The incorrect bills, which were mailed in October, charge homeowners for trash service they never received. Others leave off the line-item charge for solid-waste collection.

About 23,000 homeowners were supposed to see a new line-item charge of $81.25 for garbage service that began in August.. The latest number of incorrect bills - between 2,000 and 3,000, tax officials report - is more than double the original estimates of wrongly charged customers.

"People should not be charged for services they do not receive," City Administrator George Kolb said. "We're going to do everything we can to fix it."

Tax officials have steadily been coping with the problem for nearly eight weeks, leading up to today's deadline to pay property taxes.

WHAT TO DO If you have questions about the solid-waste collection charge on your property tax bill, call the Department of Public Works at 796-5040. If you feel you were charged in error, send a letter explaining the problem and a copy of your property tax bill to the Department of Public Works at: Augusta Public Works and Engineering, 1815 Marvin Griffin Road, Augusta, GA 30906, or fax copies to 796-5045.

Corrected bills were supposed to be mailed out in early November, but some oversights still exist, officials report.

Customers who have been incorrectly charged are being asked to send a letter explaining the problem and a copy of their bill to the city's Department of Public Works, which will alert the tax commissioner's office to the error.

Public works reports that the main problems seem to be in neighborhoods that are along the fringe of service areas.

"We're having a problem trying to match up what's actually happening as opposed to what should be happening," Mr. Kolb said.

Anyone who has paid the solid-waste charge in error will be refunded by the tax commissioner's office.

Customers should not, however, assume that their tax bill is incorrect and then not pay the fee, said Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner North Williamson.

"If, for some reason, (the solid-waste fee) is not supposed to get canceled, then that is going to end up being a delinquent account, and it could possibly affect their credit," Mr. Williamson said. "The thing we're looking for is to try to make sure those things don't happen, and to try to work as best we can with public works."

The tax commissioner's office is able to cancel a solid-waste fee only if it is OK'd by public works, in part because some customers have tried to refuse the mandatory collection service.

Reach Heidi Coryell Williams at (706) 823-3215.