City: DPU billing glitch impacted about 15,000 customers
Richmond's Department of Public Utilities said Wednesday that about 15,000 accounts were impacted by an issue that caused customers to be told their utility payments did not arrive.
In an online post, officials said the process of correcting those accounts is scheduled to wrap up Thursday.
"In these cases, payment files from one of DPU’s payment processors were not received as expected," the city wrote.
Graham Moomaw
What happened?
On May 26, the city switched to a new billing and customer service system.
At the time officials touted a successful launch, and Wednesday's post reiterated that.
"While the launch was successful and key milestones were achieved — including accurate account data conversion and system functionality — some issues have occurred with third-party billing and payment processing vendors," it said.
Richmonder Staff
The new system has assigned each customer a new account number. The new numbers are 10 digits long, and replace previous account numbers.
Why did people receive mailed bills?
Many customers who have signed up for online autopay services received "past due" bills over the last few weeks.
"During the conversion, DPU’s bill print vendor did not properly reference customer email addresses and the bills defaulted to mail delivery," the post said. "The vendor has corrected this issue and has resumed email delivery for those customers signed up for paperless billing."
What happens next?
The city said that all late fees will be waived, and that customers do not need to take any action. The delayed processing of payments that wraps up Thursday will be reflected on future bills.
The city operates a customer service line at 804-646-4646, but wait times may be significantly higher than normal.
Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org.
