Mailing of Payments.

There have been numerous times when we have had customers report that they didn’t receive a water bill. Likewise, RWD #6 didn’t receive your payments. We wanted to post this news article to address how these situations are addressed.

There are policies and procedures, laws and mandates that dictate how we as a business must operate. To address the fundamentals of the issue regarding how we are required function with respect to mail service.

1. All non-Zero accounts should receive a statement, which we try to mail out in time for everyone to receive it by the first of the month.
2. Any balance due Account should receive a pink late notice if we have not received the payment by the due date. (The tenth of each month, as established in the by-laws.)
3. “Pink tickets” or notices are sent out to accounts with balances due. This does not mean you haven’t sent it in or paid it by some other means. It just means the district hasn’t received your payment in our office.

To clarify and elaborate on the issues that have been so problematic for RWD #6 and most other businesses on the issues that arise from mail service or assumptions. When you put a stamp on an envelope and commit to mail service to deliver your payment, you have basically agreed to a service provided by a third-party business, the US Postal Service. RWD #6 has no control over when or how they deliver mail. Likewise, we cannot guarantee delivery of your statement. Therefore, we must rely on good communication between the district and the customers to achieve the end goal of payment for services rendered. If you do not receive your monthly statement by the first, every customer has the opportunity to go online and view the amount due. Generally, you can do this around the 17^th of the month, long before you receive your paper statement. Customers can call and just ask about the balance due during office hours. RWD #6 offers several ways to pay before the tenth of the month to avoid late charges, all listed on our website, and often communicated when these issues arise. Every customer must understand, the late fee is not something we can just waive or ignore. It is written in policy and our by-laws.

Several customers have become upset with the fact that this policy may embarrass them by receiving a “pink ticket” in the mail. Some are upset by the trivial amount of the NON-ZERO balance. However, we need each customer to understand if discretion is allowed for one customer, it must also be allowed for EVERY customer. This policy is not personal, nor does it reflect on anyone’s character or ability to conduct business. It is a policy to provide FAIR treatment to all our customers. RWD #6 is governed by three basic words: FAIR, EQUITABLE, and NON-DISCRIMINATORY. The discretion some want us to use can also be legally determined to be discrimination, hence the reason for these policies and procedures to keep us in compliance with laws, rules, and governance.

I would ask each customer to be understanding in the fact RWD #6 tries very hard to be compliant with all the requirements put on us as a business and still provide excellent service to each customer.