By Marina Giovannelli
Wilmington, NC – Residents across New Hanover County have seen changes in their water bill, if they have seen a bill at all. Nearly three months after its inception, The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority has billed less than fifty percent of its customers.
There have been unanticipated challenges in merging the county and city billing systems. Some customers have gotten $20,000 bills and long-expired accounts reappearing as active.
Carey Disney Ricks with the authority says tests conducted prior to the merger didn't reveal the problems they are now dealing with.
"We have folks in customer service department giving every bit of emotional and physical energy they've got. They're looking though bills and making sure than some errors we experienced in out data conversion are not appearing in our customer bills," says Ricks.
Ricks also says that almost every meter reading is now recorded, and the authority wants to catch mistakes before sending out bills.
"We're hoping to look back over system, and if any systematic changes are needed are needed as far as refunds, we will be looking at that at that point in time after we've got two billing cycles under our belt," says Ricks.
Ricks anticipates all customers in the city and county will have gotten bills by the end of October.
Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please email us, we'd like to hear from you. news@whqr.org.