Clients of Cambridge, Mass., Bill Paying Service Must Pay Own Electric Costs

Bruce Mohl , The Boston Globe (June 30, 2001 )

Citing problems with utilities, Servisense, a bill-paying service in Cambridge, said yesterday that it is temporarily suspending the handling of  electric bills for its customers.

Chris McKeown, president of the bill-bundling company, said the spike in electricity prices, coupled with bill-processing problems at utilities, made it  impractical to continue paying electric bills for customers. It will continue to  bundle telephone and Internet-access bills.

McKeown said he hopes to resume processing electric bills -- and possibly to sell electricity directly to customers -- in the fall, after the company's  software systems are changed. In the meantime, about 7,500 customers in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania will have to pay their local  utility bills directly.

Servisense had been offering electric customers a 5 percent discount. McKeown  said those customers will now get a $5 monthly credit on their phone and Internet charges.

"Believe it or not, it's cheaper to not bundle the bill and give the discount  anyway," he said. "We're not getting out of the business."