Update: took me 2 weeks to sort out a bogus water bill at my shop on Michigan Ave
Back in the day you could walk into the Detroit water department downtown and settle a mix-up like this in one afternoon. Not anymore. My meter got swapped out last month and the new reading was almost triple what my little party store on Michigan Ave in southwest Detroit has ever used, so I called, got bounced around 4 times, and had to fax proof of my old bills to get it fixed. Took 14 days total. Has anyone else dealt with a crazy jump after a meter change, and did calling the commercial services line actually speed things up for you?
Same thing happened to my aunt's salon over on Vernor after they swapped her meter. Bill jumped from around 80 bucks to almost 300 and nobody could tell her why at first. Faxing the old bills is what finally did it for her too, so yeah, that step seems to be the magic trick with these folks.