On March 25th I paid several bills online out of my checking account, including the electric power bill which was due by April 1st. I got a confirmation number for that payment which I wrote down.
Today (April 7th) I was balancing my checkbook and discovered that the power company payment had never cleared. I went online to my power company account and it was showing as past due.
I called the power company's customer service and found out that my confirmation number is useless. The woman didn't even want it. All she would do was take my payment over the phone.
I asked how am I supposed to know if any of my future payments go through, given that apparently the confirmation number means nothing? She said I can go online to my account the next day and see if it still shows a balance. Why should I have to do this ??
And to top it off, she kept accusing me of yelling. I was
not yelling. I live in an apartment building with thin walls and I don't want my neighbors knowing my business. I was speaking firmly but politely, not using any foul language or anything like that.
So now I guess every month I will have to log into my power company account TWICE - once to pay my bill, and a second time a couple days later to make sure the payment actually went through.
