Computer problem delays many Nevada Power bills

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1998 | 11:45 a.m.

About 1,600 Nevada Power Company customers whose bills were delayed last month by a computer snafu have been given extra time to make their payments and avoid late fees.

The customers, all in unincorprated parts of Clark County, received their October bills about a week late, because the county franchise tax fee had not been added to the billing forms.

"The bills were supposed to be mailed out Sept. 30, but did not go out until Oct. 5," Nevada Power spokeswoman Sonya Headen said Monday. "This is a tax that the county charges us for having equipment on their property. We have to pass it on to our customers."

Headen called the incident "a programming challenge" rather than a breakdown in the company's billing computer. Still, it was not clear whether human error was to blame or whether the computer had been programmed to add the tax but failed to do so.

Regardless of what caused the delay, Nevada Power added an additional five days to those bills.

"The law requires us to give a grace period of 20 days, but Nevada Power's policy is to give customers 25 days -- we give a lot of slack time," Headen said. "In any case, we added additional time to help prevent late fees."

Headen said steps have been taken to prevent future delays caused by such computer problems.

The customers affected by the late mailings represent 0.35 percent of Nevada Power's 457,000 customers.

It was not immediately known how many -- or whether any -- payments were not properly credited to the accounts of customers who sent in payments without the bills.

A number of senior citizens regularly pay their bills on the third of the month -- the day Social Security checks are delivered -- whether or not they have a bill from a utility company.