Some residents billed for three months of utilities in bank error

Some residents in the city of Amherst were mistakenly billed for three months worth of utilities in a round of automatic payments made on March 11.

The city’s treasurer Richard Ramsey said during a March 11 City Council meeting that the error is being ironed out.

“The utilities department has several people that pay their utilities bills automatically ... and we remit things to Northwest Bank,” Ramsey said during the meeting. “It turns out that they committed an error that they are now aware of and taking steps to fix.”

Ramsey said the residents were billed, not only for this month’s bill, but also twice for their December bill.

“These poor people had like three payments that they got dinged for today,” he said.

Ramsey said Northwest Bank was fixing the problem as of the evening of March 11, while all affected residents will be notified of the situation March 12.

“We’ve identified the problem,” Ramsey said. “We have a solution, and eventually, all the residents that were injured by this are gonna be made whole.”

Residents will be credited through their account with Northwest Bank.

Ramsey said the banks involved with the error will communicate to fix the problem.

“This isn’t the first time that it’s happened, not to us, but to other cities apparently in the past or to other banks,” he said.

Those who have experience overdraft fees can fill out a form at either the treasurer’s office and utilities department or bring documentation of the charges to the Amherst branch of Northwest Bank to receive a refund.