A lien for being a penny past due

Thats TAXACHUSETTES for you. I quess it is not only the state but the towns as well. Sure glad I moved out of TAXACHUSETTS.

can you believe this???its only a penny why bother and send anything out.there are other people out there owing alot more go after them before an eldery lady who worked heard for her house!!

It is an excuse to say 'these are auto generated bills by computer systems' - why can't they change the billing system program to separate the bills that have outstanding < the postage cost!!! I'm sure out of 2000 other bills generated, there will just be few bills which may have have such outstanding and those can be handled by them differently.

My colleague underpaid his car loan by a penny and after a few weeks, a collection agency called him!!!!

Really? REALLY? These people don't have the sense to think outside what they are told? Or is it that they have such feckless management that they cannot act on their own recognizance? One cent? Even CitiBank has stopped foreclosures but this burg thinks that liens are appropriate for one cent? How much were they going to spend on prosecution if she didn't pay? Either way, this attitude toward the people they serve is exactly why we've had the past eight years we've had. This department deserves the nasty reaction from the public it's getting. If they think it's unfair treatment, they can just move to Kazakhstan and live in a Soviet-style bureaucracy where they clearly belong rather than among us Americans.

Come on. This is such an absurd story. It was an automatically generated bill. Call the City Hall, point out to them that it's a penny, and I bet they waive it. Why go to the newspaper? Trying to make it sound like the City Collector did it on purpose. Absurd.

"City Collector Debora Marcoccio said the letter to Wilbur was automatically generated and sent out with 2,000 other bills for outstanding balances."

That actually makes some sense. Why not have it make even more sense by adding a line to the program's code to make the program rule out any account for which the balance is less than or equal to 42 cents and not send out bills for those accounts?

City Collector Debora Marcoccio said she would have been happy to discuss the bill, but she said the fax didn't include a phone number for her to call back. This is lame how many Eileen Wilbur in Attleboro could there be. Also out of 120,000 bills how many demand for collections were in the amount of one penny. I am sure running for office and soliciting votes Ms Marcoccio would be quite inventive to find her constituents. I also could bet the bank on the fact that the bill doesn't have a convenient number for any taxpayer with a question or problem to contact. Ms Wilbur I like your spunk give'm hell.

This is rediculous. Everything has gotten so out of hand. People sit back and blame the "computer" or "new way we do things" or use the "it's not my job" or a million other excuses to cover up lazieness and a total lack of compassion for people. It's a G.D. penny! You bet someone saw the bill before it went in the envelope and you bet people stood around and laughed not thinking it would any further. Shame on City Collector Debora Marcoccio & her team if she has one. Total cop out excuse Debora. People aren't buying it. Former city councilor Antonio Viveiros reacted with human dignity and common sense, unlike the clerk questioning his ability to pay without the bill! How stupid can people get?

I don't mean to be a jerk here, but wow these people are over reacting. How is it arrogant to send out a computer generated bill? The system says you owe $40.61 or whatever it was, you pay $40.60. The system says you haven't paid in full and sends out a new bill. I don't see the problem. More compassion? What the heck is that guy talking about? The computer doesn't know the woman is old, and it doesn't know that she bought her house via "hard work". Do you want to ditch the non-compassionate computer system and have it all done personally, and pay for that with your tax dollars? These folks need to get a grip, and they need to pay their bills in full. And if they don't, they should realize that THEY made the mistake, and tHEY should fix it.

For the first time in my life I wished I lived in Attleboro , so I could short change the city by a penny and then have them send this kind of letter to me.

Everyone should do this, then pay them by check. What a bunch of tools.

Seems to me that City Collector Debora Marcoccio COULD have used the local telephone directory to respond to Wilbur's FAX or made some type of effort to resolve this REALLY, REALLY, STUPID matter.....just because the office sends out automated collection notices is NO EXCUSE for this type of bureaucratic nonsense. Shame on Attleboro and Ms. Marcoccio.

Ridiculous... as a programmer by trade myself, the solution is fairly simple. Why not program in a minimum discrepancy buffer before automatically sending out penalty notices? Anything under 10, maybe five dollars is exempt - or a human employee must review it before it going out.

Stories like these pop up all the time. People blame "the computer system" - but it's people that make the decisions on how the computer systems function. Computers can do a lot for a business - what they can't do is refer to common sense. That's the human employees' responsibility.

Gotta love the logic of the goverment -- spend 42 cents to collect a penny. And anyone still wonders how the economy got into the toilet???

Once upon a time, matters were handled by human beings with logic, skills and intelligence; now they are handled by computers and the fools who run them but are incapable of thinking outside the box -- literally and figuratively. Everyone should pay his or her own fair share, but to send out a dunning letter for one cent? There's probably more money than that lost in the dust and detritus on the floor of city hall.

Pitiful.

Richie if you did in fact leave the state at some point you'd realize that taxes are much higher in most states then they are here. The whole taxachusetts thing is a joke. Take a look at New York for example.

This story is also a joke. The bills get computer generated in order to make things more efficient and use less staff. If you'd like to complain about your bill then call up the town. If you'd like this to not happen then perhaps we should increase the staff and your taxes to pay for this increase. Instead of complaining do something about it.

You spelled guess wrong. You also combined the words Tax and Massachusetts in two different ways. One of those has to be incorrect.

This nonsense is why people complain about government. Idiots!!!!

Fire the City Collector and never allow the programmer of this incompetent software to do government work again.

Save us from such closed minded and stubborn people. I am sure that these people have NEVER had an original thought in their lives.

absurd!

Remember the adage:
"To err is human. To screw up miserably requires a computer.

I am asking everyone who reads this to scotch tape a penny to a card and mail it to the
water department
city of attleboro
77 park st
attleboro, ma 02703

can you believe this, threaten to put a lien on her house over a 1 penny past due balance, it cost them more than that for the stamp!
thanks

Patrick

She should ask for more! Even with the highest taxes and most wasteful state govenment in the USA, the people of Mass said "No" on Question 1 - we really DO want MORE taxes! With Ques. 1 no longer hanging over the legislatures' head, we will surely get much, much more. Didn't the reps say that they would have to double all the tolls if Ques. 1 passed? And what did they do the week after it did NOT pass, propose to double all the tolls. YES give us more taxes! and waste! We love it. We're taxachusetttts!

It angers her? She should have asked for more! Eventhough we have one of the highest total taxes and the most waste of all the states, the people of Mass said "No" to Question 1 (i.e., YES to taxes!). And with this no longer hanging over their heads the legislature we will surely tax us much, much, much more. Hey, didn't they say that the tolls would be doubled if Question 1 passed? So.. what happened the week after it didn't pass? They proposed to double all the tolls! Thanks! Please give us higher taxes because we said we love them. Write to your legislatures and tell then to raise taxes, please.

Wow, I am so sick of seeing this story everywhere! I think it was on Channels 4,5, and 7 tonight. It's so obvious that it was just a computer-generated bill form, and that the city was never going to seize her house over a penny. Really, I think the point of the story was just to get the viewer to shake their head in righteous indignation over this "outrage". Stupid, just stupid.

I agree with Blong in comment 5. ALL comapnies have computer generated filing. A human probably never even saw that notice of Lien, or the amount the lady owed. Just call and get it taken care of. It's a penny lost or gained.... 1/200th of a gallon of gas. She's the one that didn't pay the proper amount.

I hope Richie moved out of Massachusetts before we had MCAS
exams. Otherwise, we'd still be paying for him to take retests.
On another note, I wonder if all the braying herd that has replied to this story paused to reflect that they were sending their e mails by computer, not snail mail. Life moves on folk, learn to live with it.

See #7 by RooLoo. If the collector's statement that there was no phone number on the fax is accurate, then it's notable that within ten seconds on the internet I had what appears to be Mrs. Wilbur's listed number.

Changing the program to not send out a bill for amounts less then what it cost to send the bill is not a big deal, it is bad or lazy programing not to.
My Aunt had a similar incident years ago, after that she would over pay her bill by less than a nickle and then demand a refund. It drove the city collectors nuts but there was nothing they could do about it. Maybe more people in this city should do the same.