New Central Alabama Water portal causing problems for some customers

The newly launched customer portal for Central Alabama Water is causing concerns for some customers.

Board member Sheila Tyson said they began receiving calls late Tuesday from customers experiencing problems with the system.

Tyson said the transition to digital services can be particularly difficult for older customers.

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“I know everyone says we need to move with the times,” Tyson said. “A lot of people our age have limited access, and it hurts elderly people.”

Royal Divinity Ministries is working to address those challenges by offering technology training cohorts for older adults throughout the year.

Executive Director Charles Davis says it’s important to make sure older adults have the tools they need to navigate new technology.

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“This is a new frontier for our generation, and we struggle to keep up with all the different technology,” Davis said. “I couldn’t imagine doing it at 65, 70 or sometimes 80 years old.”

WVTM reached out to CAW to find out more about the portal operation and was send the statement below.

Central Alabama Water is pleased with the launch of its new customer portal and the many benefits it delivers to customer. As of noon today, more than 5,000 CAW customers have paid their bill or scheduled a payment in the new portal.

Our teams tested the new system extensively before launch. Like other companies that have implemented large software programs, there will be issues that arise and we will address them quickly.

No customers have reported to CAW that they owe a bill and are not seeing it in the system.

However, we are aware of and addressing a few minor items.

• A small percentage of customers are unable to login because their zip code did not load into the new system correctly when we transferred the data. This will be fixed by tomorrow morning and those customers should then be able to access their account.
• We also know that payment balances are not updating after a customer makes a payment. We are implementing a fix so payment balances will update the next business day. That should be complete by tomorrow morning.
• Earlier this afternoon, we were made aware that a few customers could not make a payment. We identified the issue and it was fixed.

Our CAW team and our vendor will work to identify and address any software bugs. We appreciate our customers providing feedback and are glad they’re benefiting from the new and improved portal.

Royal Divinity Ministries offers computer training to senior citizens if they want to learn how to use computers; click here to learn more.