my favorite Y2K-NOT story Philly Gas Works Lets $55 Million Go Uncollected LCG, Jan. 20, 2000--The Philadelphia Gas Works, a municipal utility famed for its difficulty in delivering natural gas to its customers, has just as much trouble getting money to flow the other way, and during the past year has failed to collect about $55 million in past-due bills from around 100,000 customers, out of 518,000. Philadelphias new mayor, John F. Street, had said last week that the Gas Works might need a rate increase because of its financial problems. By this summer when gas usage it as its lowest, the utilitys cash reserves are expected to fall to as little as $3.2 million, and that $55 million would come in handy.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Gas Works quit trying to collect past-due bills sometime between January and March of last year. Then last summer things got worse, when a new computer system didnt work the way it was supposed to. The new machinery cranked out so many inaccurate bills that about 12,000 customers a day called to complain.

The Philly Gas Works, faced with all those unhappy customers, had to divert its 28 bill collectors to handle the telephone calls and the callers werent happy, because some of them had been on hold for as long as 30 minutes.

Not only was the computer system a bust, it cost too much. Originally budgeted for $9.7 million, it came in at $25 million. The paper said that city employees wrote checks to pay computer-related bills without knowing what the contract amount was.

Ben Hayllar, the citys former finance director who took over the Gas Works in late 1998, said the utility had a handle on the unpaid bills now and hoped to collect at least $40 million. "People who havent heard from us will," he said. People will get a letter first, then a phone call and finally a home visit. If that doesnt do the trick, liens will be placed against their homes. But Hayllar said there was another problem, and that was how to collect about $6 million in back payments from about 6,000 customers who were never billed in the first place. No one knows how long those 6,000 have been getting gas. And there are another 6,000 who havent been billed because Gas Works workers didnt turn in the paperwork when they installed the meters. Hayllar feels the computer problems are behind the Gas Works and says that now that there is a plan to collect the past due accounts its time to crack down on gas theft. He estimates that as many 20,000 customers steal gas by by-passing their meters with a length of rubber hose. "Some Philadephians are fearless," he told the Inquirer. "They probably do this with a cigarette in their mouths."

http://www.energyonline.com/Restructuring/news_reports/news/0120bill.html

-- cheryl (watching@nwaiting.com), January 21, 2000