A Charleswood man is raising concerns about automated bill payments after his mother was charged an outrageous amount — nearly $150,000 — on her city water bill.
Tim Martin got an email Wednesday saying the bank account of his mother, Dorothy, was massively overdrawn. She is a senior on a fixed income, said Martin of the 86-year-old.
“I have online banking privileges to be able to view my mom’s account,” said Martin. “I went online and found that indeed there was an overdrawn account, and it was a debit of $146,000 by the City of Winnipeg’s water and waste department.”
Martin submitted a new meter reading to the City of Winnipeg, and is waiting for a new bill, but said the city is still going to charge his mother an NSF fee because she didn’t have enough money in her account for the $146,000 payment to clear.
“Perhaps $1,000, $10,000, $100,000? But in this case, $146,000-plus, and it’s just processed on somebody’s account, where their typical billing was $118 per billing period? I’m just surprised at the lack of oversight.”
City still charging NSF fee
Martin submitted a new meter reading to the City of Winnipeg, and is waiting for a new bill, but said the city is still going to charge his mother an NSF fee because she didn’t have enough money in her account for the $146,000 payment to clear.
“The first thing that they said to me was, 'Oh, you’re going to have to pay a 30-some-dollar NSF fee for this bill not going through,” said Martin.
“And I said, ‘In what sort of reasonable world would you have expected that a pre-authorized debit for $146,000 to somebody’s personal account would not go NSF?’”
“It also makes you wonder if something as egregious as this bill payment has gone through, how many other smaller ones have gone through that have never been caught?”
Excellent point. When’s the Water & Waste Department’s next audit due?
Unfortunately, all utilities are kind of slippery that way. They have a funny habit of overestimating your usage, then refunding you when they finally get around to actually reading your meter. Guess what they did with the interest on their ill-gotten gains in the meanwhile? This case is utterly ridiculous, though—usually they’re skimming less than a third of the normal bill.
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What an incompetent bunch of petty bureaucrats.
Excellent point. When’s the Water & Waste Department’s next audit due?
Can’t come soon enough, and the results better be made public.
What a gd mess this city is in. :/
Unfortunately, all utilities are kind of slippery that way. They have a funny habit of overestimating your usage, then refunding you when they finally get around to actually reading your meter. Guess what they did with the interest on their ill-gotten gains in the meanwhile? This case is utterly ridiculous, though—usually they’re skimming less than a third of the normal bill.