Environmental Water Resource Water Resource Department Impersonating a County Official Department Tampa Florida

Received a notice in the mail from Environmental Water Resource "Unfortunately we were unable to reach you by phone or in person. Upon receiving this notice we ask that you contact our office within 72 hours" Water Resources Dept. Jack Travis 352-346-5943. 

I rang up this number, being new to the area thought this had to do with water usage in our area governed by the city. The fellow answering the phone, Dan, said Jack was with a customer. He was contacting me because all new residents to the area have their water tested for bacteria (cryptosporidia) and there was a problem with arsenic in the water. I said that I was not on city water I had a well to which he replied that free on site testing was available. I informed him I already paid for a water quality test and the results were pending. He began to tell me what they wouldn't test for, yada yada and that a gentlemen named Bobby could come out as he was on the road in my area. I agreed to allow him to come at 4:30pm to do a free water test. Again, I made the mistake of interpreting that this was a public utility or environmental service from the city.

The gentlemen who turned up introduced himself as "Mr Wonderful, at least that's what people have called him for the past 20 years". He bustled into my kitchen with his briefcase and started taking out beakers to collect samples. He inquired if we noticed any egg like smells or had deposits in the back of the toilets. He fumbled around the well water pump and took a sample (pre-water filtration) and asked about if we had an iron filter.

He did his little magic trick on the counter adding chemicals to the beaker of water and miraculously diagnosed that our water filtration system wasn't working. I asked him again who he was and who he worked for - he smartly replied "as it says on the card Environmental Water Resource". I tried to gain clarification but he floundered becoming defensive and acusatory that I made the appointment he was just doing his job. My husband and I realized that this was a salesperson and when we called him out on that he became very rude. I told him he was being rude and we asked him to leave. He stalled out on the counter with his briefcase saying he didn't "give a d**n, it's your water". We asked him to leave again and he did not. My husbands cell phone rang and was on the counter. Mr Wonderful had the audacity to pick up the cell phone and hand it to my husband. I wasn't sure which one of us was going to have to physically remove him from our kitchen. The salesmen kept on talking about the water. We started to yell at him to get out of our house and had to bully him out the door.

I rang the number back and Dan answered. I started the conversation the same way as I had before. I got the same answer that Jack was with a customer. Dan would not admit he was just a solicitation service and had nothing to do with county initially. I told him of my experience with "Bobby" to which he replied he was just a subcontractor and only been using him for a few weeks. Based on a complaint a year ago about "Bob the pushy salesman" this was a lie. He admitted he had not background checked the man he sent to my home and he said he would never use him again. I think the two of them run this scam together. There is no physical address for this company, so "Jack" could never really be with a customer. This is purely a solicitation and the company falsely gave the impression this was some governmental agency. Dan said they were affiliated with the Environmental Protection Agency. My information, name and address was aquired through public records from the purchase of my home.

Do not contact this company!