I once had my phones cut off because the electronic bill payment I did through my bank went astray. There was no identifiable reason for it, my payment specified the correct address, account number, and so on. I ended up having a royal hassle over this.
Now I’m tentatively trying the bill payment system again, with small payments that are not so critical. So far, so good.
It could also be that the water company was vexed and miffed over the check drawn on a closed account, so they came down a little harder on the OP than they otherwise would.
See, there’s you problem right there. It should be “[six=6]”.
Glad I could help 
I don’t even want to know what happens if you don’t pay the sewer bill.
Pammipoo—under MA state law, the landlord gets to pay the water bill. This, as you can understand, led to much knashing of teeth when the big MWRA rate hikes hit a few years ago.
(For those of you living in more civilized locations, the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority was set up to drain the ratepayers pockets. The official reason was stated that Boston harbor was just short of a superfund site, with all sorts of fun stuff being basickly quietly dumped in the harbor with zero treatment. Many zillions of dollars later, most of the end by-product of the residents of eastern MA is getting treated and being dumped far out to sea, and the ‘overflow’ pipes that would dump raw sewage in the harbor from a light mist have been sealed. This has come at a great cost. Ratepayers still view the authorities trucks, with special WRA licence plates, and know that it stands for We Ride Around)
And pamipoo, for what it’s worth, I’m a environmental professional who knows all the nasty things that can and sometimes are in Boston water, and I drink it.
You understand, bottled water isn’t going to be any cleaner or safer.
[Unless you have a child, in which case get the water tested for lead, which would be coming from the pipes inside the building]
Oh my, I am so very thankful. Is there anything I can do for you for helping me see the light? 
HA, see, I can get it right!
I can speak from experience that turning the water back on yourself can become a huge problem.
I had a landlord that was having a fair amount of work done around me, One day the water was turned off, and I had figured that the plumber had forgotten to turn it back on after he left so I went and turned it back on. Three days later I got a final notice about the water bill, that said they were goin to turn it off on me the three days earlier. I called in somewhat pissed and let’s just say that it wasn’t a civil conversation. They said I had to pay a $100 water turn back on fee even though I had done it myself. I said I wasn’t going to pay a fee for them to do nothing after they hadn’t even told me in time they were going to do it in the first place.
The next day my water was off again, and the water box lid was locked. But the box was a cylidrical tube around the fixture with only a lid, no bottom. So I ripped the whole box out and turned my water back on again. So they started sending me letters saying I was going to prison and whatnot. Eventually they started making a leagl case against me and found out that was only a renter and not an owner. The owner has to pay the water bill, and therefore was the one liable for the original bill. So I guess she settled it up, or called in a favor or something because I never heard about it again.