News

City apologizes for 70,000 false alarms on water bills

By Bill Moss, Published: August 21, 2015

The city of Hendersonville is trying to figure out what caused its automated calling system to go haywire and notify all 70,000 water customers that they faced water service cutoff for unpaid bills.

“The call was only supposed to go to 47 customers,” said city spokeswoman Tara Ledbetter.

Instead, the Blackboard Connect system sent emails and made calls to all customers.
“When we found out what happened we came in late and we put in another call letting them know it was an error,” she said. Some people did not get the second call, she said, if their phone was busy or their answering machine did not pick up the call. The city changed the system from making multiple calls to just one because customers were complaining that the system was making too many calls. The city set up the system to notify residents of water system information, power outages, weather conditions and other situations.

“Once people have called they have been understanding and patient,” Ledbetter said. “One problem is the call volume is so great people can’t get through.”
The city’s response is that, unless you were one of the 47 who really is delinquent, your account is fine.

“I am personally accepting direct responsibility and express my sincere apologies to any customers that were effected by our phone system errors,” City Manager John Connet said in a statement.

The message is currently with its software vendor to determine what caused the mistake, he said. "We appreciate the public’s patience with us as we work to resolve this unfortunate and untimely error," the city news release said. "We realize that this caused inconveniences for many citizens."