Oops, wrong Stratford: P.E.I. town mistaken for the Ontario version in water bill mixup

Stratford, Ont., may be the birthplace of Justin Bieber and home of the famous Shakespearean festival, but Stratford, P.E.I., can at least boast lower water rates.

Residents of a Stratford, P.E.I., apartment complex discovered this recently when they were mistakenly charged the higher rate applied to residents of the other Stratford.

Bob Gray, one of the 66 tenants affected, said he was surprised to see his water bill for July come in at $44.65, about $15 higher than normal.

"I said, 'That's a lot of showers I don't know if that's right.'"

He spoke with a fellow tenant who had noticed the same thing, and discovered it was because their Ontario-based metering company had charged the tenants what people in Stratford, Ont., would have paid for the same amount of water.

When Gray called Wyse Meter's customer service, the companyhad already adjusted the bill to its proper amount, $30.56.

Immediately corrected error

Wyse Meter sent notices to the tenants apologizing for the "human error" and assured them they were "taking steps to improve our processes to ensure this does not happen again."

In an email to CBCNews, Wyse Meter said the faulty bills were issued on Aug. 26 for the 30-day cycle in July. The company said it noticed it had applied the rate for the wrong Stratford two days later and immediately corrected it.

"We can confirm that the error impacted this billing cycle only. No other buildings were impacted," the email said.

Gray said he could understand how the mistake could happen, even though the municipalities are almost 2,000 kilometres apart.

"There was a glitch. It's like the Hilroy Scribbler when they leave P.E.I. off the map. So if you're in Ontario and you see Stratford, even the computer says, 'Oh my goodness, must be Stratford, Ontario, instead of Stratford, P.E.I.'

Nonetheless, Graysaid he and other tenants will be checking their water bills more closely in the next few months.

"I guess their water is more expensive. I wouldn't have thought that there would be such a difference, but who knew?"