Customer Utility Refund Checks Management and Distribution Service

The City of Austin, Texas, is seeking a vendor to manage, process, and distribute customer utility refund checks. The agency needs to solve the administrative challenge of handling two types of customer refunds, which include utility deposit refunds and other utility refunds. The selected vendor will manage the entire lifecycle of these disbursements to ensure customers receive their funds efficiently. The scope of work requires the vendor to open a bank account within twenty days of being notified by the agency of a refund disbursement. The vendor must order checks containing the title, return address, and memo information provided by the agency, and prepare these checks for mailing. Each mailed check must include a one-page explanation letter provided by the agency. Additional operational duties include re-issuing and mailing checks via first-class mail when returned with a forwarding address, as well as voiding checks returned without a forwarding address. The vendor must provide and operate a toll-free telephone number to handle customer inquiries regarding their refunds. Finally, the vendor must create an account reconciliation report that separately lists all cashed, outstanding, and voided checks. Eligibility is limited to onshore organizations based in the United States. The performance of the contract work must take place onsite in Austin, Texas. The agency has not disclosed a specific budget and is currently looking for proposals to determine costs. Interested parties must submit all questions regarding this opportunity no later than May 29, 2026. The agency will evaluate proposals based on the submitted bids, though specific weighted evaluation criteria are not detailed in the initial announcement.