MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An MLGW customer reached out for help after she got a bill for more than $41,000 and discovered some of the sky-high bills we have seen could be chalked up to more than faulty water meters.

Thousands of dollars in water usage were charged to Tamara Washington who’s never seen a utility bill like it.

“I went online to pay our monthly bill and then I saw $41,799 as the bill,” she said. “It normally ranges about 300 bucks, maybe 13 or 20 dollars for water.”

Washington contacted MLGW and was told to check her property for water leaks.

“I walked through our backyard and couldn’t find any pools of water,” she said.

Washington was told to pay the gas and electric part of the bill while her water issue was being researched. She reached out to WREG after seeing our story about Diane Greer, who received a more than $17,000 utility bill.

WREG also reached out to MLGW to see if Washington’s high water bill is linked to thousands of faulty water meters. We were told MLGW would look into the matter.

Moments before leaving Tamara’s home, an MLGW worker showed up and found to the water meter, an older model designed to be read manually, was completely covered in water.

He replaced the old style meter with a new “smart meter”, but Tamara Washington wonders if someone failed to properly read the old meter and for how long.

“I’ve only used ten units, I think we saw, from January till him pulling it out now,” Washington said. “He wiped it off, showed me what the read was, and directed me to go back to my old bills so that I could see how many units that I’ve used, so yes he’s been very helpful.”

MLGW responded to our questions about Tamara Washington’s utility bill. They told us it was due to a system error. They have switched out her meter and corrected her bill.

Diane Greer also told us Tuesday that her bill has been corrected and the problem has been fixed.

If you have a billing issue, you can call MLGW directly at 901-544-6549.