When pushed on whether the council would notify the affected ratepayers and apologise, the spokesman said the council planned to do so but that the first priority was to correct the error.
Te Atatu South resident Lance Adams said he had two direct-debit withdrawals from his ANZ account on Thursday of about $90 each, one under the name of Auckland Council and the other Waitakere City Council.
"I've got a big mortgage and $90 is a lot of money to me. That's my gas bill," Mr Adams said.
He said he went to the council's Henderson office on Friday and was told by an officer the double payment was a computer error that had happened to about 1800 people.
"I asked if they planned advising people and was told no. The council had no intention of letting people know. It was terrible customer service," Mr Adams said.
The council offers a weekly and fortnightly direct debit for people to pay rates. Otherwise it sends out quarterly bills, which if not paid on time incur a 10 per cent penalty.
An additional 10 per cent penalty is added on unpaid rates and penalties at the end of each rating year on July 1. A further 10 per cent penalty will apply to amounts still unpaid six months after that date.
The next instalment date for quarterly rates is November 26.
The council is spending hundreds of millions of dollars over several years building new computer systems for the Super City.
Overall, the merging of the region's councils has gone smoothly, but there has been the odd glitch.
Auckland councillor Cameron Brewer said charging ratepayers twice was one way to generate rates revenue.
"But seriously, I suspect more issues around the invoicing of rates are ahead of us with the ongoing $100 million development of council's New Core computer system. Replacing all the old council computer systems like Waitakere City Council's will no doubt see a lot more pain before any gain, so ratepayers need to brace themselves for more mix-ups and no doubt budget blowouts."
Rates demand
• 1638 ratepayers were double-charged for their rates last week.
• $93,367 was incorrectly deducted from bank accounts.
• People making weekly and fortnightly direct-debit rate payments in West Auckland were affected.
• The error was immediately picked up and corrected.
• Any bank charges in relation to the error will be reimbursed.
