Sep. 13--ORANGE -- City officials have stated the Honey Stop located at 1012 W. Park Ave. is not an authorized vendor for the city and cannot collect money for water bills.

After a citizen recently had their water cut off for non-payment, the citizen complained to city officials because the bill had been paid. It was determined the citizen had paid it, but at the Honey Stop convenience store. The receipt produced by the customer revealed there was a two to three day delay before the funds could be applied to the bill. Customers paid a $2 fee to pay the bill at the store.

According to city officials, as far as they knew, they have received all the money from the store for the customer's bills.

City officials have contacted the store manager and have informed him he was not authorized to collect on behalf of the city. They suggested water bill customers pay their bill in person at city hall or at the drop box, mail the payment or by draft on their bank accounts.

The manager of the Honey Stop said he is an authorized agent through Fidelty Express. He also contends the company has a contract with the city.

"It is all legal," he said.

The store collects payments for many companies such as Sprint, Time Warner, Dish Network, Verizon, Sage Telecom and many more. All of them require a fee to be paid as well.

"We have not had any complaints about the bill payments," the manager said.

Fidelty Express confirmed they do not have a contract with the city of Orange to process the payments.

"We do process the payments but we do not have a contract with them," said Rose Bautista of Fidelty Express. "We process payments for lots of companies as well."

Debby Schamber is a reporter for the Orange Leader. She can be reached at 409-883-3571 ext. 2609 or at dschamber@orangeleader.com.

-----

To see more of The Orange Leader or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.orangeleader.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Orange Leader, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:S, NYSE:TWX, NASDAQ-NMS:DISH, NYSE:VZ,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.