Nearly 700 San Diegans Billed in Error Are Refunded COVID Relief Funds

San Diego is refunding the utility bills of 690 public utilities department customers who qualified for federal COVID relief funds but were billed instead, it was announced Tuesday.

According to the city, the billing error was caused by a contractor working with the city’s department of information technology and was reported to public utilities on June 4.

“We took immediate action to address this mistake, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that customers have experienced as a result of this issue,” said Jonathan Behnke, director of the city’s IT department. “Over the past year we’ve been focused on improving customer service and communication with San Diegans.

“The Department of IT is implementing processes that will ensure this type of issue never happens again,” he said.

As of Tuesday, all impacted customers have been notified and refunds are being issued for any bank deduction over $10. Customers with less than $10 deducted will receive a credit on their bill, a city statement reads.

San Diego will also refund bank overdraft charges or other fees or penalties that customers may have incurred and will seek reimbursement from the IT vendor for those costs.

The city’s public utilities department serves more than 283,000 residential and business customers and is in the process of developing an online customer self-service portal and other technology enhancements intended to better serve residents and businesses.

— City News Service