74-year-old Blind woman threatened over unpaid 1-cent bill, told lien would be placed on home

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Blind woman threatened over unpaid 1-cent bill
74-year-old resident of Attleboro, Mass., told lien would be placed on home

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27784816/

ATTLEBORO, Mass. - A 74-year-old blind woman was shocked when her daughter found a letter from the city saying a lien would be placed on her home unless she paid an overdue water bill.

The amount? 1 cent.

Eileen Wilbur told The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro the letter sent her blood pressure soaring, and pointed out that stamps cost 42 cents.

City Collector Debora Marcoccio said the letter was among 2,000 sent out. A computer automatically prints letters for accounts with an overdue balance, and they are not reviewed by staff before being mailed, she said.

The letter warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the overdue bill is not paid by Dec. 10. The charge was from the previous fiscal year, which ran from July 2007 to July 2008.

"My question is, how come it wasn't paid when the (original) bills went out?" Marcoccio said.

Wilbur's daughter, Rose Brederson, who discovered the bill in her mother's mail, called the situation "ridiculous." But she said her mother, who has lived in the home since 1959, would likely end up paying the penny.

[TennesseeDem]

1. Un-fucking-real.

[deadmessengers]

And how much would it take to process her payment?

Common sense isn't exactly in abundance there, is it?

[Marrah_G]

10. This has nothing to do with common sense

They just need to adjust the software to put in a flag for minimum amounts.

No one sat there and wrote her a threatening letter over a penny. This was just an automated letter.

[deadmessengers]

15. common sense was not employed when writing the software

Common sense was also not employed when an overzealous tax collector made a public statement somehow implying that the homeowner is a deadbeat for not paying that penny.

[NeedleCast]

2. Had an apartment complex do this to me

A few years back when I was in an apartment my roommate and I somewho ended up 7 cents off in rent. We both wrote checks for rent and somehow, instead of coming out to 1,125 dollars, we ended up paying 1,124.93. On the 4th of the month I found a notice of eviction on my front door, threatening all kinds of thing (in form letter form). Luckily our apartment complex was pretty understanding and just let us pay the seven cents (although I had to write a check for it, since they don't take cash). I always wondered if their bank has a check handling fee and if the ended up losing money on that transaction.

[Burma Jones]

3. Not so hard to set a minimum balance for automated dunning.....

So many people are so damned lazy with their thinking.......

Of course, the lazy idiot responsible for sending out this letter immediately blames Ms. Wilbur. Pathetic.....Ms. Marcoccio would be at home in a Kafka novel.

[Bill McBlueState]

4. So they automatically generate letters for all the past-due accounts

I guess the city could tweak their software to ignore any balances below some cutoff, if for no other reason than to avoid getting mocked on internet discussion boards. What should the cutoff be?

[NeedleCast]

7. That's the Federal (and usually State) Gov for you

I think the answer to you question is that the cutoff should be at whatever point it becomes more expensive to collct the past due amount than the amount collected would actually be. In this case, the cost of a stamp to get the post office to deliver the letter is 41 times more expensive than the amount owed and that doesn't include man-hours, paper, etc.

[Marrah_G]

9. I am sure they will now

[Kerrytravelers]

5. How dare this homeowner. Think of all the things the city could do with that penny!

:eyes:


:sarcasm: <---- Just in case it isn't clear.

[123infinity]

6. I pay off my credit card every month and get a bill every month for zero.

I don't know how much it costs to produce this paperwork and mail it but it has to be around a dollar or so I'd think. :shrug:

[Catherine Vincent]

18. You should sign up for their paperless billing and receive it electronically. nt

[Marrah_G]

8. This is my town!

It's a great town. Liberal and diverse.

The town isn't going to take her home over a penny. This was an oversight because there was no minimum amount in the program used to send out the letters.

No reason for outrage. If anything it's just silly.

[cherokeeprogressive]

11. Pay the fucking penny and move on.

Seriously?

[WI_DEM]

12. I work in health care and on our bills if there is anything under $15 it automatically drops off

we don't bill for it. How ridiculous!

[LynneSin]

13. A friend of mine had a mom who was a County Commissioner...

and the woman was ridiculed for sending out checks from the county for 2 pennies. Thing is everything was automated and even if the check was for 2 cents it still had to be sent. And if you didn't cash the check it would be sent out again.

Ridiculousness goes both ways

[Iggo]

14. See...

...this is why the 3-strikes law is such a good idea.

[opihimoimoi]

16. A Nerd system gone Nuts....designed poorly by a GOP NERD

[dkofos]

17. I'd send in $.02 and really fuck up their system.

[WI_DEM]

19. Yeah, send in two cents and then demand that they send you a refund!

[KamaAina]

20. Go down there, give 'em a $100 bill, and make them make $99.99 in change

:P

[uppityperson]

21. I was threatened with Collections if I didn't pay my "$0.00" bill once

Kept getting bills saying I owed "$0.00". Then, "we would appreciate your prompt attention to this issue." Finally "we will send you to collections unless you immediately pay this bill" and "your credit will be ruined" stuff. I had to go through a couple people at the place to get the charge removed and it straightened out.

I thought it was funny until they threatened to ruin my credit over "$0.00"

[spinbaby]

22. I got a letter over a CREDIT once

I had accidentally overpaid on a Penney's credit card and got a letter that said something like that if I didn't pay up immediately, they'd be forced to send me a check. It was funny, actually.

[Fire1]

23. Yeah, pay the penny, but that's just freakin sick.