THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503020163
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
A faulty computer program at the Department of Public Utilities has produced some whopping water bills.
Last week, the program instructed a computer to bill a resident $8,000 for water. The invoice was spotted before it was mailed.
The problem, which only amounts to a few dollars in other cases, first surfaced in mid-December. It has defied solution despite the work of a handful of chagrined public utilities workers who have toiled overtime to track down the problem and correct it.
Chris W. Walck, customer service administrator for Public Utilities, said Monday that the problem apparently lies in some lines of computer code that confuses how to correctly calculate usage.
``We've had a fair amount of complaints,'' Walck said. ``We have been devoting a number of people to review our billing. Some of our people have been working late into the evening, and some have been working on Saturday.''
The review process, he added, has had the additional effect of slowing the mailing of many bills, leading to still more complaints.
``Water is expensive in the Beach, but not that expensive,'' he said.
On Dec. 18, the city switched its public utilities billing operations to another computer system and in the process upgraded the old programs. It was then that the problem was apparently introduced.
``We didn't go out and buy an off-the-shelf program,'' Walck said. ``We restructured the one we had. We tested it before moving it on line, but somehow one of the gremlins got in.
``Something as simple as one letter in a line of instruction can cause the program to look somewhere it should not be looking,'' he said.
The city charges $3.65 per 1,000 gallons of water and bills 115,000 customers six times a year, pumping out close to 1 million invoices when late payment notices are included.
``The only thing we want to do is provide good service for our customers and to bill them for just that,'' Walck said. ``We don't want any humongous bills. It is a big deal for us. We are sensitive to the difficulties. But sometimes, folks get a good laugh.''
The billing error only relates to regular, city supplied utility service. There have been no reported problems with sewer bills.
He does not know how many bills have been either delayed or incorrectly calculated.
Walck could not predict when the problem would be solved.
``We're working on that one. I don't have a feeling of this week or next, but we have a programming team looking into it.'' by CNB