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New Billing System Draws Positive Feedback in Lodi, Calif.

Roughly 2,800 city customers have registered with the updated billing system since it launched earlier in the month.

(TNS) — It’s been nearly two weeks since the city of Lodi launched its new billing software for utility payments, and according to Deputy City Manager Andrew Keys, overall customer feedback has been positive.

“They are happy with the simplicity and the additional features that it offers,” Keys said, who added that about 2,800 customers have registered for auto pay with the new billing system and about the same number have made individual payments directly through the system.

Keys acknowledged there are some customers who have voiced some frustrations with the new software. One of the main concerns was that this was the second change in software within a short period of time.

“Residents are looking for some consistency, and we feel that this product will provide that because we don’t plan on changing it because it does provide those additional features,” Keys said

The only changes that will come in the future will be the addition of a payment kiosk in the finance department lobby which will use the same software as the online billing system. One of the main reasons that the city switched to new software was because the old billing software provider did not offer the option of installing a kiosk.

Keys said the kiosk will help reduce wait times for customers who come into the finance department and free up the resources of customer service representatives. The kiosks will arrive in a month or so and will go through testing before being introduced to the public.

The second frustration customers voiced was the fact that they had to use their account number in order to register on the new software.

“Once you’ve registered or once you have you’re account number, its a very easy system to use,” Keys said. “However, not everybody has their bill handy, so there’s been some frustration with that. They have to call us, and it’s kind of jammed up our phone system and caused abnormally long wait times on the phone.”

According to Keys, the city is doing its best to provide people with their account numbers and are offering the citizens the ability to contact them on the Lodi City Hall Facebook page or email them.

Keys did report that there was one hiccup that occurred with the transition to the new billing system. On March 20 they turned on the electronic fund transfer automated payments using the new software before turning off the old system. This resulted in 244 accounts with a billing due date of March 20 that were charged twice.

On March 22, as soon as the mistake was brought to the city’s attention, staff contacted account holders and also put the information on Facebook. The affected customers can request a refund or leave the amount as an account credit towards their next bill.

“We’re committed to making it right,” Keys said.

©2018 the Lodi News-Sentinel (Lodi, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.