Many customers have had problems with US mail delays, resulting in the paper bill arriving with insufficient time for the payment to arrive and be credited. It can take 7 days or more for the bill to arrive at your mailbox. Even if your payment is mailed back the next day, it can take another 7 days or more to arrive at the County Office.
I (Eric, the webmaster here) have experienced this more than once.
According to the County, our meters are read at the beginning of the last week of the last month of the quarter, bills mailed the following business day, and payment due on the 11th of the next month. Since there is a scant 14 days from billing date to pay the bill before incurring a late charge, this is a problem. Made even worse if we dare to leave home for a work trip, or vacation, or to visit family.
End result? Late fees because of depending on “Snail Mail”. And it's not our local Post Office's fault! Mail that arrives at the La Honda post office on the morning truck DEFINITELY is delivered that same day!
This CSA7 Committee has no influence on the County billing or payment processing. The best we can do is recommend that you call the County to get the late charge removed, if your payment has a timely postmark.
Customers have been asking for a long time to have a way to automatically pay the quarterly water bill. A number (not all) of CSA7 customers are quite “tech savvy”, and many of us handle our other bill payments online. Unfortunately, the County finance system is not capable of automatically “pulling” a payment from our bank accounts, as most other utilities can do, with our permission (of course, we do want to have complete control over who can pull money out of our bank account).
It is possible to pay your bill online, and it now is possible for you to discover the amount of your bill without having to wait for the paper mail (and being there to receive it). Then you can arrange for payment to be made in a timely manner, without having to worry about USPS delays even if you're away during that very narrow window.
Steps to pay your bill online:
For example, I (Eric, webmaster here) have an event set on my digital calendar on the last Monday each month: Dec, Mar, Jun, Sep, to remind me to go online and find the amount of my bill, which will be due around the 11th of the next month (i.e., our quarterly bills are due in Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct). Then I schedule that payment with my bank to pay by mail at no charge to me.
I have a default amount to pay that "should" cover the bill, just in case I can't get around to it. I over-ride that default payment amount with the actual due amount.