HOLT, Fla., Feb. 5, 2023—More than 600 Holt Water customers didn’t receive their February bills due to a snafu at the Pensacola post office’s main processing plant.

The bills, after being sent to the Pensacola office for processing, were slapped with a yellow sticker that directed them to be returned to sender, “not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward.”

The February bills had the same addresses in the same format as the January bills.

“There had to be 600 bills in there. Just a handful of lucky people got their water bills,” said Donna Ash, Holt Water Works manager. “This will wind up being a costly mistake for us.”

Ash called the Pensacola office looking for answers, but no one returned her calls.

It took the Holt Water and post office managers about 45 minutes to peel every “return to sender” sticker off the bills and re-sort them.

Post office box holders should see their bills this evening, according to Ash. Other Holt customers may receive theirs in the next day or so.

Unfortunately, some of the bills will travel back to Pensacola for reprocessing before they’re sent to the Baker office for letter carriers to distribute.

As a result of the error, the water office has been swamped with phone calls from customers looking for their monthly bills.

Because the phone is ringing off the hook, customers may find it frustrating when their calls go unanswered.

“The easiest way to find out what your water bill is, is to send an email to us and I will get back to every email,” Ash said. “It’s a big cluster.”

Send bill inquiries to holtwater@embarqmail.com.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience,” she said.