MPW has devised an action plan to correct the problem.
January 17, 2007
"We have experienced problems with our meter reading process and rectifying this issue is one of our highest priorities,” Mr. Duffie stated at the Commission Meeting Tuesday evening.
Commissioners and staff discussed the failing automated meter reading (AMR) equipment and the estimated bills that some MPW customers have received and devised an action plan to alleviate the frustration and confusion those customers are experiencing.
The automated meter reading equipment originally selected by MPW worked well, however a challenge in the design of the equipment by a competitor forced the Federal Communications Commission to require the manufacturer to modify the radio output.
“The meters recorded the usage accurately, but these modified radio transmitters began to fail faster than we could replace them,” stated Mr. Duffie.
In an even worse turn of events, some of the replacements began to fail. MPW is now in negotiations with the company that provided the AMR devices to correct these problems and to reimburse MPW for the cost.
Recently, MPW added meter readers to begin the process of visually reading all the meters. Consequently, many customers who were receiving an estimated bill had their meter visually read. In many cases, the actual consumption over the estimated period was more because estimates were low. While this “catch up” bill is accurate, the higher bill caused confusion and frustration especially if Tier charges were added for excessive use.
Mount Pleasant Waterworks is taking the following action:
- Staff is reviewing the “catch up” bills of all customers with an estimated bill and removing Tier charges if they were incorrectly added.
- Staff has been added to visually read meters and reduce the number of estimated bills.
- Reassigned staff to remove and replace the failed transmitters.
- The Mount Pleasant Waterworks Commissioners voted to suspend all Tier charges for two months while staff works to resolve our billing process issues.
- Continue negotiations with Hersey Meters to correct the problems and be reimbursed.
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