After weeks of questioning San Diego’s water department about water-meter retrofits and being told no retrofits are taking place at residential homes, NBC 7 Responds found one home where a botched smart meter replacement led to a customer being billed thousands of dollars more for water she did not use. After the discovery by NBC 7 Responds, city water officials disclosed five homes where meter replacements were done incorrectly. “Our bill for this last period is $4,831,” Pacific Beach homeowner Laura Ambrose said. Laura said her family usually pays around $200 every two months for 35 to 40 hundred-cubic-feet (HCF) of water. In her June-through-September bill last year, after Laura’s water meter was replaced with a new smart water meter, Laura saw her bill jump to more than $800. The city said she used 85 HCF of water.