We got two of our seven monthly electric bills on Thursday. They came in the same envelope, as usual, and were for Farmer H's storage unit stores. We have never (knock on Farmer H's wooden head) had any problem with these two bills. They arrive on time, and the checks are received on time. In this case, we're getting them on April 10, and they're due on April 30. That's a reasonable 20 days for mail delivery and processing.
That's how this envelope arrived. Torn and stained. Yet still, it got here with plenty of time for the payment to be returned by the due date.
I presume the edge of the envelope's flap was not sealed completely, and stuck up, and got caught in a sorting machine. Stuff happens. Yet still, the bill(s) arrived with plenty of time to return payment.
If this can happen, and this envelope arrive in a timely manner, then why can't our electric bills for the three flip houses get here on time??? Same address. Same electric company. Same type of envelope. Even since the electric company started to put all three bills in a BIG WHITE 9 x 11 ENVELOPE, it has come on time once or twice.
I don't get it. Pure mockery, it seems.
8 comments:
I know exactly what my mum would do in this situation. She'd be at their office and demanding to know why or why not and not leaving until she got things sorted to her satisfaction. She wouldn't even care if people were lined up behind her waiting to be seen to. She has an issue, and she's getting it fixed. I'm a little bit like that, but it depends on the issue. I wish I could send her to you and get it sorted, but heaven (or not-heaven) doesn't allow people to come back.
River,
Aww... I do need someone like that! I wouldn't even know which place to go for this issue. The electric company probably doesn't let people in, heh, heh, due to so many complaints. Farmer H can rarely get a real person on the phone. That's a St. Louis office. There's not a local office. The bills go to a post office box. I don't know where the payments are processed. Not sure where they get mailed out from.
Email the Head Office, tell them you are thinking of changing suppliers if they don't fix the problem. That might work, because they don't want your money going elsewhere.
Every month when I receive the electric and utility bills (billed on the same invoice by our city - I know, weird), I am amazed that the bills for three addresses (all mailed to my home address) are received in separate envelops and include a return envelope for payment. However, ALL OF THESE ARE AUTO-DRAFTED and don’t require return envelopes. So they pay postage for three envelopes and send three envelopes that immediately go in the trash.
Multiply that inefficiency times all f their customers like me….well, you get it.
I am not a computer wiz; but, even I know it is simple to write a batch file that says to run all of the bills not auto-paid and another batch file for those that are auto-paid. Then, include return envelopes as necessary.
River,
They are the only companies offering that service here! We can't go without electric, and the Bargain House can't go without gas.
It's not like the time I called the trash company to stop service, and was told they had "mistakenly" been overcharging us for years, and offered to reduce their fee going forward. Nope! I had already contracted another company for 1/3 the price. Which was of course bought up by the overchargers a year later, putting us back with that service!
Pudge450,
I am a technology simpleton, but as you say, it seems like there should be a way to prevent such waste and costs!
I had that same problem with Ameren when we had the kampground. I had 8 meters and they would send them all separately. They used postcards, I would assume to save money on postage. They could have batched them and put all 8 in an envelope and saved a lot more. I called and asked about it once when I had to run down a bill that was lost in the mail. I was told it was too much trouble, that "the computer" does it. I explained that "the computer" does what you tell it to do through programming. She acted like I was the one who didn't have the ability to think. I gave up.
Kathy,
I remember the postcards. Now, each bill is two pages of 8.5 x 11 THICK paper! So thick, you can barely crease the perforated line to tear off the stub to mail back. The flip bills that come all three in the big envelope are thinner paper. WHY? Why must the regular bills be so thick? They may not get any cheaper postage, but they would be killing fewer trees with thinner paper.
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