Mona
Dickson,#2REBUTTAL Individual responds
Thu, March 16, 2006
The Water Authority of Dickson County maintains the following policy for cutting off customers for non payment. 1. Our connection fee for service which is non refundable is $65.00 not $75.00. We do not maintain deposits on our books which is a trend amongst most utility companies as they are classified as liabilities. 2. In the event the customer is disconnected for non payment, they have a choice, pay the arrears bill and the new bill which is on their account which they would have to pay anyway or the $35.00 reconnect fee. THIS IS THE CUSTOMER CHOICE. 3. The cost savings to our rate payers by not sending second notices in approximately $15,000 per year. In nearly twenty years of service to the WADC, I can say that the second notices do not encourage payment. 4. No matter how long a customers water is off, there has been much work done to process the accounts for payment. The fees attributable to disconnection must be shoulderd by the customer that chooses not to pay timely. This way, we are not punishing our timely rate payers. 5. Our service technicians do not collect payments in the field for a multitude of safety reasons . 6. We are sympathetic to the fact that customers sometimes have extenuating circumstances for non payment such as illness, deaths etc... We always make arrangements to assit these customers. 7. Ms. Rochell did experience an unfortunate situation, however, she has shifted all the burden of her admitted nonpayment on her account to the WADC, when scheduling payments is clearly the responsiblity of the customer. 8. We offer automatic bank draft for customer that travel and are frequently out of town. If Ms. Rochell had subscribed to this free service, her service would not have been interrupted.