Blind woman must pay penny or face lien

[Sister Iroz]

BOSTON -- A 74-year-old blind woman could have a lien placed on her home if she fails to pay the penny she owes on an outstanding sewer bill.

Eileen Wilbur said she received a notice from the city of Attleboro, Mass., stating if she did not pay the penny, a $48 lien would be assessed to her next property tax bill, the Attleboro Sun Chronicle reported. Wilbur has until Dec. 1 to pay the bill.

Wilbur said the town wasted taxpayer money when it spent 42 cents to mail the notice, which stems from a water and sewer bill from fiscal year 2008.

City collector Debora Marcoccio said the letter was among 2,000 sent out. She said the notices are automatically printed and it would be "fiscally irresponsible" to have her staff weed through them before they are mailed.

Marcoccio said the city sends out bills for the outstanding balances before lien notices are issued. Marcoccio said the city will not waive the balance.

"If there's a bill, it must be paid," she said.

Wilbur's daughter, Rose Brederson, called the situation "ridiculous."

http://www.news4jax.com/money/18008043/detail.html

[Nell]

I think it is ridiulous that the woman doesn't just pay the fucking penny she owes! Who gives a shit if the city paid more to send the bill? She still owes it. Why in the hell are her and her twit of a daughter bitching to the media at all? Man idiots piss me off!

[DamagedGoods]

City collector Debora Marcoccio said the letter was among 2,000 sent out. She said the notices are automatically printed and it would be "fiscally irresponsible" to have her staff weed through them before they are mailed.


That has got to be one of the worst excuses I've ever heard..

*cough* Ahem.... Bullshit!!

All of this info is in a database, which then filters accounts by amount owing & transactions & sends the appropriate statement. Should they have any IT staff with even half a brain, they can simply have the filter not only stop late notices from going to accounts in good standing... but also to ... say... any accounts with a balance under $5 ...

Unless of course they actually are doing this manually, in which case this is the least of their problems

[DamagedGoods]

oh yeah and still.. just pay the fucking penny already

[TheMorningStar]

The stamp cost 42 cents.

[MISSanthropic]

That has got to be one of the worst excuses I've ever heard..

*cough* Ahem.... Bullshit!!

All of this info is in a database, which then filters accounts by amount owing & transactions & sends the appropriate statement. Should they have any IT staff with even half a brain, they can simply have the filter not only stop late notices from going to accounts in good standing... but also to ... say... any accounts with a balance under $5 ...

Unless of course they actually are doing this manually, in which case this is the least of their problems



The company I used to work for had a month end billing system in which all of the invoices would print out automatically and be mailed out. The computer has even messed out and printed balances of $0. Many we would noticed and shred. During our busier times, it was harder to notice what was going out, we would just print out a label with their address and ship em out so I can understand that...I think it is ridiculous to bring this to the medias attention.

[crickett]

I think it IS a waste of taxpayer money to be sending out bills for 1 penny....multiply that by the number of those idiotic bills....say 1000 and you have spent $42 in order to collect $10....
Filter the damn thing...any computer program can do that....friggin idiots