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News & Info |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do You Offer Discounted Rates for Senior Citizens? DO YOU OFFER DISCOUNTED RATES FOR SENIOR CITIZENS?
By our contract with TVA (our sole supplier of electricity) we cannot have rates that are discriminatory (gives one residential customer preferential treatment over another). However, working within these guidelines what we have done is to make our residential rate a split rate. The first 1,400 kilowatt-hours are at a lower rate and for usage above 1,400 kilowatt-hours the rate increases. This allows people who manage their electric usage to stay on the cheaper rate. This is much easier for senior citizens who do not have children at home. WHY DO YOU CHARGE A PENALTY FOR LATE PAYMENTS?
Penalties are to encourage our customers to pay in a timely manner. TVA (our electricity supplier) and our gas suppliers charge us a penalty if we do not pay them on time. If our customers do not pay us on time, then we would not be able to pay our suppliers on time. TVA receives about 89 cents out of every dollar paid Huntsville Utilities for electricity. CAN I CHANGE THE DUE DATE OF MY BILL?
This is a question that we are seeking a solution to. Currently we bill the next day after we read the meter. We send out more than 130,000 bills a month. This distributes our work throughout the month in collections and payment processing. Most people have told us they would select the first week of the month for their bill to come due. The fact is, it is impossible for us to physically process anywhere near 130,000 payments in one week. WHERE & HOW CAN I PAY MY BILL?
There are several ways to pay your bill: by mail, payment drop boxes at several locations, monthly bank draft, online bank draft, one-time bank draft, credit card and in person. See Payment Options for details about each option.
WHY DOES IT SOMETIMES TAKE SO LONG TO ANSWER THE PHONE? We have equipment that will allow us to answer 70 calls at a time. In the near future we will be able to add more lines to our system as we upgrade to new technology. During a major storm when large parts of our electrical system are damaged, it is not possible to have enough phone lines and people to handle thousands of calls at once. Hopefully customers will check with a neighbor to see if they are out and have already reported the problem. Once it has been reported there is usually no need to call it in again. This allows more open lines for customers in other areas who have not yet reported their outage.
In non-emergency times, bill questions, arrangements, transfers, and all other phone business can be conducted from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. DO YOU REQUIRE A SECURITY DEPOSIT AND WILL I GET IT BACK? Residential security deposits are $300.00 unless the customer qualifies for a reduced deposit. After maintaining service for 36 consecutive months from the deposit date or anniversary thereof without any collection activity, the customer’s account will be credited with $200.00 of the $300.00 security deposit plus accrued interest. A $100.00 security deposit is required on an account as long as it is active. Upon closing the account, the $100 deposit plus interest (5% per year, compounded annually) will be credited towards the final bill. To receive the reduced deposit, the customer must present a Letter of Good Credit from their previous utility of the past 12 months and have had no amount in the Huntsville Utilities bad debt accounts in the past 36 months. The customer can also have a Waiver of Additional Deposit Agreement executed by a present Huntsville Utilities customer guaranteeing payment of the account. If the customer has had service with Huntsville Utilities for the past 36 months with no collection activity a reduced deposit is applicable.
Huntsville Utilities, as a public utility, has no stockholders or anything else to influence policies other than the best service and rates for our customers. The deposit’s intent is to protect the rates of customers who pay their bills from including excessive amounts to pay for those who did not pay their bills. As we are a nonprofit organization, every dollar uncollected from one customer must be made up by the other customers. We try very hard to fairly protect your rates with policies of reasonable deposits, paying interest and consistent application.
CAN YOU SEND MY BILL IN AN ENVELOPE? We have looked into the option of envelope billing, similar to that of your phone bill. One reason that we decided not to use this type of billing is cost. The additional postage and envelope cost would be more than $265,000 a year. This does not include the additional cost for a mail-inserting machine(s) and maintenance. As we are a Public Utility (no stockholders), all of these additional costs would have to be placed into your rates. We believed that you would rather have the inconvenience of a postcard bill rather than a higher bill.
Customers want to know why we don't automatically send them a return envelope. Thirty-nine percent of our customers do not pay through the mail. This means that more than 616,000 envelopes would end up unused and thrown away every year. We are happy to mail return envelopes to our customers on their request. This way we meet the customers need, save them money and don’t waste our natural resources. WHY IS THERE A FEE TO ESTABLISH SERVICE?
All new accounts are charged a service fee to cover the average cost to establish a new account. This includes personnel time (application clerks, servicemen and filing clerks), forms and supplies. This means that these expenses are not included in your utility rates. By charging service fees for specific services, you only pay for the services you receive. You do not have to pay for everyone on an ongoing basis. DO YOU READ MY METERS EVERY MONTH?
Yes, all meters are read every month. When our meter readers used to read with books and pencils, they were able to do “bar stool” readings (not all did!). That was sitting in a restaurant somewhere and making up readings for customers based on their past usage. With their new hand held computer units it is impossible for them to guess at what the meter reading is. If the reading they enter calculates a consumption higher than what the computer thinks is reasonable, the screen blanks out immediately and makes them reread the meter on the spot. They do not have any history on the customer’s past consumption and they do not know what the last meter reading was. If for any reason the meter is not read (couldn’t get to it, water meter box full of water, etc.) they have no choice but to report that they could not read it. If a real reading is not obtained before the bills are issued, it is estimated in the office and the reading is flagged as estimated on the customer’s bill. Meter readers WANT to read the customer’s meter and read it right...their performance appraisal is affected by how many meters they report they can’t read and how many meters they misread. The meter readers’ overall accuracy rate is 99.4%.
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