Simple Bills Corporation

TOTALLY  NOT A  solution!  they can put any number they want on a "bill" - I have requested (last Saturday July 29th) a final actual reading their "estimate" is $100 hirer than the previous months.  this is unacceptable.  I have also file a compliant with the Attorney General's office - I will be contacting the new media - all parents that I have spoken to are OUTRAGED and some student were charge more tha $200 over their average bill.  They need to totally reconcile all bills and meter readings! I can't imaging how much "estimated" extra money they are making - this is FRAUD!! the next letter is from a lawyer who till be looking into this fraudulent activity.

Thanks for reaching out. We apologize for your frustration,...

however, our Customer Service Staff cannot remove a customer from autopay. If autopay was disabled that would only have been possible through the your own log in, however, your payment information could have expired. Meaning autopay was running but the charges were declined due to outdated information. Your property received this unpaid utility bills from SimpleBills and your property then invoiced you via your property rent ledger. All charges on your account are valid and will remain.

[redacted], We apologize that you received multiple water bills at once. That was an unfortunate circumstance. We can offer you more time to pay, however, six months is not possible. We are able to extend your payment due date until January 30th, 2018. That is two months from when the invoice was generated. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to address your concerns.  The SimpleBills Team

Hi [redacted],  We apologize for your frustration. The bills that you received were split 50% between you and one of your roommates [redacted]. Our records have [redacted] moving out on 3/30/2017, which is the last day she was billed through. We did have a delay in our billing cycle, however, you...

received two separate invoices in August with detailed information regarding your electricity bill. This is your usage and still your responsibility regardless of the delay. Summer is also always the hottest period of the year which causes electricity bills to rise due to higher use of A/C. We have a fantastic customer service team and our wait times (during our busiest times of the year) have been less than 10 minutes on average. Our phone system also allows for us to call you back when it's your turn in line, rather than waiting on hold. We recommend this option to all our customers every three months while on hold. There is no way you were able to wait on hold an hour, as after 40 minutes you are directed to leave a voicemail for a call back. We have not had anyone reach that time limit this summer yet. Your bills are accurate and do need to be settled by the due date to avoid late fees.

Ms. [redacted], Thank you for reaching out. We always aim to make the move out process as smooth as possible. As such we issued a final bill to your account, after that was paid you did have a credit balance on your account. That credit was promptly returned. However, after the credit balance was...

returned the utility provider in your area issued a corrected bill. This we have no control over and because of that correction by the utility provider, we had to invoice you again. Which when payment was not made, we did attempt the payment method on file per our Terms of Service. You did receive ample notification that a new invoice was generated and when it was due. If that payment method was returned as invalid, per our Terms of Service we can charge a return check fee. This is to discourage inaccurate payment information from being stored on residents accounts, which you readily admit you did. We agree, 2 final bills is not ideal and your case was exceedingly rare. We apologize for any frustration that you experienced.

We apologize that you find our answer does not satisfy your expectations however, our original response still applies.

According to your lease agreement you are responsible for utilities through the duration of your lease agreement. Your property and SimpleBills have agreed to estimate the final bill.We apologize that you are frustrated but this is industry standard to estimate the final bill.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  SimpleBills is refusing to comply with the Company's Terms of Service by refusing to provide copies of utility bills.  Additionally, the Company refuses to provide the calculations and supporting documentation of the final estimated invoice, claiming that the calculations are a "trade secret" and "proprietary".  A consumer is entitled to documentation for which the consumer is being expected to pay for services.I have uploaded documents with full response and supporting documentation. Thank you for your response.  The following is a list of specific complaints with supporting documentation:1.         SimpleBills Refuses to Provide Copies of Electricity InvoicesSimpleBills cannot pick and choose which portions of the Terms of Service it elects to follow.  I have repeatedly asked for copies of all invoices, including the final invoices and SimpleBills has refused my request each and every time, although I even offered to send a self-addressed stamped envelope for same.  A consumer is entitled to documentation evidencing sums charged by a provider.  Section 17 of the Terms of Service provides as follows:“Company shall invoice Customer electronically via its Internet site each month for the percentage of utility charges at Residence that Customer is responsible for and has agreed to pay to Company.…“Company shall send all utility invoices each month after it receives the electricity bill for a given Residence”.  (emphasis added)I have requested a copy of the final utility invoices on at least 10 occasions, to which SimpleBills has responded that they refuse to provide me with the invoices in spite of the fact that this is a specific provision of the Terms of Service.2.         SimpleBills Refuses to Provide Documentation or Calculations in Determining the Final Estimated BillInstead of providing documentation to support the final “estimate”, SimpleBills claims to use a “secret” calculation in estimating the final bill.  According to SimpleBills, “this estimate is based on your apartment’s utility consumption history over the past 90 days and historical weather trends”.  I have repeatedly asked for documentation of these calculations, to which SimpleBills has refused by claiming that the calculations are a “trade secret” and “proprietary”. There is absolutely no provision in the Terms of Service which allows the company to arbitrarily make calculations and refuse to provide supporting documentation.  I did my own calculations utilizing the past 90 days and these are my calculations:            Last 90 days electric bills             April, 2017                  $  32.64            May, 2017                   $  34.15            June, 2017                   $  33.61             Total for 90 days       $100.40            Average                      $  33.47 The amount charged to our account by SimpleBills is $102.89 when in fact the average for the past 90 days is $33.47.  This is over 3 times the average for the past 90 days.  The young men in this apartment left the premises when school was recessed for the summer in May, 2017.  The only time they returned, was for two weekends in July, 2017 to move out their belongings.  They have not been in the apartment for ½ of May, all of June, and less than 25% of July.  I direct your attention to “Carter’s Dashboard” which is taken directly from the SimpleBills website on 7/30/17 which shows that the consumption for this apartment is much lower for the month of June than prior months and their consumption is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the average cost of electricity for the entire complex.  This supports our argument that the “estimate” which SimpleBills claims is a “secret” is excessive. To add further insult, not only has SimpleBills refused to provide copies of utility bills, although it is provided in the Terms of Service, the company also refuses to refund any excess collected from these “secret estimates”.  So in effect, the company is being unjustly enriched by charging consumers far in excess of an actual average of the prior 90 days’ service and then refusing to refund the excess payments. 3.         SimpleBills Made Unauthorized Charges to Credit Card SimpleBills was notified immediately that the “secret estimates” were inaccurate and that the company was not authorized to make charges for these sums to my credit card. I specifically notified SimpleBills that they were not authorized to charge my credit card for the estimates because they were refusing to provide me with documentation.  I also advised the Company that I was more than happy to pay our son’s 20% of the ACTUAL invoices.  The representative of the Company agreed that a partial payment could be made.  See the email below: > Miranda, Jul 15, 10:00 CDT> > Hi [redacted],> > > The Terms of Service is available on your son's Simplebills account and can be accessed anytime. The Terms of Service explains that the final billing procedure is calculated based off an estimation. The Terms of Service also states that you are responsible for the utilities until the move out date. We also have that   the "customer expressly authorizes Company to charge Customer's Payment Method on File for any unpaid individual balance". These are the terms that your son agreed to when signing up for Simplebills, below I have included some helpful statements from our Terms of Service.> > Your partial payment can be made of $68.68 but I do want to warn you if you do not pay the remainder this amount will be charged to you by the property. The unpaid portion of the bill along with the remainder of the bill. The property has the discretion to add additional late fees to this amount. The amount that you paid towards your invoice will be sent to you in a check. The amount on your son's invoice is his portion, 20%, of the entire bill.> > Please let me know if you have any additional questions.> > > Best,> > [redacted]> Customer Service Representative> SimpleBills | [redacted]>  Contrary to the foregoing representations, my credit card was in fact charged for the “secret estimates”, which was unauthorized.  As I have stated several times, we are happy to pay our son’s 20% portion of ACTUAL services rendered – not some “secret” estimate. I have uploaded documentation showing complaints made against SimpleBills for overcharging, and specifically about the final “estimated” bill.  So I am not the only consumer who feels like there is a serious issue. I sincerely appreciate the Revdex.com’s consideration.  I have also uploaded documentation in support of this response Thank you for your time and consideration.   Regards,
[redacted]

Mr [redacted], We apologize for the confusion, there was some miscommunication regarding the final process with the onsite team. This led to invoices being changed from your initial invoice. However, the current invoice is correct and valid. If you have any questions regarding your final invoice,...

please reach out to the property management team onsite as they decided the process in how our transition for final bills would operate.  The SimpleBills Team

We apologize for your frustration. This is our busiest time of year and our hold times are higher than normal due to the thousands of phone calls each day for students moving in and getting set up. I'm not sure what happened with the pdf copy of your bill and why you did not receive in our standard...

2-3 business day window. SimpleBills management will talk with our staff and find out the breakdown and get it to you today.

Hi [redacted], First off, we do apologize for the time you spent on hold with SimpleBills. This is our busiest time of the year and we receive thousands of phone calls and emails each day. We do try our best to respond in a timely manner. Your invoice was due on September 5th, 2016. However, you...

were enrolled in autopay which is processed 7 days after your invoice is send out. Autopay can only be enrolled by the customer, so at some point in the last year you enrolled online in autopay via your SimpleBills account. What you have been told is accurate, due to Federal Banking regulations all checking account transactions can only be voided the same business day. Since your payment was autopaid at 2:06pm, this void would have had to taken place before 4pm CST in order to before the end of the business day Eastern Time. We do not set the regulations and unfortunately we cannot change them. We apologize that your payment was unable to be voided but the situation was out of our control.

Hi [redacted] Our stance has remain unchanged. I do apologize for your frustration, however, we are abiding by the contract that was entered into when signing up with SimpleBills. A chargeback or a return check is standard business practice.

Ms. [redacted],  We cannot turn off your utilities, we are not the utility company. If you would like to place the utility in your name and handle your bills directly with the provider you may do so.  Moving forward, you will receive any further utility bills directly from your property. We have closed your SimpleBills account, however a balance of $35.53 remains on your account that needs to be settled.  Have a great day!

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Regards,
[redacted]

We apologize for our delay in responding. We are very busy this time of year. When your son and his roommates signed up for SimpleBills they agreed to allow SimpleBills to manage the utility account. We managed the account, per our Terms of Service and the agreement we have with the residents in the...

apartment. In this agreement, we ask residents to not pay the utility bills directly since this would cause a double payment. If a resident pays the utility provider and we pay the utility provider, the residents are still responsible to pay SimpleBills. We clearly state in two separate places throughout the sign up process for residents to not pay directly to the provider. Since the utility account is in a resident's name, SimpleBills cannot be reimbursed, however the primary account holder can be from the utility provider. The SimpleBills Team

I apologize for your confusion. If you were told by Eastgate to sign up with SimpleBills, then you will need to contact them directly about getting a reimbursement. Since we enrolled you in electricity and you signed a contract with SimpleBills agreeing to be enrolled through our preferred electric...

provider. I will close your account immediately and prevent any further charges. What you have currently paid to SimpleBills you need to request that back from Eastgate.

Ms. [redacted], The first time that you contacted SimpleBills regarding a duplicate account was on August 1st, 2017. This is after nearly an entire year of the invoices being generated and billed and collected from this duplicate account. Your first account was started and completed by Robert...

[redacted], the duplicate account was also started and completed by Robert [redacted]. In this case, both accounts were not started by either your property or SimpleBills. Furthermore, since each account has a different misspelling on the name and seperate emails, our duplicate account software does not flag that account. The burden is on the resident to notify us if something is wrong with their account, and after a year we are not able to go back and redivide those bills as the residents in those units have moved out. Why should SimpleBills eat a portion of the bill because of a mistake that was not ours? We apologize that you are frustrated. If you choose to dispute those charges with your bank, that is up to you. However, your account could incur a chargeback fee per invoice that would be billed to your account or sent to collections.

[redacted], I apologize that you are frustrated. SimpleBills and your property have an agreement for SimpleBills to manage all utilities at your property. This means that all utility accounts at the property are in the property's name and that all residents need to have a SimpleBills account to...

manage the utilities. An application would not have been processed without leaving a payment type on file, and an your account would not have been charged if you had not completed your application. Our payment processor would only process completed accounts. Furthermore, no one at SimpleBills can complete an application for a customer, only the customer can do that. Your account was only charged after your bill was past due of which you were sent at minimum of 4 emails reminding you about the invoice. In the future, if you need more time to pay a bill, please let us know so we can work with you before the bill is past due. I apologize for your frustration and the confusion you are feeling.  The SimpleBills Team

We apologize for your frustration, however, we are working in conjunction with your property to ensure all utility charges are as accurate as possible. To make sure that all utility charges are billed prior to the end of the lease agreement we have to estimate the final bill. We did reach out to...

your property about adjusting the bill, which is why you saw the reduction. At this point, we are unable to adjust the bill any further. We apologize that this is not the answer you were hoping for. We do, however, explain our estimated final billing process in our Terms of Service.