Inadvertent Tallahassee water use alert costs residents time, money

• The city of Tallahassee sent an erroneous text alert to roughly 40,000 customers about potential water leaks.
• The false alarm caused panic and led some residents, like Sue Hall, to unnecessarily hire plumbers.
• The alert was intended to be a proactive function, but a system error inadvertently notified many customers.

When Sue Hall woke up and saw a text from the city of Tallahassee about excessive water usage at home, she panicked.

Hall instantly thought she was reliving another leak scare, like what happened at her home several months ago when she had a busted pipe.

She immediately called a plumber, who rushed over and made a quick conclusion: No leak detected.

Within about 30 minutes of the plumber’s departure, she received a second text from the city by early afternoon Feb. 3. It acknowledged she may have received notification that morning of “continuous water usage” and that the communication was part of a “proactive function of the system that alerts customers of a potential leak.”

It went on to say that “new information related to our attempt to help residents and businesses resulted in some customers being inadvertently notified.” It apologized for any inconvenience the communication caused.

By then, Hall was out $137 — the cost of paying for the plumber’s visit.

And there’s no way for her to recoup the money, according to city staffers. When asked her reaction to the city’s second message, Hall said, “Man, I just threw away about $137.”

Hall, who’s retired after working more than two decades as an executive assistant to the late and legendary FSU football coach Bobby Bowden, said she had peace of mind once she got cleared by the plumber.

She’s just annoyed she had to pay it in the first place.

Roughly 40,000 received notifications about ‘continuous water usage’

Hall wasn’t alone. Many customers vented and searched for answers online after getting texts or emails from the city. The city’s notice caused panic, confusion and frustration from residents, many of whom thought the message was legit.

Which it was, coming from the city itself.

For most, it just wasn’t accurate.

The pre-dawn notification said the the user’s meter “has recorded continuous water use for at least 24 hours” at their address, along with a meter badge number associated with the account and a city phone number to call between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. for assistance.

The city’s customer service phoneline was flooded with callers; some said they were on the phone for more than an hour.

The Tallahassee Democrat contacted the city on whether Hall or other customers have any recourse if they paid a plumber to inspect their homes after the city’s notification.

The short answer? No.

“We’ve been doing this water leak detection for 15-plus years and have helped thousands of people in this situation,” said James Barnes, the city’s chief customer officer. “We never tell them to call a plumber. If you look at the text, it simply says go look around and investigate. But there’s no provision there to (pay) for a plumber bill.”

When the Democrat pointed out the text sent makes no mention of inspecting the user’s home and only directs the recipient to call customer service, Barnes said it was a stretch to assume a need to consult a plumber.

“In that particular text, it still didn’t say anything about a leak,” Barnes said. “Just says continual high water use. So, to go from that to calling a plumber, it’s just sort of a real, real big reach.”

He went on to say the city “apologizes profusely” for what happened.

A strong arctic front sent temperatures into sub-freezing range over the weekend, prompting the city to advise residents to take precautions. Some measures included dripping faucets in order to prevent pipes from freezing or bursting.

In interviews with the Democrat, at least one local plumber reported a surge in calls for pipe ruptures because of the frigid calls.

Hall, however, said she never dripped her faucets and still got the text from the city. Many residents took to social media platforms and said the same thing.

“He told me he had many (calls) that morning,” Hall said, regarding conversations with the plumber who came to her home.

“I showed him the text on my iPad where the city had notified me about that … So, it was all the same when he looked at the meter, when he turned everything off, there was nothing, no activity on the water meter. So he knew I didn’t have any kind of leak at my house.”

Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.