New Columbia billing system still causing problems for customers

Last month, Columbia Water & Light implemented a new billing system. The goal of the project was to “provide greater transparence on the utility charges.”

Some residents, however, are still reporting issues with the new billing system. ABC 17 News has heard reports of very long wait times when customers call Columbia Water & Light as well as payment discrepancies on recent bills.

According to a Connie Kacprowicz, a spokesperson for Columbia Utilities, electronic billing is not currently available, so if you’ve signed up for electronic billing, you’ll be receiving a paper bill in the coming months.

“The next step will be to implement another module that will enable us to do electronic billing again. Temporarily, that’s suspended. So if you’ve signed up for electronic billing you will be receiving a paper bill probably until the winter,” Kacprowicz says.

If your paper bill hasn’t come yet, Kacprowicz says not to worry, it should be on its way soon.

As for the payment discrepancy between many customers’ September and August bills? Kacprowicz says that’s likely due to the intense heat and humidity in addition to the fact that the September billing cycle may have been a bit longer as a result of the system changes.

If you do have call Columbia Utilities, Kacprowicz says peek times are 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m., so you should try to avoid calling around those times if you can.

So, why the big change in light of all the hassle? Kacprowicz says it’s been nearly 20 years since Columbia Utilities upgraded its system.

“The part about that we really liked is that they [customers] can do usage graphs so people could not only keep an eye on their electric use and their water use to see if they want to cut back or join one of our energy efficiency programs to cut that down,” she explains.

Earlier this month, ABC 17 News reported that some customers received faulty utility disconnection notices in error.

The city apologized and said they are still trying to fix some errors in the program.

“We’re hoping that the rest of the month goes smoothly, and the transition over to the new bills will be as smooth as humanly possible,” Columbia Water & Light spokeswoman Connie Kacprowicz told ABC 17 News at the time. “But we certainly appreciate everyone’s patience during this period.”

The billing upgrade cost more than $1 million. The city worked for 18 months to set up and test the system.

(Image courtesy: Columbia Water & Light Twitter)