UCAN

R.A. Snyder Properties, Inc. manages more than 200 properties in San Diego County... which means we pay about the same number of City of San Diego Water Department bills every few months.

Since late May, many of our payments have not been posted by the City of SD... and we are getting "Late Payment" notices on a regular basis. We have two options: Issue a stop-payment on the first check and reissue a replacement check, or, send a new check without putting a stop-payment on the first check.

Some of our properties do not have sufficient cash to simply write another check and wait to see if both checks clear... and both checks do indeed eventually clear. If we dare to issue a stop-payment on the first check when the City tells us that check did not arrive, lo and behold the check is submitted for payment 2-3 weeks later... and our bank returns it, unpaid, per the stop-payment order. The City of SD assesses us a $25 NSF fee, despite the fact that we had already communicated to them of our predicament. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and it hurts.

I am the V.P. of our Accounting Department, and when I called today I attempting to convey the above message... but the person taking my call would only address one account at a time... which we have already done, one at a time, as each late-payment notice arrived. I asked to speak with a supervisor at the City of SD Water Department, and I was not permitted to. I had clearly explained my request, as I wrote above to you, and I gave them my name and title... yet I was not allowed into voice mail, nor was I connected to a live person. A message was taken by "Elvira" with a promise that "Elena" would call me back. "Elvira" called back after 20 minutes. According to Elena, there is no internal problem with their AR department. (To her credit, if I had an internal problem in my office I wouldn't share that information - so I don't know how reliable that statement is.)

I asked Elena if there was a solution. She gave me two options:
Hand-deliver our payments. (With more than 200 properties in San Diego County, this is not an option.)
Mail our payments to their downtown payment center. (I will certainly give this a shot.)

I am convinced that there is a problem somewhere at the City of SD Water Department... because each and every check that they claim they never got, they eventually "find"... so my question is: Where the bleep are the checks sitting all this time? By the way, we have ruled out the possibility that it is a USPS problem, as the City of SD Water Department is the only vendor who is not receiving prompt payment.

I would love for UCAN to discuss this with Jerry Sanders, the Water Department, and whoever else might clean up the problem.

Problems at my company come through me - and I solve them. Somebody at the Water Department surely can solve this one...

Thank you!