Thousands of customers to get automatic $7 refund in their next water bill after overcharging error – notice to look for
A WATER and sewer company is giving customers their money back following an accidental overcharge.
A modest $7 refund will be given to customers on their next water and sewer bill.
The error occurred after Charlottetown in Canada transitioned to a new billing software system in April 2022, CBC reported on Saturday.
Some Charlottetown customers were mistakenly charged double for one day in each billing cycle.
According to Richard MacEwan, the manager of the city's water and sewer department, this mistake led to an overcharge of approximately $50,000 in total, per CBC.
The water department owes each customer an average of about $7.
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MacEwan explained that the issue arose because the billing system mistakenly counted the last day of one quarter and the first day of the next quarter as the same day.
This resulted in a duplicate charge.
The mistake was identified by a city employee who noticed the discrepancy on their personal bill.
"It was surprising because this is a multinational billing system and it surprised me that that error would be in there,” MacEwan said, CBC reported.
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“But it was in there and we've now corrected it and we are providing the refund back to our customers."
REFUND NOTICE
Residents are advised to look for the $7 refund on their upcoming bill.
The refund will be automatically applied without any further action required.
The City of Charlottetown has taken steps to ensure that such billing errors do not occur in the future.
A notice was sent out to customers in the mail in April.
The error has now been corrected in our system and you can expect to see a refund on your upcoming bill to reimburse you for the overcharges
The City of Charlottetown Water and Sewer Utility
“Notice to customers of Charlottetown Water and Sewer Utility," the notice read, per CBC.
“The City of Charlottetown Water and Sewer Utility implemented a new billing system as of April 2022. While this system has increased the efficiency and accuracy of our billing, we have recently discovered an error in the billing periods.
“The billing period ending date of one period and starting date of the next period overlapped, resulting in customers being charged the daily rate of those days twice.
"This has only affected bills issued after April 1st, 2022.
"The error has now been corrected in our system and you can expect to see a refund on your upcoming bill to reimburse you for the overcharges.
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“We sincerely apologize for the error."
The utility company instructed customers who have questions to contact the office at 629-4005 or 629-4007.