City staff continue to look for utility-bill errors from computer glitch

Cape Girardeau city staff continue systematically checking water, sewer and trash billing accounts in response to a computer-software glitch.

City officials announced last week some customers had been overcharged by hundreds of dollars as a result of a recent conversion to a new billing system.

The city has about 17,000 utility customers. About 1,400 customers may have or could receive incorrect bills because some sewer-usage data transferred incorrectly to the new billing system, officials said last week.

City spokeswoman Nicolette Brennan said Monday city staff first looked for obvious errors by checking large changes in monthly bills.

Staff now have begun checking every utility account, a process that could take several weeks, she said.

“We have staff dedicated to working on this issue alone, so we are confident they will find the sewer calculation errors in time,” Brennan said in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

While the process will take time to finish, Brennan said city staff want to make sure every billing error has been uncovered and addressed.

Any customer who believes his or her bill is incorrect should call or email customer service to have the account reviewed. Customers can contact the city at (573) 339-6322 or send an email to customerservice@cityofcape.org.

“Any overcharges will be refunded,” Brennan said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641