‘What choice do I have?’: KC family may lose water service over failed online payments
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A single mom in Waldo is facing a $700 bill and a potential water shutoff after KC Water informed her this week of an outstanding balance from failed online payments during the last three months of 2022.
It’s the first time Patty Jo Eby has heard of these months’ bills being unpaid. According to past water bills she shared with The Star, Eby successfully paid a balance of around $573 last December, and had no outstanding balance due each month of 2023 so far.
But when her December 2023 bill arrived on Thursday, the $573 charge had reappeared — and her account was marked as delinquent. Combined with her roughly $120 charge for this month’s water, Eby owed a total of $700 by Thursday, Jan. 11: just two weeks away.
“I was on the phone with them for an extremely long time. And when I asked about a payment arrangement, I was told no, because of the age of the past due amount, they won’t (allow it),” she said.
When reached for comment, city spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt said Friday that all KC Water customers are eligible for payment plans. She added that once a water account becomes delinquent, the department can shut off water service after 20 days.
After The Star reached out on Eby’s behalf, a KC Water supervisor called Eby Friday and claimed that she had been “misinformed.” The supervisor set up a payment plan for her overdue balance — but couldn’t guarantee that her water won’t be disconnected until she pays the full balance off over the coming months.
Eby now has until Jan. 11 to pay a $210 deposit towards her debt, as well as around $120 for this month’s water use in her home. As a single mother of two teenagers, she said this amount still poses a financial burden — but she feels she has no choice but to pay.
“What choice do I have? People have no recourse. You can’t boycott the water company, because they have us on a leash,” she said. “We have to have water. And so you’re just in a situation where you’re forced to do whatever they demand.”
‘We know that it’s happened to other customers’
Following her call to KC Water on Thursday, Eby shared her experience in a Waldo neighborhood Facebook group. Her post quickly amassed dozens of comments from neighbors with advice and similar stories about their challenges making payments to KC Water.
Jennifer, a neighbor who asked to be identified in this piece only by her first name to protect her privacy, shared her own struggles making automatic payments in response to Eby’s Facebook post.
“Three times this year I made a payment and then noticed my bank account no longer showed that money was taken out,” she wrote. She was then threatened with late fees for the payments that didn’t go through — despite the department issuing confirmation numbers for the failed transactions.
A customer support page on KC Water’s website states that bill payments made online and over the phone will be issued confirmation numbers — but that these numbers don’t actually confirm that a payment was made successfully.
“This confirmation number is for referencing purposes only and is not confirmation that the payment was successfully collected,” the website states.
Jennifer eventually got her payment issues resolved by contacting KC Water over the phone. But her experience is far from unique — the supervisor who contacted Eby on Friday indicated that the problem affects many water customers.
“She’s like, ‘Well, I have your account pulled up here and it looks like there was an error. And this is something that we are aware of, we know that it’s happened to other customers,’” Eby recalled. “She starts telling me how their call center is getting all kinds of calls and (that) they know about the problem.”
In an email to The Star, Honeycutt denied being aware of a problem in which bill payments are not processed, despite producing a confirmation number.
“Auto payments are processed daily,” she wrote. “If it is a holiday, (the payment) is processed (on the) next business day… During holidays when banks are open and KC Water is closed, there will be a delay in processing payment files by one or two business days.”
‘I feel like I’m barely scraping by’
Eby’s teenagers have birthdays coming up in January. Since the water bill arrived, she has been worrying about affording their birthday celebrations along with buying food and making other household payments. But she says her children have stepped up to help.
“I have some really amazing kids, and they got their first jobs this year. They sent me (the) money to help pay for the bills,” she said. “But it sucks that my kids, who use that money for things that they need that I can’t afford, are having to help me pay the bill.”
On the advice of her neighbors, Eby has filed complaints with 311 and the state Attorney General’s Office about KC Water, as well as leaving a message with the mayor’s office. She expressed hope that enough customers speaking out may lead to changes in the department or action from local officials.
“This is a public service that is supposed to be helping the citizens of Kansas City and providing us with what we need,” she said. “To know that this is their way of doing business? This is how they treat everyone? It infuriates me.”
Have you had a similar challenge making payments to KC Water? Do you have more questions about utilities in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 5:01 PM.
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