CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WRIC) — Chesterfield County has apologized for a “system error” that prevented some residents from paying their taxes for roughly three hours last week.
Rebecca R. Longnaker, Chesterfield’s treasurer, said Tuesday that 54 taxpayers received an error message when trying to pay their bills from 2:47 p.m. to 5:47 p.m. on May 10.
Longnaker said an employee at the credit card vendor the county uses inadvertently locked down the system, blocking residents from making payments.
The issue was compounded after some of the residents made multiple attempts to pay their bill after initially being told their payment wasn’t processed, Longnaker said. This led to more holds on people’s cards as credit card companies processed each attempt.
In a Facebook post, the county apologized for the issue and said all errors that took place have been resolved.
“This is unacceptable and we reached out to the vendor who handles our online payments as soon as this was brought to our attention,” the county’s post reads. “Any errors that occurred during that timeframe have been fixed and bank accounts have been credited.”
Longnaker said her office will reach out to all taxpayers who were affected by the error, but that residents could contact the county if they have questions.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our citizens and if you have a question about your payment, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Treasurer’s Office at 804-748-1201,” Chesterfield’s post continued.