Richmond DPU Billing System and Customer Service Updates - August 7
The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities (DPU) is providing the following updates related to its new billing system and customer service operations.
DPU has made significant progress on verifying customer accounts that have not yet received bills. Currently there are approximately 60 bills that have not been sent within a 30-60 day window. DPU expects these bills to be validated over the weekend and customers will begin to receive them next week. As this verification occurs, customers who did not receive a bill, may receive two bills close together or one bill with two months of charges, depending on their bill date. If this results in a financial hardship, customers are encouraged to enroll into a payment plan to allow additional time for payment and avoid any late fees.
All payment processing issues related to the conversion to the new billing system have been corrected. Any payment delays for payments received in May or June due to missing or incorrect account numbers have been identified and are being applied to accounts. These updates will occur over the weekend and will be reflected on accounts next week.
Customers who experience payment processing delays are likely due to incorrect account numbers on checks or other payment methods. These types of delays are typical but are required to be investigated on a case-by-case basis to ensure funds are correctly applied to their account.
Customers who believe they may have a billing or payment issue should contact DPU at 804-646-4646 during normal business hours or email dpucustserv@rva.gov and provide payment confirmation for validation.
The Department of Public Utilities remains committed to providing updates as additional progress is made and appreciates customers' continued patience as these improvements are completed. Progress thus far includes:
Progress thus far includes:
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8/7, All bill-formatting issues have been resolved.
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8/7, Additional bill improvements related to how meter reads are displayed on bills have been implemented.
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8/7, An additional 17 customer service agents will be onboarded Monday, August 10. Once training is completed for this new cohort they will be assigned to complete start, stop, and transfer of service requests. The prior cohort of 15 agents will then begin the next tier of training to support additional call requests.
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7/31, Customers calling to start, stop, or transfer service can now select Option 4 to be routed for direct assistance.
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7/31, Call-center wait times continue to decrease due to the addition of 15 customer service agents trained to complete requests for starting, stopping, and transferring service.
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7/31, Additional staff are working customer service tickets to address online inquiries to provide quicker turnaround times for customers. As a result, DPU has addressed 95 percent of the online account inquiries entered in June and July, the remaining 5 percent are actively being addressed. To avoid wait time, customers can send an email to dpucustserv@rva.gov for non-urgent requests.
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7/31, MyHQ and EZ-PAY portals have been updated. Account and summary information has been corrected.
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7/31, Payment reminders have been updated and include a link to a payment portal.
Customer Reminders
As part of the new billing system:
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All customers have been assigned new 10-digit account numbers.
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Any customer using bill pay through a financial institution should update their account number with that institution to ensure correct processing and prevent any delays.
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Customers who pay through MyHQ do not need to update their account number.
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A new online account lookup tool is available.
The Department of Public Utilities remains committed to providing updates as additional progress is made and appreciates customers' continued patience as these improvements are completed. Progress thus far includes:
Customers can find the latest information, including how to locate their new account number, by visiting go.rva.gov/dpubillupdates or by following DPU's official social media channels.
