http://www.Jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/122999/met_1651076.html

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Wednesday, December 29, 1999

Story last updated at 11:47 p.m. on Tuesday, December 28, 1999

A mild Y2K shock for JEA customers

By Jim Schoettler Times-Union staff writer

An estimated 5,000 JEA customers were recently told that they could lose electric service for not having paid their bills -- 100 years ago.

Y2K strikes in Jacksonville!

Officials of the city's public utility said yesterday that no one will have their lights turned off by ignoring a billing glitch that ordered past-due payments paid by Jan. 3, 1900, though those payments should be paid by Jan. 3, 2000.

The JEA has spent three years trying to prevent Y2K problems in its electric and water plants and in its billing procedures. Managing Director Walt Bussells said the recent glitch occurred when an outdated version of the computer system used to send messages in bills was erroneously loaded for past-due dates in 2000.

The system can be used to warn customers that their bills are past due. It includes hard-coded wording that doesn't change, and spaces for bill amounts and dates that do change, said Susan Ruckman, a JEA spokeswoman.

The last two numbers in the date change depending on the year. But, new programming was not loaded in last week's billing cycle to change the year's first two numbers. So, notices for past due dates in 2000 did not include the change from 1900 to 2000.

JEA officials reacted quickly when the error was noticed, and customers were sent apology letters.

"Our system promptly caught it," Bussells said. "It was not expected. It's a mistake. The bills we're sending out now are correct and the bills that had the erroneous past due date notice, the billing amounts were correct."

Similar glitches being blamed on Y2K errors have occurred around the country, including:

About 3,600 water customers in West Des Moines, Iowa, got bills saying there will be an extra charge for payments made after Jan. 3, 1900.

In the East, Bell Atlantic also sent out more than 300 phone bills with wrong due dates.

Federal court officials in Atlanta recently issued summonses requesting about 160 potential jurors to report for jury duty Jan. 3, 1900. Authorities say an employee accidentally used an outdated version of jury selection software. Philadelphians also received incorrect jury summonses.

A homicide detective in Hamilton County, Tenn., was subpoenaed to appear for a case in January 1900.

Wells Fargo & Co. mailed 13,000 renewal notices to customers in 10 states, saying their certificates of deposit would expire in January 1900. Bank officials blamed the glitch on a printing vendor.

Ruckman said she wanted to make sure customers understood that the local glitch doesn't change the amount people owe or when they owe it.

"It has nothing to do with how the bill was calculated," Ruckman said. "This is in no way going to affect their service."

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 29, 1999

Answers

Caught this one on the local news the other night. Obviously a failure in the remediation effort. I had to laugh when the spokeswoman said it wasn't Y2K related.

Just a display error but Y2K related nonetheless.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), December 29, 1999.