COA utility bill glitch affects 39,000

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A glitch in the City of Austin utility billing department accidentally credited deposits back to 39,000 customers last month. 

"The City's billing system prematurely sent customers' deposit back their account," said Ed Clark, spokesperson for Austin Energy .

A $200 deposit is required to open an account with the City. Customers usually get that deposit back after one year -- if they've paid their bills on-time.

In this case, nearly 40,000 customers saw the $200 credit on their account that wasn't supposed to be there at all.

When the billing department noticed the problem, they knew it would take some overtime to fix the problem.

"We mobilized a team of 50 employees to manually correct the error," said Clark. "That was done and completed between July 23-28."

Austin Energy sent out letters to customers this week notifying customers about the mistake and that the problem had been fixed. Customers are still obligated to pay the amount that was originally billed. 

Austin Energy manages the billing for all of the COA utilities.