Thousands of Customers Will Receive Automatic $7 Refund on Their Next Water Bill After Overbilling Error – Warning to Watch Out For

A WATER and sewage company is giving customers their money back after it was accidentally overcharged.

A modest $7 refund will be given to customers on their next water and sewer bill.

The error occurred after Charlottetown, Canada transitioned to a new billing software system in April 2022, complete blood count reported on Saturday.

Some Charlottetown customers were mistakenly charged double for one day each billing cycle.

According to Richard MacEwan, manager of the city’s water and sewer department, this error led to an overcharge of approximately $50,000 in total, per CBC.

The water department owes each customer an average of about $7.

MacEwan explained that the problem arose because the billing system mistakenly counted the last day of one quarter and the first day of the following quarter as the same day.

This resulted in a double charge.

The error was identified by a municipal employee who noticed the discrepancy in his personal account.

“It was surprising because this is a multinational billing system and it surprised me that this error was there,” MacEwan said, CBC reported.

“But it was there and now we have corrected it and are giving refunds to our customers.”

REFUND NOTICE

Residents are advised to look for the $7 refund on their next bill.

The refund will be applied automatically with no further action required.

The City of Charlottetown has taken steps to ensure such billing errors do not occur in the future.

A notice was sent to customers in the mail in April.

The error has been corrected in our system and you can expect a refund on your next statement to reimburse you for the excessive charges

City of Charlottetown Water and Sewer Utility

“Notice to Charlottetown Water and Sewer Utility customers,” the notice read, per CBC.

“The City of Charlottetown Water and Sewer Utility implemented a new billing system in April 2022. While this system has increased the efficiency and accuracy of our billing, we recently discovered an error in the billing periods.

“The billing period end date for one period and the billing period start date for the next period overlapped, resulting in customers being charged double the daily rate for those days.

“This only affected invoices issued after April 1, 2022.

“The error has been corrected in our system and you can expect a refund on your next invoice to reimburse you for the excessive charges.

“We sincerely apologize for the error.”

The dealership instructed customers with questions to contact the office at 629-4005 or 629-4007.