W3WN
07-22-2015, 09:07 AM
So in the mail yesterday is a letter from the Borough. This is never good.
Letter is a disconnect notice, due to a delinquent sewage bill. About $52.
The bills are normally handled by a 3rd party on behalf of the Borough, but they send out the "official" notices.
Funny thing, though. My last two bills (which I kept, thank goodness) show that I have (had) a credit. Two months ago, it was for $55 and change; last month, about a buck & a half.
How could this be?
Well, got a money order this morning, went up to the Borough and talked to the appropriate person. Here's what happened:
My January payment got credited to February, but never marked as paid. February to March. And so on, until someone noticed in time for the June bill that I had a credit (basically, the money from January that wasn't applied). The timing discrepancy happens because they take 10 days to process payments, so the payments were being applied after the next bill was sent out... even though they weren't late.
So, who's fault is it that January was never correctly marked as paid? Oh, it's mine, according to the Borough. I should have known. Even though none of the bills showed a past due balance. And I got a lecture on waiting until the due date to pay (I usually mail the bills -- no, you can't pay them in person, they go to a PO Box about 20 miles away -- a week before) instead of paying them the day I get them.
:wall:
Now, what does that has to do with the money for credit not being applied to the January bill, but being used as a credit, and no one noticing? No one has an answer for that one. (And the 3rd party? They won't talk to me, since it's now in the hands of the Borough. Nice.)
:wall:
Would it have been asking too much for someone to just say "we screwed up, sorry about that"?
* sigh *
Letter is a disconnect notice, due to a delinquent sewage bill. About $52.
The bills are normally handled by a 3rd party on behalf of the Borough, but they send out the "official" notices.
Funny thing, though. My last two bills (which I kept, thank goodness) show that I have (had) a credit. Two months ago, it was for $55 and change; last month, about a buck & a half.
How could this be?
Well, got a money order this morning, went up to the Borough and talked to the appropriate person. Here's what happened:
My January payment got credited to February, but never marked as paid. February to March. And so on, until someone noticed in time for the June bill that I had a credit (basically, the money from January that wasn't applied). The timing discrepancy happens because they take 10 days to process payments, so the payments were being applied after the next bill was sent out... even though they weren't late.
So, who's fault is it that January was never correctly marked as paid? Oh, it's mine, according to the Borough. I should have known. Even though none of the bills showed a past due balance. And I got a lecture on waiting until the due date to pay (I usually mail the bills -- no, you can't pay them in person, they go to a PO Box about 20 miles away -- a week before) instead of paying them the day I get them.
:wall:
Now, what does that has to do with the money for credit not being applied to the January bill, but being used as a credit, and no one noticing? No one has an answer for that one. (And the 3rd party? They won't talk to me, since it's now in the hands of the Borough. Nice.)
:wall:
Would it have been asking too much for someone to just say "we screwed up, sorry about that"?
* sigh *