City working with customers to reassure service
(Seguin) — You weren’t alone if you were a little late in getting that city of Seguin light bill in the mail. Issues with an aging metering system and the inability to streamline that data to the billing office quickly have reportedly caused some folks to receive their bills late – sometimes even days after the past-due notice. That’s according to Assistant City Manager Rick Cortes.
“We’ve had a delay in the bills going out and the delay has been caused by staff having to go out there and read a lot more of the meters than we had to in the past because if you know, we have an AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) system that typically sends the information directly from the meter to DCU (Data Concentrator Unit) to the billing office. Our meters have reached a certain age where the batteries are starting to go bad on them, so we have to replace the batteries and then we’ve had an upgrade to the system which requires programming of the meters (and other maintenance). The same people that we’ve had for meter readings have been trying to do both tasks. We’ve come to the realization that that is just not going to work. They just don’t have enough time, so we are going to outsource the reprogramming of the meters and the changing of the batteries and just dedicate guys to just go out there and read the meters that need to be read. Hopefully, we will be back on schedule pretty soon,” said Cortes.
Despite these issues, Cortes says utility customers shouldn’t worry about being assessed late fees.
“As an example, if somebody got their bill three days before the bill was due and they paid it on the fourth day, we are not going to charge them a penalty. We are just charging them with the bill without any kind of penalty or interest, so no one is going to pay more,” said Cortes.
However, issues with utility bills aren’t limited to paper billing. Cortes says customers utilizing the electronic portal for payments have also run into some problems.
“When the bill goes out late, then the system itself doesn’t adjust to that, so even if the person pays it, it will tell the person that you are delayed, or you are not paying full. Even though you are paying full, it shows zero balance. That doesn’t impact the bill, either. That’s just a statement on the portal and we’ve actually put a statement on the portal saying that we are having issues with the portal. Now, hopefully, with our September billing, that issue won’t happen anymore,” said Cortes.
Meanwhile, the delay in receiving their billing statement wasn’t the only thing that worried some customers. Some have been shocked by what they say is a larger than normal bill.
Cortes says these higher amounts are normally expected during this time of year and do not equate them to any meter collection issues.
“The fees, it’s all based on consumption. Now, in October, we are not going to have an increase in our electric rates. I don’t think we’ve had an increase in the last couple of years but we do have a proposed increase for water and wastewater but that won’t hit until October and that’s a small increase that has been improved but overall, for the summer, what they are getting billed for is just basically for consumption,” said Cortes.
He says that the increase in consumption is especially evident this time of year as unseasonably hotter than average temperatures have taken over.
“People have a tendency in the summer to think that their bills have gone up or that their rates have gone up and they haven’t. It’s basically the consumption, especially with the kind of weather we’ve had. I think we’ve hit a record 54 days in this year of over 100 degrees in temperature. We’ve also had no rain, so people have been watering a lot more, so your bill is going to go up. My bill for water was $174 where I am and that is just water. So, bills are going up because of the conditions that we are under right now so and so we are cognizant of that, and we have also made an effort not to disconnect people right now because of the heat. We are trying to work with people to not have to disconnect them so it’s just a tough time right now,” said Cortes.
Above all else, Cortes says the city is reassuring its utility customers that it is there to help.
“And if some consumptions have been really high, we can work with them. We can set up plans and we will work with people as much as we can to make sure that we can mitigate or minimize the impact on them financially so we will work with them,” said Cortes.
Customers with questions or concerns about their bill are asked to stop by The Seguin Utility Billing Department or contact the office at 830-401-2460.