Add Cart

Every two months I receive a utility bill from the City. It’s itemized: refuse, sewer, water, storm (storm water disposal), and something called “add cart”. I just look at the bill and pay it. I never knew what “add cart” meant, but it’s always $4.20. I figured it’s a fee that the City adds. Like my cell phone bill. I have a monthly charge, a tiered overage charge, a Federal Universal Service Assess Non-LD surcharge, a Virginia State Gross Receipts surcharge, a Virginia State Special Revenue surcharge, an Administrative charge, a Regulatory charge, a Virginia State 911 Tax, and a Virginia State Sales Tax. So when I see “Add Cart: $4.20”, I just pay it.

Today I got curious about it and called the Utility Department. They told me I was being billed for an additional trash can. I found out they’ve been billing me for two trash cans since 2008.

I’ve never had more than one trash can. The lady at the Utility Department told me that the number of trash cans at my house has been verified every six months. I told her that the person or persons who have been verifying two cans every six months for three years might not be doing their job. After a little wrangling, the lady said she would remove the $4.20 charge from this month’s bill and future bills.

“What about all the previous charges going back to 2008?” I asked her.

She said she couldn’t refund those charges because I had never complained about them. Seriously, that’s what she said.

I changed out of my shorts and t-shirt into more serious looking clothing, put on my Naval Special Warfare Command ball cap and drove to City Hall. I went to the Utility billing office so I could talk to the lady.

I was nice, of course. I asked her under what theory of law can the City make a mistake and overcharge someone and then get to keep the money because the person being overcharged doesn’t immediately spot the error. After all, if the bank makes a mistake and puts too much money into your account, you can’t keep the money. If the government accidentally makes your tax refund check too large, you can’t keep the money. How does the City make a mistake and call it my fault because I didn’t tell them about it?

I left City Hall with all the erroneous charges credited to my bill: one small victory for a taxpayer at City Hall.