‘Have patience with us’: JXN Water official outlines process for adjusting bills amid customer fears

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) — Days after a man told WLBT he received a faulty water bill for nearly $130,000, officials with JXN Water are providing more details on how they address customers’ billing concerns.

Last week, Caleb Ginn spoke to WLBT, telling us he received a water bill for $129,866, for water charges at his one-bedroom Fondren apartment. He said after speaking to JXN Water, it was reduced down to just under $11,000 but was still too much for him to pay.

Aisha Carson, spokeswoman for JXN Water, says the first thing customers should do when they receive a bill they believe is in error is to contact their call center.

She says if the bill is too high, it might be a sign of a water leak. If that’s the case, the bill can be adjusted, but customers must contact JXN Water to get it fixed. Even then, getting a bill adjusted will likely take time.

“We encourage our customers to have patience with us… But I can unequivocally say, if a customer is in a leak dispute, if they have an active leak dispute on their property and they’re in communication with us about it… we’re not coming out to turn the water off,” she said.

Carson went on to say that customers could be experiencing higher bills thanks to the new meters that were put in as part of the city’s previous meter installation project.

Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin took over the project after being appointed receiver over the city’s water system in 2022. So far, about 99 percent of those meters have been installed.

”When you put a new meter in a person’s home or business, it’s kind of like fixing a lightbulb on your dashboard… Your engine check light might immediately come on. It’s not that there was nothing wrong with your engine the entire time, it’s just you’ve got a lightbulb, and you can see what’s wrong,” she said.

“That’s what it’s like getting a new meter. It’s not that your property just started leaking when we put a new meter in, it’s that it’s been leaking the whole time, and we weren’t getting an accurate reading.”

Carson said customers often panic when they receive an exorbitant bill and worry whether they’ll have their water shut off if they can’t pay.

“What I recommend customers do automatically off the top is to call our call center. It’s 24/7, so when you get that bill that’s high, or even when you notice a leak… call our call center,” she said.

“We can verify with your smart meter system [if you have a leak], and we can walk you through the billing adjustment [process].”

The first step is determining whether there’s a leak. That can be done using the meter system, which provides an hourly update on water consumption.

“If you have a water leak, that means your water consumption never goes to zero. People don’t use water 24/7… So, if it’s three in the morning and you consistently have a consumption of 10 gallons of water, we know something is probably off,” she said.

Carson says once a leak is detected, the next step is figuring out whether it’s on the city’s side of the water meter or the resident’s side.

If the leak is on the residential side of the meter, the customer will be required to make the repairs. If it’s on the city side, a JXN Water technician will be dispatched.

“Then, we’re adjusting your account,” she said. “But that takes time… It might take 30 days or the next 45 days… in order for you to get a bill that accurately reflects your billing adjustment.”

The adjustment also must be signed off on by several JXN Water officials — a safeguard put in place to ensure accounts are not tampered with.

That adjustment, in turn, typically would reduce a customer’s water bill to the six-month average before the leak began.

Carson said even after the bill is adjusted, customers might still face sticker shock, in part, because they quit paying after the bill went up. She said customers are offered a payment plan to catch up, and service won’t be interrupted if they continue making payments.

“The anxiety that they’re going to cut my water off at any moment, it shouldn’t be there,” she said. “We just encourage people, when they get that initial bill, call the call center, and understand when we say, ‘You have a leak on your property,’ it’s not an assumption.”

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