INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Hundreds of incorrect Independence Power & Light utility bills, some warning customers of power possibly being disconnected inside their homes, are being blamed on an error that could be related to a utility bill payment system put in place last year.
On Tuesday, the city estimated that 1,000 customers received incorrect utility bills dated from September 2018.
The mix-up led to many customers posting to Facebook and others heading to the Independence Power & Light offices.
“I’m really mad. I’m very upset,” said customer Herbert Mosher, who visited the offices on Tuesday afternoon. “I’ve never not paid my bill.”
Mosher received the incorrect bill in the mail on Tuesday morning. It claimed he owed hundreds of dollars.
With Mosher living on a fixed income, the expensive bill brought plenty of stress.
“We wouldn’t be able to make our doctors appointments on time,” he said. “There are a lot of things it would impact.”
The city said on Twitter Monday night that the issues occurred as a result of an error.
Following the complaints, City Manager Zach Walker told 41 Action News that the city was working to fix the problem.
“We’ve been spending our morning today trying to understand what happened,” he said. “It was some sort of error that occurred on the billing end that the city needs to look into and understand why that happened and prevent that from happening again in the future.”
After using the same utility bill payment system for decades, Walker said the city switched over to a newer and more efficient system last May.
With the changeover for more than 50,000 customer accounts bringing some growing pains, he believes the switch could be related to the recent glitch with bills.
“Anytime you do these kinds of things, you’re only going to magnify the hiccups,” he said. “We believe that anytime we have the opportunity to be more efficient and make sure our system is reliable and protect our customers' personal information, that’s absolutely the right thing to do.”
The issues with the electric bills this week come months after other controversies with utilities in the city.
Last fall, customers called for an audit of the utility bill payment system due to concerns they were being overcharged.
A third party later conducted the audit but found no issues with the actual system.The report, however, raised issues about the timing of the changeover due to the new system being put in operation during a peak season.
The city also currently faces a lawsuit due to allegations that customers were overcharged.
While Walker could not comment on the case, he said the city was continuing to work through the changeover of payment systems.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re up against the clock and trying to jump from systems that are 30-40 years old to something more modern,” he said. “I’m frustrated for our citizens. I sympathize with them.”
Moving forward, Herbert Mosher hoped another similar incident wouldn’t happen again.
“I don’t think anyone should have to go through this. I really don’t,” he said. “If I had this kind of a glitch, I’d have to pay dearly.”
Anyone who may have received an incorrect utility bill is asked to report their case in any of the following ways:
- Stop by the Independence Utilities Center at 17221 E 23rd St. South;
- Via phone at 816-325-7930;
- Via email at utilitycustomerservice@indepmo.org.
