The North Ridgeville Utilities Department would like to thank all of our customers for their patience and understanding while we investigated the unfortunate coding error that created so much confusion for so many. This unfortunate incident set off a chain reaction of incorrect payee charges for a number of North Ridgeville utility customer payments, appearing to be paid to the “City of Lorain.” This coding error was NOT made by the City of North Ridgeville or by the City of Lorain but instead by the bank payment processor, First Data. A data entry mistake was made by First Data staff, while manually processing customer payments that affected a number of customers nationwide. Unfortunately, some North Ridgeville utility customers that made payments through our UBILL payment link on the city website, between November 2nd and November 10th were impacted by this error. This error only affected customer credit card payments during this time period and had NO impact to customer payments that were made by eCheck. The UBILL payment site, utility customer accounts and credit cards used for payments were NEVER exposed, compromised or in any danger due to fraud or any type of scam. The error was simply a human data entry mistake by an employee at First Data. The company did work closely with North Ridgeville and Lorain Utility Departments to identify their error and correct it. If you were one of the customers that received a credit card transaction paid to “Lorain Utilities” you should’ve noticed a reversal of that charge on your credit card account. The credit card payments made between November 2nd and 10th have finally been delivered to the North Ridgeville Utilities Department in early December and are currently being processed and credited to customer accounts.
First Data has sincerely apologized for this error and for any inconvenience it may have caused our customers. They have informed The City of North Ridgeville that we will receive their full cooperation and support in clearing up any North Ridgeville utility customer accounts that may have been negatively affected by this unfortunate error. If you did not receive a “Reversal” of the Lorain Utilities charge on your credit card statement or if you have any other questions or concerns regarding this matter, please contact the North Ridgeville Utilities Department at 353-0841 and we’ll be happy to assist you.
Best
Wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year!
The
North Ridgeville Utilities Department Team