Hit with interest and a late fee from EOWC

I know that there have been many complaints by South Orange residents in the past about being charged interest and late fees by EOWC when their water bills had been paid on time. I always considered myself lucky, since I always pay my water bill on time (I pay it online the day that I receive it in the mail or the next day) and never received an interest and late fee charge.

Today was my turn. I received my water bill was charged interest and a late fee of $5.59. Based on what has been the experience of other South Orange residents, it's useless to even go back in my records in order to furnish evidence to EOWC that it was paid on time, and it would only be frustrating to try to call them. I'll pay the $5.59 and be done with it. Hopefully, it won't happen again, but based on what others have said, once EOWC has me on their late fee list, I can probably expect more late fee charges until we're not using them anymore (thankfully.)

Bank of America will reimburse you the late fee, I'm assuming other banks will do the same. I got interesting feedback from the BoA customer service rep who called EOWC on my behalf.

The paraphrased short version: they admit to receiving the check before the due date, but still won't waive the fee - here's your $8 back.

I called EOWC. For some strange reason, I actually have a credit of $5.59 which was taken off of my current bill. All's good - I'll take it. They charged me a late fee of $5.59 and then gave me a credit.

eta - I just initiated an online payment with my bank.

Just today I received a "Past Due Notice" from EOWC. When I receive a bill in the mail, I pay it. Therefore, the only explanation for this is that I did not receive the original bill. Noting all of the shenanigans that have gone on with this company, and are well documented here on MOL, I am going to assume that "they never sent it", is a better explanation than "it got lost in the mail". Also, the past due notice does not include a copy of the original bill or a detail of the charges, so I have no idea what I actually owe them or if there were any late charges applied.

Am I the only person who can't make sense of the various billing and payment viewing options on the EOW web site? I wanted to appeal some late charges but gave up in defeat.

I was late this time. Purely my mistake. However, I try to keep at least a $5 balance with them so I don't get the compounded late fee. In the past, if you were late, they'd charge you $5, but even if you paid, and didn't factor in the late fees, you'd owe $15 in late fees, because it's per month. I think the late notice is new. Wonder who complained to who. I never got one before...

I just paid mine. The bill came in the mail yesterday. When I logged in to the website it showed me having a $0 balance, and a payment due date of April 2015.

One thing which frosts me is the $2 convenience fee for paying directly from my checking account. "Here's instant money and nobody has to open an envelope and deal with my physical check. Let me pay you an extra $2 for how much more convenient I made it for you."

Next bill, remind me to send them the payment divided up in ten envelopes and ten different checks. Because that's free.

mrincredible said:
One thing which frosts me is the $2 convenience fee for paying directly from my checking account. "Here's instant money and nobody has to open an envelope and deal with my physical check. Let me pay you an extra $2 for how much more convenient I made it for you."

Its the same with motor vehicles registration renewal where they charge a 1.50 "convenience" fee to renew online. Would they rather we clog up their office and by renewing there? Or force a cumbersome manual transaction by mailing it in?

Another racket is the EZ-Pass monthly processing fee. When it first came out it was touted a a gig money saver for government by removing much of the manual toll collection effort and cost. Discounts were nice. Some discounts were dropped with most EZ-Pass agencies now charging a monthly "processing" fee.

Its a racket and I notice only governmental or pseudo-governmental agencies rip us like that. Then they wonder why there is a loss of faith in government.

Imagine if a credit card issuer charged you a "convenience" fee for paying online? Never happen. But being a monopoly, government and their agencies get away with that.

Surprisingly, they removed several cycles of erroneous late fees with a relatively painless phone call. I was polite, but direct.

May have helped that they did the same thing for me about a year ago.

I think the practice is intentional and probably illegal.

They should be paying us. Crooks and scumbags.

I absolutely believe it's intentional. They are bilking probably thousands of unsuspecting households out of what adds up to a whole lot of money. I don't understand how this has been allowed to go on for so long! We have been having this problem for YEARS. This is what happens when a corrupt entity has zero oversight.

What really pisses me off is that, not only is there the bogus $5 late fee, but that they charge it for every month of the 3 month billing period. What the heck is that?! It should be one bogus late fee per billing cycle, not three. I'm surprised they haven't started charging a late fee per day at this point

mbaldwin said:
Surprisingly, they removed several cycles of erroneous late fees with a relatively painless phone call. I was polite, but direct.
May have helped that they did the same thing for me about a year ago.
I think the practice is intentional and probably illegal.

On hold with them over the current late fee and credit for former false late fee...but it could be worse.

Here is the message on their website:

"NOTICE OF WATER RATE INCREASE - CITY OF EAST ORANGE CUSTOMERS ONLY
Effective August 1, 2015, bills to customers in the City of East Orange will reflect a temporary rate increase to aggressively address a $3.9 million deficit and balance the budget of EOWC in 2016. The increase, which is based on an average household of 3.4 people, will be approximately $43 more per month and will last until February 2016. To learn more, please click here."

OK, still on hold after 10 minutes...time to pay the fee and see if it is credited back to me again next month.

Who can we talk to in South Orange about this? JUST happened to us finally? Anyone have recommendations for HOW to handle EOWC? They're such scum!

Thank goodness we aren't in East Orange.

So we received notice that our last 3 bills were paid late despite all three checks being cashed within 10 days of the billing date (and it says you have 30 days to pay). With proof in hand, who at South Orange Town Hall can we speak with?

How about one of the news stations' consumer reporters? "7 on your side" - that sort of thing... Anyone have a contact

Welcome to the club! Been happening to us for at least a year. Probably a lot longer - I just happened to notice a year or so ago

BubbaTerp said:
So we received notice that our last 3 bills were paid late despite all three checks being cashed within 10 days of the billing date (and it says you have 30 days to pay). With proof in hand, who at South Orange Town Hall can we speak with?

You can send the details to me -

hlevison@southorange.org

Howard Levison - 973 762-7131

Thanks Howard, Greatly appreciated. Would you be able to share what you'd be able to do with the information? Is there a mechanism in place to dispute charges like this without going to small claims court?

levisonhw said:
You can send the details to me -
hlevison@southorange.org


Howard Levison - 973 762-7131

We have monthly meetings with EOWC management at which time I present any complaints that I may have received. They have provided details to my requests with the hope that the issue can be mediated.

BubbaTerp said:
Is there a mechanism in place to dispute charges like this without going to small claims court?

Call them and ask them to reverse the inaccurate charges. Worked for me twice in the last year or so.

mbaldwin said:

BubbaTerp said:
Is there a mechanism in place to dispute charges like this without going to small claims court?

Call them and ask them to reverse the inaccurate charges. Worked for me twice in the last year or so.

Agreed. I did the same thing. This has been going on for years and they seem to count on people just "letting it go", but if you call, they will remove the bogus charges.

susan1014 said:
On hold with them over the current late fee and credit for former false late fee...but it could be worse.
Here is the message on their website:
"NOTICE OF WATER RATE INCREASE - CITY OF EAST ORANGE CUSTOMERS ONLY
Effective August 1, 2015, bills to customers in the City of East Orange will reflect a temporary rate increase to aggressively address a $3.9 million deficit and balance the budget of EOWC in 2016. The increase, which is based on an average household of 3.4 people, will be approximately $43 more per month and will last until February 2016. To learn more, please click here."
OK, still on hold after 10 minutes...time to pay the fee and see if it is credited back to me again next month.

My quarterly bill averages less than $43/month. That means they are probably doubling the monthly charge for East Orange customers.

Bumping this thread, as I just got my water bill, and there is $15.08 charge for Interest and Late Fees, even though the bill is not late since I got it...today. It says that my previous balance was $0. Have people been able to fight this? If so, how?

I called and spoke to the woman who answered the phone. I followed up with the supervisor, Brenda Church, who then said she would actually remove the charge from my account. We'll see when I get the next bill if this occurs.

Did you still have to pay the extra charges up front?

L_W said:
I called and spoke to the woman who answered the phone. I followed up with the supervisor, Brenda Church, who then said she would actually remove the charge from my account. We'll see when I get the next bill if this occurs.

relx said:
Did you still have to pay the extra charges up front?

L_W said:
I called and spoke to the woman who answered the phone. I followed up with the supervisor, Brenda Church, who then said she would actually remove the charge from my account. We'll see when I get the next bill if this occurs.

Call them and ask them to reverse the charges. Others have mentioned in this thread, this seems to work. Do not pay the inaccurate charges.

relx said:
Did you still have to pay the extra charges up front?

L_W said:
I called and spoke to the woman who answered the phone. I followed up with the supervisor, Brenda Church, who then said she would actually remove the charge from my account. We'll see when I get the next bill if this occurs.

I didn't pay them, just the amount due

I had a similar problem... moved in October, confirmed when we switched the account over that there was a zero balance. Paid every bill on time (easily proven paper trail) and then on the last bill had a retroactive $50 or so late fee. EOWC claimed we had a late payment in October... which is impossible, and is not backed up by any bills, payments, etc. They did confirm they'd credit us, but I wonder how many people just pay these shady charges and how much revenue that brings in. When are we as a town moving away from EOWC again?

And a huge thanks to Howard Levison btw for being gracious in offering and successful in helping resolve what was a flagrant error on EOWC's part