August 14,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, readers are asking residents to check your water bill. Many have noticed that they were charged a small “interest” fee on there bill. The reader insisted they were an “on time payer” and had a zero balance after the last payment.
From the Facebook group it takes a Ridgewood Village a writer commented , “I called water today and said I have never paid my bill late and she said she will “look into it”. I am paying bills today and that was not acceptable. It is only .84 cents but it’s the principle, I am not paying for something that I do not owe.”Check your water bills very carefully to see if you were charged interest. If there is a computer glitch, they need to be held accountable for fixing it.
Reader have as in the past debated the accuracy of their water bills and the ability of consumers to test and monitor their own water usage .
At the council meeting it was explained that (although this makes no sense, since computers work a 168-hour week) it can take days for an online payment for a water bill to be registered as paid. Therefore, paying online on or near the due date does not automatically count as having paid on time. This is what happens when machines are allowed to take over the world. Interestingly, the time interval is similar to what people who mail a check have to plan for, if not more so.
Computers are perfect. It’s poor programming by humans that’s the problem.
Sell it to someone who understands how to provide water and what good customer service is all about. No matter how many times Ridgewood plays musical chairs and puts new people in charge, they still screw it up.
Yet another reason to pay the old fashioned way: by check. The first reason being the huge processing fee added to the bill.