Apex Billing Solutions

On 9/4, Apex received a call from the resident stating he was unsatisfied with the water usage recordedWe advised him to have a plumber come to his home to investigate possible causesAt this time, resident stated he had received a call from his neighbor that there was an issue with his
irrigation system constantly runningOn 9/8, resident called back to Apex to say that a plumber had been to the home and no immediate cause was foundPlumber stated there could be a problem with the meterOn 10/6, Apex sent a technician to check the meter as well as the surrounding area for leaksHe also found there to be no issues
Please keep in mind the service period in question was 5/- 6/It is very possible that the leak self correct between the time of billing and the time of both inspectionsAt this time, the balance on the account remains the responsibility of the homeowner

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
The response by Apex fails to mention that the water meters installed in each unit of the condo are measuring ONLY the hot water use The water meter is connected to only the hot water heater, and is measuring only the hot water use in each residence The total water use is essentially being made up *** ***, a landlord of unit had her water meter removed and examined by a professional at Lowes, who informed her that ONLY hot water use was being measured Further, the rate per gallon being billed by Apex Billing is over twice the amount listed by Birmingham Water Works Simply put, the numbers provided by Apex Billing do not add up I've spoken to the landlord of my property, and his family of was paying an average of $80-for water/sewage BEFORE Apex Billing took over the water billing for the condominiums Now, with a family of two, I was being charged an average of $a month for water at the same property Clearly, something is quite awry with the billing practices of this company The only acceptable solution is a 50% refund on the water bills I have paid from January-July, to put the prices in line with what Birmingham Water Works would have been charging, and an investigation into exactly how Apex is calculating water use, because their meters are ONLY reading hot water, so any total water use provided by them is essentially a RANDOM GUESSAs an aside, the water/sewer bills I am paying now at my new residence, a bedroom house, are 1/of what I experienced at Patton Chapel Trail
I am attaching email and photo evidence provided by the landlord from Unit 803, *** ***, that Apex is not measuring total water use at all, warranting further investigation, and perhaps legal repercussions
Regards,
*** ***

Apex Billing Solutions does not profit off of utilities billed
The late fee agreed upon by both Apex and the Management Company for *** *** *** *** *** and is the same for all residents
The units are billed based on an allocation methodWe take the dollar amount on the city bill
and subtract any Common Area Deductions, if applicable, then divide what's left by the sub-metered consumptionIf Common Area Deductions do not apply, then we take the full dollar amount from the city bill and divide it by the sub-metered consumption for all residents to obtain the rate per gallonThis rate is then multiplied by each residents sub-metered consumption to generate the billsEach home has a sub-meter that is read once a month
When taking over billing processes from other providers, we like to make sure the billing cycles line up with that of the cityIf the previous provider is off by a lot, sometimes the initial bills are largerIn this case, the first bill for this property was based on a day cycleGoing forward, the bills will be back to with a 30-day cycle
Should the resident have additional questions regarding this billing process they can contact us via e-mail at *** or ***

Apex Billing Solutions is a third party billing provider for *** *** *** ***
We bill the tenants based on an allocation by metered consumptionThis means that we take the total dollar amount on the city bill and divide it by the total sub metered consumption
This gives
the rate that we charge per gallonThis rate will fluctuate based on the community consumptionThe tenants bill will also fluctuate based on their individual usage
Unfortunately, we do not get the billing specifications from the former billing provider therefore we are not aware of how they billed the tenants
The $bill fee is a contracted fee used to offset administrative fees such as reading meters, generating reports and billingThis fee is billed to all tenants and cannot be removed
Our Customer Service Representatives would be happy to provide suggestions on how to keep consumption down should the tenants be interestedIf there are further questions, please do not hesitate to let us know

HOAs should not use APEX. There are much better billing solutions then Apex. They have several questionable schemes.

1) APEX sometimes has terms that are shorter than US mail times and do not accept big bank "bill pay" options. By not accepting bill pay, large banks, like BoA need to physically mail a check when you use bill pay at the bank. By the time you receive notice that you owe the money (sometime via U.S. mail) and process through electronic payment with a big bank (mailing the check via U.S. mail), you are incurring late fees.

2) If you try to quickly pay via the website, they take you through gathering all your credit card information and additional address information BEFORE alerting you to a transaction fee for using a credit card. At this point you're invested for your time entering the information. They should disclose the fees in advance of filling out the forms, so payors can make an education decision.

3) The security to access the website is higher than many banks. This is interesting, because banks hold your money, whereas, conversely, APEX is looking to receive your money. With such an intensive validation process, my guess is that individuals are incurring additional late fees, with problems accessing the website and making payments. When companies are trying to receive payment, they should make it as easy as possible to collect the funds. This would typically be in the interest of APEX, however with the quick late fee charge, it's in their interest to make it a little difficult to obtain the late fee revenue.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.[Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
Regards,
[redacted]
Can they explain the consistent billing of the recent past.
E-bill is not the answer !

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance...

of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

There are other options for paying your Apex bill. You can mail the payment into our office, you can sign up for auto draft or the payments can be made online or over the phone using your credit card. Unfortunately at this time the option for e-check (one time check payments) is not available....

This information has been communicated to the customer listed in the complaint and we have asked for her contact information so that we can set her up so that her account can be autodrafted at no additional cost.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

The address the resident was sending the payment to is our payment processing center. If there is an issue with the payment, such as, the account number is missing or if it is written incorrectly, that payment will be rejected and will be sent to our office for...

processing. In this case the account number was missing which is what caused the delay in processing. I will reverse the late fee as a one time courtesy. To avoid future delays, it is important for the account numbers to be present on the payment.  
If the resident has any other questions, please reach out to our Customer Service Center at 866-281-3977.

Former resident call in on Monday April 6th regarding this issue. Per the conversation with former resident, we have cancelled the ACH and e-bill, and will refund the amount withdrawn from her account in the amount of $133.25.

The $3.00 transaction fee is charged any time someone makes a payment online or over the phone and can not be waived or reversed. The "check" option is available though the software provider we use but is not a functioning option at this time. Customers are welcome to mail their payment into...

our office or to pay using their bill pay option though their banking institutions if available, or they can sign up for auto draft from their checking or savings accounts. This will allow customers to avoid the transaction fee. It is not in violation of any regulations to charge a transaction fee as long as other payment options are available.    
In reference to the bill fee that is charged each month, it is there to offset administrative expenses needed to maintain customer accounts. Our company breaks down what the customer is paying for where as most billing companies hide bill fees in other charges.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank you for reaching out. Yes, there had been an issue with the meters reporting in to the data collector. Because of this issue the management company decided to flat bill the residents based on the number of occupants in the units.
Issues on site have been addressed and resolved. After...

looking into this account, we have discovered there was a billing error. We have communicated to the leasing office what the adjustment should be. If the resident could reach out to our office for more information, I would be happy to discuss what the credited amount is and what the actual bill amount should be. We can be reached at 866-281-3977.

We apologize for the inability to not take one time payments using a checking account. We do have the ability to set up recurring drafts using ones checking account at no cost to the resident. Those drafts are done based on the due date listed on the statements. We do them on Monday or Friday...

depending on the day the due date falls on.
The payments can also be mailed into our office which would avoid that transaction fee.

When investigating the statement of problem, it was found that the
statements for this billing cycle did go out a little later than normal.
It was in no way done to increase revenue for Apex. We do offer the
option of receiving statements via e-bill. The e-bills are sent on the
day the paper...

statements are mailed out. These go to an email address
provided by the tenants so that they can access them at anytime and not
have to wait for a paper copy to come via the US Postal Service. We also
offer the option for tenants to have their payments automatically
withdrawn from their checking or savings accounts. These options work
well for those that travel a lot. With the ACH (automatic withdrawal)
option, the tenant still receives a paper or emailed copy of their
statement but will not have to worry about remembering to make a payment
or having late fees applied to their account.
Should there be any other questions or concerns please let us know.

Each home in this community are read electronically. There is a transmitter that sends information to a data collector on site and we have a system that dials into the collector to...

gather the daily reads. This is done every 12-24 hours. From December 2015-May 2016, the telephone line connecting the two systems was not functioning. During the outage time frame, we estimated what the consumption used was. We estimate usage based on past history. In some cases, the system can under estimate causing a catch up bill once any issue is resolved. During the outage time frame there was 19,650 gallons of water used but we had only billed the tenant for a total of 11,690 of those gallons. This leaves 7960 of water that had been used but not billed for. The type of meter that is installed in these units, is a 1 for 10 meter. This means that for every 10 gallons of water that moves through the meter, the numbers on the face of the meter will advance 1 time. That is where the multiplier comes into play. If one looks at their bill, there is a begin read and an end read. If you take the end read and subtract the begin read, that tells you how many times your meter advanced. We take that number and multiply it by 10 to convert it to gallons used. No funny math or doubling anything.
Using a third party billing processor is not illegal at all in Alabama.
We are working with property management at this time for clearer explanations on the bills for the residents and have also discussed and explained the billing situation to the owner of this unit. At this time, credits are approved by the property management.

The customer is welcome to pay their balance by check, money order, auto-draft through Apex or Bill pay through their banking institution to avoid the $3.00 transaction fee.
Should there be any other questions or concerns, the customer could certainly speak with a Customer Service...

Specialist at 866-281-3977.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.[Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
Their reasoning is not acceptable as I do know that the final bill is paid through the HOA, my concern is that the amount of water usage they have billed throughout the past year has been incorrect (including my final bill).  There is NO WAY that the amount of water they are billing for was used.  I can prove the months were one person was not in the residence or we were out of town, the reduction is drastic, therefore the amount of the last bill is completely incorrect in accordance with the number of people in the home.
This business was investigated by the complex last year for over billing water usage on the single-family homes.  The amounts were found to be correct, however, the townhome units were never investigated,probably because many of these units are rentals.  As for billing 30 days in arrears - most of my bills are over 60 days in arrears and the meter read date is NEVER the same, therefore making it impossible to track manually on my water meter.  Using Atlanta Water the billing cycle would still be in arrears, however, the meter read date is always going to be roughly the same.  These meters are electronically read so there is no reason the read dates should be so drastically different.
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.None of the options listed to avoid the convenience fee are offered to the customer unless the customer questions the $3 charge. Apex says that customers can pay by check. No address is given on where to pay. Apex says customers can have their payment automatically drafted. No information is given on how to get that set up. Why should the customer have to contact Revdex.com to get all of their payment options? They funnel customers to pay the $3 charge online without giving the option to avoid it. Apex Billing is not upfront about their fees. 
Regards,
[redacted]