THOMASVILLE — City of Thomasville utilities customers having trouble with submitting a payment should not despair, city officials said.

The city switched to a new online portal to take utilities payments. But some customers, having no success in submitting their payments online, have lodged complaints. 

“I’ve been getting a lot of calls about that,” Council member Todd Mobley said.

Executive director of Marketing and Customer Service Sheryl Sealy said they tried to inform the customers as best they could that with the new payment portal, customers had to re-register their account.

For those who pay in person or have automatic withdrawal from their accounts, the system has not had any problems, Sealy said.

“If you go into the payment portal each month and pay, that’s where you have to re-register,” she said.

For those customers who had the online portal bookmarked on their computers, that bookmark no longer works, she said. Neither does the app for payments.

The city is trying to get the app removed from the various app stores.

“That’s a lot harder than you think,” Sealy said.

Also, customers cannot re-register until they get their new account number on their June bill. 

“A lot of customers were relying on their old information instead of their new information,” Sealy said. “We are not doing disconnections for this very reason right now. We know customers have had a little bit of a challenge paying their bill with us. We knew it would be a process. Eventually, it will get a little bit better.”

Sealy said customers with questions can call 227-7001 and city representatives will take them through the process of re-registering. 

“The good news is the portal will give you the ability to where you can start automatic payment or schedule it,” Sealy said. “It’s going to take us some time to work out the kinks. It’ll be worth it.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.