Franklin County Public Utilities

Deposits issuesI have never paid a deposit for water/sewer. Franklin county wants $150.00 deposit. I just want to know if this is standard procedure for all Franklin county residents or is it just in certain areas? I need this if at all possible in writing.Desired SettlementI would like to know if this is standard procedure for all Franklin county residents or is it just in certain areas?Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email: [redacted]A deposit is required of all customers that sign up for service with Franklin County Public Utilities. The requirement for a deposit is set forth in our Policy and Procedure manual that is adopted each year by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. The $150 fee is comprised of (2) parts: $50 is an administrative fee for establishing the account and $100 is the security deposit that is refundable when the account is closed. Therefore in response to your complaint, all customers are treated equally in that a deposit is required of everyone. Consumer Response Thank you Revdex.com for helping me with the above. So if you never move they get to keep your deposit with out interest to you forever. Thank you again Revdex.com.[redacted]

I would like to file a complaint on the Franklin County Public Utilities business in Franklin County for the following issues:1) They have no electronic way to pay either online or over the phone.2) The due date on the utility bill and the shutoff date are too close together. Utilities should not be shut off on customers for a 10 day late payment. This is a sketchy practice to obtain unfair fees.We moved from Franklin County in November 2014 to Chatham County, NC. We were instructed by the landlord that our water could not be disconnected until the end of our lease in December 2014. We forwarded our address with the post office to our new parsonage residence. Public Utilities never called to warn us of the late payment and shut our water off at the service address during the mail forwarding time and charged us a $35 disconnect fee. Had they utilized the 21st century technology of accepting online or call in payments this could have been avoided. We were very good customers to this company and when I called to address this matter they said too bad that they already took the fees out of the deposit we made when we set up the account. We never had the water reinstated after that incident.Account_Number:[redacted]Desired SettlementI want the $35 disconnection fee reimbursed.I want them to extend the due date and shut off time period for their customers (for mail forwarding purposes or vacation times).I want them to utilize 21st century technology to allow customers to pay over the phone, online, or to set up automatic drafts for their bills.I want them to stop taking advantage of their customers because there is no other competitors and water is not a luxury but an essential part of life.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]/DirectorContact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email:[redacted]In response to the claim filed against Franklin County Public Utilities I offer responses listed below:1. Franklin County Public Utilities has offered for over a decade the opportunity to pay bills by automatic bank draft. It is not required and is left to the discretion of the individual customer to sign up for this service. All new customers are given a policy/procedure packet upon initial establishment of service and the information is contained within. 2. Bills are mailed out to customers by the first of the month and subsequently due by the 20th. Failure to pay by the 20th subjects the account to a late fee. The cut-off date on the bill only applies if the account has an arrears balance which would be noted on the bill when received. Any customer who is more than one month in arrears in billing is subject to interruption of service via disconnection. Once again this information is shared with each customer at the time service is initially established. Furthermore all this information is given in hard copy print form in the policy procedure handbook. 3. Attempts to send mail out to customer where returned and listed as undeliverable by [redacted]. Customer did not provide forwarding information when residence was vacated. [redacted] finally provided [redacted] the proper forwarding address for delivery of our correspondence.4. In our opinion customer failed to follow proper procedure in closing out an active account. Furthermore, any arrangements between the tenant and landlord (ie requiring tenant to leave water on while not occupying a residence) for maintaining service to a dwelling are not the responsibility of [redacted]. Therefore, the delinquent fee will not be waived in this instance. Due dates will not be altered for any circumstances. It is the responsibility of the customer to pay for services rendered regardless of their status (ie vacation, etc.)Consumer Response Franklin County Public Utilities failed to provide this information to us. I would like them to submit a signed statement of received information. Automatic withdrawal when you don't know a total is not wise for anyone. You need to set up a pay by phone option. As far as the mail forward, we did set this up. I was not stating the delayed mail was your fault. [redacted] double penalized us by adding a late fee and a disconnect fee and an additional late fee. We will never choose to purchase a home in FC due to these crooked business practices. We have owned four homes in different counties and I've never experienced such poor customer service from a utility company.