Mrs. HM was a little unhappy with a certain city's water department last week. It's School-Turn Town. That's where our flip house is located. Farmer H has had the water turned on there for five or six months. They mail the bill here to the Mansion. When we get it, there is barely time to get the payment mailed back by the due date.
According to the front of the bill, service is from the 20th of one month, through the 19th of the next month. I'm pretty sure this is standard for every customer. No way is a city going to mail out water bills every day, depending on when a customer started service.
The billing date is always the 25th, except for December, when it was the 26th. We got our bill on January 11th. The due date was January 15th. Oh, and the 15th was a holiday.
Seeing as we get our mail in the afternoon, I had Farmer H take that payment to town to mail so it would go out as soon as possible, on the 12th, a Friday. Nobody gets mail within one day around here. Even though this town is adjacent to the main post office town. Like, I could park T-Hoe with his front half in School-Turn Town, and his rear in Sis-Town, which is where the main post office is located.
So... the mail is in transit on Saturday the 13th. Nothing happens on Sunday the 14th. A holiday means the water department and the mail are both closed on Monday the 15th. Making it Tuesday the 16th as the earliest our payment could arrive.
I figure public utilities are pretty reasonable. Getting payment on the 16th, when they weren't even open on the 15th, should be good enough. I think it was. As far as I know, the flip house still has water. Farmer H has gone by there to make sure no pipes froze. He has the pipes he put in insulated well, along with the already-there pipes.
Anyhoo... I am not really worried about our payment being processed. I figure it got there, and reasonable people will understand that it IS timely, due to the holiday.
HOWEVER... Farmer H got a haircut last week. He said his barber was complaining because last month, THE CITY SHUT OFF HIS WATER! His barbershop is two blocks away from city hall! Barber said he never got a bill. You know how THAT goes! If I don't get a bill, I don't remember that it's due! Barber said that his water was shut off 1 WEEK after the bill was due. He's been operating his barber shop there for 20 years.
Barber complained to city hall, and they apologized. Turned his water back on. Said they made a mistake, that they weren't supposed to disconnect his water. Because he was a BUSINESS OWNER! Pity the poor "normal" people who have this done to them. Because here's what's on the back of the bill:
You have to PAY the bill, even if you don't GET a bill! How are you supposed to know how much you owe??? Imagine the entire population of the city traipsing down to city hall on the 25th, asking how much their water bill is. That's ridiculous. Even if they spread it out and go ask over a two-week period, before the due date.
Here's the thing. Water bills around here have a history of not getting mailed on time. Hillmomba itself went through that a couple summers ago. The city said it mailed the bills as usual. They have a permit with first class postage paid. Supposedly they deliver the bills, which are little postcards, in big boxes to the post office, ready to go. The post office said the boxes of bills were not brought in, or were not brought to the proper place. I don't know if the city drops them off, or if a carrier is supposed to pick them up. Anyhoo... the main thing is, this is the second city to have issues with getting their water bills sent.
Maybe I'll ask The Pony about that process. Maybe the cities outsource this service to a printing company that is making the process difficult.
13 comments:
Everyone around here wants people to set up automatic payments of their bills. I wonder if that isn't what they are hoping you will do to ensure you have continued service. I transferred all of our household billing over to auto pay due to a substitute mail carrier losing my payments and having them reappear 2 weeks after I stopped payment on 5 checks to the tune of $150.00. (This is no offense to the Pony in any way - he seems to be one of the upstanding carriers in the post office business. We have had carriers that are more responsible but our area and the metro plus others have had their mail get lost or dumped in a ditch or returned to sender - for no reason) Lots of shenanigans going on with our postal department.) It's too bad you can't set it up so you can see what you owe online and still be able to pay in the manner you want. Ranee (MN) BTW it was -11 this morning but we have 30's plus predicted next week.
Rae,
I hate automatic payments because they are so hard to stop. I've had to deal with that issue twice, and I'm digging in my heels to avoid such problems again. The only automatic payment I have is Spotify, set up by Genius. At $11 per month now, that's not a big deal to me.
I can understand your frustration with the mail. One time I had a TUITION PAYMENT for my Master's Degree lost between Cuba, MO and Springfield, MO. Probably in some disgruntled mailman's shed, or tossed into the Big Piney River! The Pony has somewhat of a photographic memory, and I sometimes consider him "on the spectrum" for his attention to certain details. He was the best "caser" in his post office training class, so I think sorting and delivering mail comes easy to him. Much more so than interpersonal interactions.
I go online to pay my DISH bill, but don't like that much either, because WHAT IF we have a power outage, or my internet goes all wonky again.
I have a water bill for a property we own that is not occupied. (Long story). If I pay on line, there is a $3.50 service fee. On principle, I just will not do that. They don’t do auto-drafts. Small rural utility. I hate to write that little (minimum bill) check every month. So, I pay approximately 10 months in advance and always have a credit balance. When it is nearly depleted, I pay another 10 months. Perhaps you could pay 2 months in advance so you have a credit balance and just continue to pay every month. You would never be late because you have a credit balance.
By the way, if you are on Spotify, check out my grandson’s music. He publishes under the name Lame Lake. The song “Lavender” was written as a gift to me. I was there when he was born, hence “I’ve known you from the start”. “Ever since I moved up north” refers to going away to college.
Pudge450,
I don't know if they would allow payment in advance. The bill is between $30-$40 each month. We are hoping to sell this flip house by summer.
Pudge450 II,
I will definitely check that out!
I get my bills online and pay them online. Takes five minutes and I get a receipt number from my bank to note in my budget notebook.
I isn't a direct debit system because I don't like those. this is me accessing my own bank account and paying the bill.
River,
That works great until it doesn't. I do it for DISH, but their website is wonky and takes forever to log in. Just slightly more reliable than their paper billing process. I did it monthly for The Pony's and Genius's college costs, which thankfully weren't much, due to their scholarships. Anything else, I'm reluctant to pay online. Too much personal info being stolen for my liking. So far, it's "just" been from our medical records and the phone company. I figure the more financial stuff I do online, the greater the chance of a problem.
I don't log in to any company websites, I log in to my online banking account and do it all from there. Everything I make payments for is listed and I choose which one I need and then enter the amount, it asks me to confirm and then it gives me a receipt number.
River,
I don't do online banking. So not an option for me.
We do on-line banking and bill paying, but HeWho studies those payments to make sure we aren't being ripped off. Humana would send out notices by mail saying we had not paid with a warning and we could prove we paid through our bank. But, aren't they supposed to use the posted date on the envelope when you pay by mail? As long as YOU mailed it before the due date it should be credited to yor account on that date. You know, like the IRS does. I would create a scene at the water department after I called a TV station to capture my preformance. You know I do love an audience! One time when I worked in the ER I was tasked with doing an interview with a local TV station about Poison Control. School was just releasing students for the summer and they must have had a very slow news day. I was dreading it and my co-workers were all making faces through the glass window at the triage area where the camera man set up. All nervousness left me as I decided to address the idiot co-workers instead of the camera. It turned out really good and since that experience I am apt to tell people that I am not shy in front of a camera and will come off looking intelligent while they will most definitely NOT. It is a good threat and works quite well!
Kathy,
You'd THINK the postmark would count, but I don't count on it! A couple of our statements from other entities say to ALLOW TWO WEEKS FOR MAILING or something like that. As if they don't give a hoot about the postmark, you'd just better have it there on or before the due date.
That barber should have called Elliot Davis or 5 on Your Side. Whatever the news stations use now. Because all those 20 years he paid his water bill, and then they disconnect him for ONE late bill that he didn't even get!
You should have called a news station over your stove non-delivery!!!
The news we get is out of Atlanta and I doubt they would care about shenanigans in a neighboring state. I have to research the candidates for governor and our district online because they are never in the news feed. I don't vote blindly. I have a theory that most folks do and ususally vote for the incumbant unless that person has committed murder
Kathy,
"Unless that person has committed a murder." Such a randomly specific notion, heh, heh!
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