BILLINGS — The city of Billings is moving forward on identifying the incorrect water bills throughout Billings.
The errors come from an estimating mistake made by the city when switching over to new billing software earlier this year.
Public Works Director Debi Meling said it's an honest mistake that her department is working hard to fix.
"The meter readings are correct," Meling said. "The time that the use occurred was not correct and that just was confusion when switching over software. We're going back and recalculating every one of those bills."
Meling said it's typical for her department to make estimates about the usage, but the software made estimations for the entire billing cycle rather than just a few accounts. The affected cycle (Cycle 2) contains about 8,000 homes and Meling estimates that about 40 percent of the bills are incorrect, though she said most aren't off by much.
"We estimate bills almost every month, but usually only a handful, not 8,000," Meling said. "I would say most are just a dollar or two off. Maybe like 300 accounts were significantly off, and when I say significantly off, I mean at least $20."
Meling confirmed that all incorrect bills will be credited back to customers, even those who have already paid past bills.
"It doesn't matter if it's a penny or if it's $200, we're going to credit everyone that was overcharged," Meling said. "That'll appear in their account and will probably come with a letter."
Meling said that majority of the bills in Cycle 2 are located on the West End, though MTN spoke with one customer, Hugh Healow, who's in Cycle 2 and lives near Highlands Country Club.
"It's just confusing," said Healow. "I'd like to know the previous rates, I'd like to know how the price of water went up, and I'd like to know what I'm actually purchasing."
Healow said it's been a difficult situation to manage and that it's been hard to not truly understand what's going on.
"It's a significant amount of money to try and survive with this showing up at your door," Healow said. "It's a bad feeling to feel like you're getting ripped off, and if you don't even know if you're getting ripped off, that's worse."
To find out if you are in Cycle 2, check the bill date on the top of your previous bills. If you've been charged on June 20, Aug. 25, Oct. 16, Nov. 13 and Nov. 21, then your home is located in that cycle. In total, the city has five roughly 8,000 home cycles that make up for the roughly 40,000 accounts they manage.
Healow said finding out his bill might actually be incorrect doesn't make him feel any better.
"The word for me is disconcerting," Healow said. "I just don't feel assured."
Meling said the city is continuing to do all they can, currently awaiting the results of an independent audit and running a shortened billing cycle to try to get customers on track. An outside firm, SL-serco, Inc., was hired to conduct the audit.
"If there is something in there that's not calculating right, we want it to be found now," Meling said. "In order to get back on track this next billing period will only be 10 days to two weeks."
But for customers like Healow, more bills in less time doesn't feel right either.
"Why are we continuing to bill when we know the numbers are wrong?" Healow said.
Meling confirmed that the city will continue to allow late payments without penalty until results from the audit come back, which she expects to be in the next month. She said the late fees won't come into effect immediately and that people should take their time paying these bills.
"Just because we sent you a bill, doesn't mean you have to pay it," Meling said. "There's no late fees or late charges. We just figured it's better for you to have the bill and see what's coming, rather than us wait to give it out."
It's a complex issue that's gone on for months, with many anxiously awaiting the results of the audit.
"I believe in this town. I love this place," Healow said. "I trust that this is going to get resolved, I just want it to be less stressful."
