Maynilad explains error behind viral P100,000 water bill

Water concessionaire Maynilad on Thursday explained the error that resulted in a customer's bill amounting to over P100,000, which went viral on social media recently.

On Tuesday, Maynilad customer Dominic Songco posted on Facebook that he was billed P100,427.48 in July.

“Ano ‘to Maynilad!!!? Inflatable pool lang gamit namin… pero ‘yung bill niyo sa’min para kaming may resort,” Songco said on Facebook.

Interviewed on Unang Hirit on Thursday, Maynilad spokesperson Zmel Grabillo said the previous meter reading in June was incorrectly coded as 1228 instead of 2228.

“Ang kanya kasing naging meter reading noong buwan ng Pebrero, ito 'yung hindi pa nag-ECQ, ay 1988,” Grabillo said.

“Kaya lamang ang na-input na reading niya noong Hunyo, noong bumalik na ang ating pagbabasa, ay nasa 1228. Sa aking analysis po, dapat ito ay 2228, kasi mas mababa pa siya sa pinaggalingan (1988 February reading),” he added.

For the July billing, Songco’s current reading of 2232 was computed with the incorrect 1228 previous meter reading in June instead of 2228, according to Grabillo.

“Noon pong binasa sa July na 2232—na-validate din po ito ng ating consumer, pina-validate din natin sa technical team namin—nalaman natin na 'yung 2232, i-minus po natin 'yung 1228, umaabot po 'yun ng isang libong kyubiko,” he said.

“So talagang mataas ang kalalabasan po noon,” Grabillo added.

To correct the error, Grabillo said Maynilad computed Songco’s consumption by subtracting the 1988 previous reading in February from the 2232 current reading in July.

The total billing from February to July will spread out into five months, he said.

While saying this was an isolated case, Grabillo said that Maynilad received several complaints about alleged erroneous reading. But he clarified that most of them have actually consumed more water.

Grabillo noted that Maynilad has been implementing Billing Complaint Preventive Measure, where they postpone the release of the bill if the reading did not match the average consumption of the customer.

With this measure, Maynilad will conduct an investigation on the discrepancy observed before issuing the bill to the concerned customer.

But due to the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine, Maynilad temporarily stopped this measure because of reduced workforce, Grabillo said. —KBK, GMA News