Sunday, May 9, 2021

If the USPS Lets You Down, Call AT&T

If it's not one thing it's another. Friday night around 3:00 a.m. I was balancing my checkbook. Yes. I'm that old. I record my expenditures, and call the bank's automated number to check them off. I do this at least every two weeks. Hick is notorious for using the debit card and not give me receipts.
 
Doop de dope da doo, doo! Doop de dope da doo, doo!
 
Oh, excuse me. I was just singing the intro (at 19 seconds) of Prince's DELIRIOUS. And thinking NOTORIOUS.

Anyhoo... there's a check that Hick has been wanting me to check on, a payment for a business venture he's pursing. IT cleared on May 5. But in looking up when I'd written and mailed it (April 21), I noticed that my AT&T check had not been processed.
 
Welp! That's a fine kettle of fish. It's due on May 11th. You'd think 20 days would be enough time to get it there. But then again, the USPS just hired my little Pony to deliver mail. My phone bill is only going to Illinois, by cracky! That's a neighboring state! I could probably walk it there in 20 days.
 
Oh my gosh! There is so much info I want to weave into this rich tapestry of my bill-paying life!

Anyhoo... I figured I should probably call, and see if I could pay by phone, and then get a credit if the original check ever arrives. I don't have an online account, and don't want automatic billing.

I called the number listed on the statement, and got a recording asking what I wanted, and then a message that all reps were busy, and my call should be answered within one minute. It was. I had the clearest connection EVER! My rep, Shonda, gave me her name several times over the course of our 15-minute conversation. She answered my questions, but said she was working from home, and didn't have the means of taking a payment by phone.

Shonda must have been using AT&T service, on a landline. I could understand her urban accent loud and clear, as she could comprehend my rural twang. No "can you hear me now" issues at all, like when I call other entities for missing bill/payment issues, when they must be using Walmart Tracphones to do business. I swear, for a conscientious never-past-due bill-payer, I've never had so many problems receiving and sending statements as I have in the past year!

Shonda tried to convince me to switch my cell service to AT&T. And internet. And sell me Direct TV. I can't fault her for that. I'm sure it's their policy. She made it conversational, almost as if she was not reading from a script. She couldn't believe I didn't want Direct TV. 
 
"What to you use for TV? Why don't you want Direct TV?" 
 
Not confrontational. All about helping me! I didn't make her go through the whole spiel. Just said it wasn't convenient for me to switch at this time. Heck, I have stock in AT&T. My dad retired from AT&T. It's not like I'm boycotting them!

Anyhoo... Shonda was conversing while waiting for access to one of her cronies who would call to take my payment information. She also informed me that there would be a $5 fee.  
 
"I bring this up because we have elderly people on fixed incomes who can't afford that charge. It will be on your next bill. It won't apply if you pay online."

What in the NOT-HEAVEN? It's a PHONE COMPANY, for cryin' out loud, wanting to CHARGE people to USE A PHONE to make a payment on their PHONE BILL! I'm pretty sure that's some twisted kind of irony.

Anyhoo... Shonda got my information through, and said that IVY would be calling me to take my payment information.

Ivy must have been swamped with rich old people needing to pay their bill by phone. I waited 45 minutes. I played Candy Crush Saga until I ran out of lives. Then I looked up the AT&T online payment info. 

IT WAS SO FREAKIN' EASY!

No logging in. Just put in the phone number, zip code, and your card number! I was done in less than a minute! Easy peasy! 

I took the phone with me into the master bathroom for my shower. You may remember that it has a phone but no ringer. Of course I had just gotten off the throne and flushed, when the phone rang. I tried to wait two rings, and move to the other end of the bathroom.

"Hello? HELLO?"

"Oh. Mrs. Thevictorian... I am so sorry! I didn't mean to call you back... I was going to hang up." [Ivy sounded like a pharmaceutical rep, the type who may have had a liaison with Dr. Doug Ross in the early seasons of ER.]

"You didn't call me, except for now. Anyway, I just made payment online. It was easy!"

"Oh. I looked at your account, and saw that it was current. So I am sorry for calling."

"No! THANK YOU for calling! Now I know it's taken care of. Shonda answered my questions about the payment not being received, and getting a future credit. So I went ahead and paid."

"All right. You enjoy the rest of your day."

"And you too."

Excellent customer service. So rare these days. Jake With State Farm... watch your back!

13 comments:

  1. I'm old school too. My guy willgo rioght tot he computer in the morning to check his bank statement instead of listening to breaking news with me. Oh well, each to his own.

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    1. I can't check every day. That would drive me crazy. Crazy-ER! It's enough to discover every couple weeks that Hick has been holding out on me. Of course he's always "just forgot" and can produce the receipts if prodded.

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  2. My husband is a combo of both. He is a talk to a rep, while I chat online. But he has our bills on auto pay.

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    1. I refuse to let auto pay hold me hostage. We had it twice, and wanted to switch to a different TV service, and spent more than an hour on the phone JUSTIFYING to a TV service rep why she should let us close our account and stop the auto pay.

      Another time, an insurance company had been bought out by another company, and we couldn't find contact info to tell them we were stopping their service. Took forever, and the bank employees finally traced them through the payment system and gave us the contact info. Hard to believe that WE put the auto pay on our bank account, but had to have permission from the entity we were paying to STOP the monthly payments. Like they could make us keep their service forever!

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  3. I've had mail that I knew was being sent to me from our bank that I should have gotten the next day or 2 days at the most but took a week. Why? It went to Minneapolis first. Yes, I live in Minnesota but I no longer live in a suburb. Small town over 60 miles north of Minneapolis, but the bank mail all goes to Minneapolis post office from here. Also, pay public utilities bill and they must not do billing very often because it doesn't get cashed until 13 days or more after being sent. (literally located a few blocks from our home and could bring in and save a stamp but the people are just too chatty and it takes forever to get out of there) And don't get me started on the Natural Gas bill. It takes almost another month before the billing goes through. It will be the last outstanding check in my account almost every month. Drives me crazy. And good customer service is priceless. I always comment on how nice the lady at our local DQ sounds. My husband told me she can hear me and I said so what? I said she sounded like a nice lady and does her job really well and efficient. Never ever asks to repeat yourself like Micky D's. I don't think we have ever ordered at Micky D's and not had to repeat part of the order and no - no special order. Right off the menu - easy peasy, convenient for us but I guess not for the people taking the order. Geez. I love good customer service, regardless if order taking or problem solving on the phone. It's becoming a rare thing, unfortunately. Ranee (MN)

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    1. We had terrible trouble with The Pony's mail getting to OU. Took over two weeks, on a regular basis. Looking into it, I found out that people in Oklahoma, near the Joplin area, had a terrible time as well. Said it would take two weeks for their bill to go from the post office to their utility company down the street.

      Our local post office (the dead-mouse-smelling post office) found several trays of city water bills (heh, heh, dodged that bullet, we have a well) over a month past due, because they'd never been sent out.

      Funny how my credit card payment clears within three days of mailing, but the electric bill takes two weeks.

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  4. I'm confused, they charge $5 to pay the bill. That's worse than Wells Fargo charging $2 to take my own cash out of an ATM that is not theirs. And they had your original check, did it still cost $5? I'd object they would wave that fee if you said you were going to switch...especially as you are a stock holder!

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    1. Yeah! They're a PHONE COMPANY! What kind of business would they have if nobody ever used their phone to pay a bill??? That service should be provided in the fee you pay for having their phone service every month!

      They don't have my original check YET. IF it shows up, they'll still cash it, I'm sure. I should charge THEM $5 for taking double-payment from me!

      Heh, heh! I don't think they were all that impressed with me being a stockholder. I'd threaten to switch, but then they might really do it, and I'd have to get used to something new. Besides, the loss of my one customership might affect my stocks!

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  5. You made an online payment? A very easy online payment? Something you now know you can do and do it easily so you don't have to waste time writing checks, sending checks, hoping the checks get there in time. Holey Moley I'm excited! All you need now id for Hick to suddenly grow a conscience and present you with receipts every time he uses the debit card. Which you can then check off against your bank statement, which you can also receive online.

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    1. You overestimate me! I've never seen such an easy screen to make a payment! The DISH online payment takes at least 30 minutes, trying to get the site to load, and getting the password rejected three times. I think I need to hold my tongue a certain way for it to go through. Then I have to get to the right screen to enter my payment. It's a nightmare...

      Don't get THAT excited! I still prefer checks. My internet is not all that dependable. WAIT! Won't I mess up my monitor (heh, heh)if I check off my bank statement online? I prefer to listen to the transactions on the automated line, pen poised over my checkbook register.

      Sheesh! Next thing you'll try is getting me to pay my bills using Google Glasses, sending money using winks and side-eyes! I'd rather trade a chicken and some homemade Chex Mix for their services.

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    2. I don't pay bills to a direct website, I pay them via my online banking account. Each company has its own bill paying number, it's written somewhere on the account, so I open up my banking website, click on the "payments and transfers" link, select the bill number for the account I'm paying, enter the correct amount in the little box, then click on pay now. A new window pops up with the details asking me to confirm the amount, I click on "confirm" and get another window with a receipt number which I then enter into my budget exercise book where I keep track of incoming and outgoing funds. The whole thing takes only a few minutes. When I first open my banking site I see my balance right there, so I can see right away if it is correctly matching what I have written in my notebook.

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    3. P.S, bank statements get downloaded, so I can save that file to open later and peruse it at my leisure.

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    4. Oh my gosh! I feel dizzy with apprehension. Technology is not my friend! I am a technology simpleton.

      Even IF I could adapt to using online banking, WHAT IF MY INTERNET GOES DOWN FOR A WEEK? It has happened before with power outages and a faulty satellite dish. At least then I had my mom's house to go use her computer. Don't even think I am capable of sitting down in a business to use their wifi!

      And worse, if something happened to me, HOW WOULD HICK PAY THE BILLS?

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