Woodstock (Georgia not the groovy one) installed radio transmitters in the lids of the water meters so meter readers would only need to drive by to get meter readings. Unfortunately, over 200 have gone bad in just a couple of months and some water users have been billed $125 each for replacements of the transmitters.
Fortunately, the city has decided to reimburse the city water users who were billed and are replacing 4,500 water meter lids at a cost of $19 each or roughly $90,000.
Despite the problems with the original meter readers the Geeks love it when technology is used to better a process. I would be curious as to how much money and time is saved on these little gadgets.