ANDERSON — The glitch-plagued new software used by the city’s utility office is scheduled to receive major enhancements by the end of summer that city officials hope will improve customer service and end confusion over utility users’ bills.

The enhancements to the Munis software will allow utility office workers to redesign the bills, adding graphs and other easy-to-read data and also will allow electric and water customers to receive their bills via e-mail, city Information Services Director Pam Stafford said.

A year ago, city utility customers were reporting unwarranted late fees on their bills; at the time, Utility Office Manager Robin Allman traced the problem back to the new Munis software system to which the utility billing office switched in August 2008, calling the problem “one of those bugs that they just can’t seem to get out.”

Customer service representatives spent hours correcting by hand the late fees that could have affected up to a third of Anderson’s utilities customers. Although Allman said Thursday that the late-fee problem had been corrected, the new enhancements should help utility office workers settle problems and help customers more quickly, she said.

The additions will allow them to easily identify groups of customers who receive discounts, such as senior citizens, and can help the office schedule service calls more conveniently, Stafford said. They will allow workers to attach necessary documents, such as letters of credit and lease agreements, to a customer’s account information and establish a single customer ID for citizens with more than one address on file.

“It’s all in one place; they have a better centralized view,” Stafford said.

Customer claims unfair treatment

Although city officials say they are working on technological improvements to the software and that complaints about customer service have dwindled over the past two years, one Anderson resident said she has been treated unfairly by the utility office and city’s Board of Public Works.

Linzy Delong, a single mother of three, said payments made to her utilities account were not recorded, resulting in a $2,522.96 January bill. When she met with utilities officials, including Allman, Stafford and Board of Works Chairman Greg Graham, she said no one could explain why the numbers did not match up.

Records from Delong’s account, provided by Allman in January, show Delong’s energy assistance payments made by the Anderson Housing Authority — $170 a month — had not been posted to her account. The same records from Allman provided in February show most of the energy assistance payments had been accounted for.

“I felt the money was misplaced,” Delong said. “Where’s my money going? That’s eight papers that don’t match all coming from one office.”

Records from the Munis self-service site online also did not match the payment records with which Allman had provided Delong. Allman said those records were itemized differently than the print-outs she gave Delong.

After several meetings with city officials, Delong was ordered to pay $320.82 to clear out her debt, but Delong contended that after adding up the amount paid on her account prior to that, she should not have owed that much money.

“Ultimately, I think that I get my $320 back,” she said. “I have proof of the last three years of my account being jacked with.”

Delong said she felt forced by city officials to sign the contract saying she would pay the $320.82. The contract also said all Delong’s energy assistance payments had been accounted for and that “during this period, the city’s utilities underwent complete change of computer accounting system that exhibited a number of unexplainable computer glitches.”

Board of Works member Shirley Weatherly said Delong had not made any payments on her own account, resulting in the large total in January. Delong said she never was able to pay because the bills always were too high since she did not receive a bill from her move-in date in October 2008 until April 2009.

Weatherly said the board decided to lower Delong’s bill because it had gone so long without receiving payment.

“I think that any other client that we spent that much time with and lowered the bill...we would hear a thank you,” she said.

Office works to improve customer service

Allman said customer service in the utility office has improved over the last two years as well. The department combined its credit and customer service departments and rearranged the office to be more customer-friendly. A new log-in system for customers allows the department to see how long workers take to help customers, and the department is working on getting an informational broadcast into the lobby.

“A lot of people have in their mind that they’re mongrels down there (in the utility office),” Weatherly said. “With the training that the ladies are getting, the customer improvements, I have been very impressed over the last couple years.”

Graham said the department works with customers with payment plans and other measures to make sure they don’t get their electricity or water turned off, especially in cold weather. The utility office has two promise-to-pay plans for customers with bills over $500, including a long-term agreement where the customer has to pay 50 percent of the bill and make the rest as payments over the next four to 12 months. A short-term agreement allows customers to put 10 percent of the bill down and pay the rest over two weeks.

The department also is working to make it easier for customers to make payments, Graham said, including a redesigned drop box procedure. In December, the city started taking online payments for utilities and has taken $723,326 over 3,029 Web transactions.

“We’re trying to find more ways a customer can pay without coming in here,” Graham said.

City installs other technological enhancements

The city is making other technological updates that will affect all city departments. A new phone system will replace the city’s 12-year-old system and allow the city to disperse and organize phone calls more effectively and record them for customer service purposes, city network administrator Darren Grile said. The system also will let city officials know if there are an adequate number of employees taking phone calls.

“There’s just a much better way to manage the phone system,” Grile said.

The phones should be installed in the next six weeks for the utilities departments and are expected to save the city $10,000 a month by switching from AT&T; to a city-managed phone system.

Two other software updates will allow utilities customers to pay their bills over the phone and automatically call them when a power outage has been scheduled in their area. The software also will let customers who call in about outages know the status of the outage, whether a crew has been dispatched and an estimate of when the power will be restored.

“It will give us the capability to manage crews more effectively,” city GIS coordinator Jason Tuck said. “The whole object here is to be more efficient with outages and handling phone calls.”

Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.