleans Parish since 1974. How much are the water bills these days?