Wilkinsburg-Penn water customers frustrated over billing problems
Wilkinsburg (KDKA) - People living in Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs are experiencing some water bill woes, but it's not because of the cost.
You can't have running water if you don't pay your bills.
Many Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority customers had no clue they didn't pay their recent bill because the authority had changed the company that processes its electronic payments on April 1.
Many people said they didn't know the authority switched their payment vendor and issues started arising.
"The issue became customers that had auto-pay in place or electronic payments, that system just stopped in April so their payments were no longer going through, and they weren't receiving paper bills at that time, so they had no idea what their balance due was," said Joshua Miser, a Swissvale Borough councilman.
Miser said puzzled residents eventually started receiving shut-off notices.
"So, we had some residents getting shut-off notices in April threatening shut off of their water service if they didn't pay, but to their knowledge, they were still set up with autopay," Miser said. "A lot of residents were completely in the dark, I spoke with one resident from Braddock Hills who has a commercial building, and the way they found out there was a shut-off notice tacked to their front door," he added.
WPJWA services thousands of people in the eastern suburbs.
Miser said it's been difficult for him and anyone that uses autopay because it's not available, and neither is paperless billing or online account information.
He said he found out about the change from an authority representative in a council meeting, but residents didn't receive communication from the authority until recently.
"I think my biggest issue is that it took until mid-May for the authority to send a letter to all service members saying that this was the issue and even in that letter they didn't apologize," Miser said.
The letter addressed to customers is on WPJWA's website. It said e-billing and auto-pay may not be available until closer to October and paper bills will be mailed to all customers.
Executive Director Doug Komandt wrote that the change came about very quickly, the update has been difficult, and they ask for patience.
"From my perspective, there was just a failure of communication of the authority to let residents know about this change," Miser said.
Miser received communication from the authority confirming it's going to waive the late fees.
"I really hope the authority will look at their communication methods and improve in the future," he said.
The authority has not responded to KDKA-TV's request for comment.
WPJWA's letter to customers reads:
"Dear Valued Customer,
On April 1, 2023, the Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority made a change to the company that processes our electronic payments. This change came about very quickly, and we have been attempting to notify the affected customers based on the information available to us. This update has been difficult, and we are asking for your patience as we make these changes. Please be sure you are utilizing the correct phone number for our new payment provider, Invoice Cloud, at (844-750-0001) when making a payment by phone or online at https://wpjwa.com/pay-bill-online.
This change has been particularly difficult for our customers utilizing the E-billing and Auto-Pay provisions. Both options are not available at this time and may not be in service until closer to October 1, 2023. Paper bills will be mailed to all customers during this time. You may still be receiving notifications from our previous provider, Paymentus, whom we have notified to stop sending out any additional notifications. Please disregard their notices as that system is no longer available. We recommend deleting any saved links you may have for the Paymentus
portal to avoid any further confusion. Currently, you are not able to look up outstanding balances on your account, however, we are attempting to get this part of the system working again as this is a very important piece of information for our customers. Please be patient as these changes are made as well as other changes being planned for our new payment portal. We ask that
each customer provides us with the most up-to-date contact information so we can notify you of these changes as we move forward. Future changes will also be communicated via messages on your bill; please take some time to review those messages. If you need any additional information, do not hesitate to contact our customer service department at 412-243-6200, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 AM to 4:15 PM. Email us anytime at custserv@wpjwa.com; all weekend inquiries will receive a response on the next business day.
Thank you!
Doug Komandt
Executive Director"