More than 200 Scranton taxpayers may have gotten a letter from a debt collection company that they did not deserve. The notices are for unpaid garbage fees that may have actually been paid. According to officials, the garbage bill itself for 2009 could be to blame for more than 200 collection notices sent to city taxpayers in error last week.
They think the issue might be the way the bills were folded into the envelopes. The bill comes with a perforated line above a bar code that identifies the customer, but because of a crease made by the folding of the envelope, a second line under the bar code was formed, which caused people to pull the bill off without the bar code.
Bills that didn’t have a bar code would cause a bank to not register the payment. The mailing house that Scranton hired to stuff the envelopes was fingered. If the bill was mailed to the bank, it would be the pay stub in their payment that goes straight into a lock box. The stubs are then scanned and the bar code is read. After that the bank sends the town a list of those who had come through based on the bar code readings.