Of late I have lost faith in the power of the pen to move hearts and minds but today brought a welcome and wonderful respite.

In the last quarter of 2008, we had requested the PB to shift our water meter to outside our garden wall so as to make it easier for the meter to be read. They sent a man to assess the situation but he could not give me an estimate. I approved the job to be done, since the meter belonged to them anyway and surely we could trust them to give us a reasonable price seeing they are the official water works department. But nooo... when the bill came, I held my breath at the whopping RM623. How can you justify RM623 to shift a meter a distance of less than one meter, just by connecting a rubber tubing through a drain under my wall? Bear in mind I was quoted half the amount by a private plumber whom I had rejected because stupidly, I wanted to be legit.

So what did I do? I wrote a letter of appeal of course, complete with photographs of the job.

Of the bill, they wrote, "You signed the consent form to the job" ... so you should pay.

I replied, "That may be so, but your man could not give me a quote and I expected you to be fair."

"As a vendor, it is not justifiable for you to charge us, the consumer, for transport when the meter is part of your billing mechanism."

They charged me RM159 for Miscellaneous, but I have learned in Accounting that Miscellaneous should be only be for the smallest, difficult-to-categorise amounts.

I wrote, "Kindly provide us with a breakdown for Miscellaneous and Materials Used."

I think they were a bit uncomfortable because the following week, they sent people to take stock of every screw that was on my meter outside and then supplied us with a list of the screws, rubber tubing and sealing tapes used. Miscellaneous was for "supervision."

I wrote, "You charged us supervision RM159 on top of your labour costs of RM114?..... and transport of RM120 for 12 kilometers?"

Shame on you. (Not written.)

They replied, "Yes it is so." Your bill is still so much, kindly pay up.

What if they cut off my water supply? So I replied, Ok, I am paying in protest and I am forwarding my complaint to the Consumers Association.

They replied later, Thank you for your payment. We have made the proper investigations and everything was proper.

Sigh. Sigh. And sigh.

That was in January.

Today I received a letter, copied from the Chief Minister's Department, that they have considered my appeal and have reduced my bill to RM326.75. Halved!! Even a leetle less than the plumber's quotation. O_O Praise God! Wah Lau Leh!! Thing is I already paid the original bill. Maybe now they should give us free water for the next three years. It is quite incredible. My dead faith feels the stirrings of resurrection.

It is a totally unexpected encouragement that has come opportunely at the start of a week which has started off as so strained. It is not so much the money but the principle that you cannot simply overcharge and expect to be paid. I am a little re-believing that sincere and earnest (not necessarily good) writing is able to move the tide in any direction provided you are willing to be open and sincere to share your thoughts and reasoning and that not everything is absolute and written in stone.