I got so tired of dealing with National Grid's phone system

[conuly]

that I thought I'd set up for online billing.

Turns out their website is even worse than their phone service, and not only did they want me to give the last four digits of my social security number but they wanted me to tell them the name of my favorite pet. THEY WANTED ME TO PICK FAVORITES.

How dare they.

(Plus, I needed a paper copy of a bill in hand to give some identification number other than the account number, I don't even know why. Surely the account number is sufficient!? Is there such a rash of bad actors maliciously out the get people by paying their gas bills for them?)

Anyway, I still haven't done that, and I think we'll just pay the next bill by damn check. In the mail. I'm strongly tempted to pay in the form of an envelope of singles after all this. My favorite pet? WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE!?

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Comments

[conuly]

ConEd for the electric, National Grid for the gas, idk why.

[marahmarie]

Huh, that's weird. Okay.

[conuly]

And their phone system is AWFUL, like, two minutes before they let you get to the make a payment menu. Which for one of the two gas bills, inexplicably*, they're not letting us pay by bank right now, they want us to only use a credit card. Which would be fine except there's a ridiculous surcharge and no. We'll have to mail a check, and at this point I want to mail a wad of singles and make them count it out themselves.

* Okay, okay, we're ever-so-slightly overdue, but in my defense the bill is under $100, so whatevs.

[marahmarie]

So (not my business/no need to answer) is the prohibition against paying by bank (I assume you mean by giving them the routing and checking account numbers involved) merely because the bill's overdue? Because if so *mentally tells them where they can shove it* that's just inane, especially when they'll still let you write a check presumably tied to the very same bank. That's just...not logical.

in my defense the bill is under $100

How's that "in your defense"? Your whole family uses it, so I wouldn't assume the burden lies solely with you to pay on it unless that's the agreement you all have together? (Also not my business, though on edit I've figured out what I think you mean by the first part is probably just what you mean.)

(I was also about to turn green with envy at a $100 bill when I remembered that's just for gas and that ConEd once had the nation's highest electric prices by off-the-chart levels. Don't know if they still do, or if it's some other power company since then.)

[conuly]

I think it is merely because the bill is overdue, and yes, it's just that inane.

I don't pay the bill, my sister pays it. I just make sure it gets paid. But since the downstairs bill only covers a tiny portion of our gas costs I'm in the habit of letting it slide until they send us a bill with a red warning on it. Our OTHER gas bill is enormous in winter, and the electric bill routinely hits $600 in the summer.

[marahmarie]

Roughly double what ours hits in winter (and yeah, I thought we had it bad, but ConEd really does suck). Our summer bills are actually the lower bills of the two high-use seasons.

[marahmarie]

Also, if you go with the singles, maybe use a padded envelope so no one between Points A and B can catch on. :)

[dewline]

Sounds like a good form of retribution there, paying in singles.

Now, if you were in Canada, you'd be doing it with our dollar coins...