Glitches Irk Online Bill Payers
from the still-working-out-the-kinks dept
I’ve been using the online bill paying service from my bank for a while now – and for the most part, it’s been great. However, the one time that a check got lost, it was something of a pain to work out the problem. Apparently, lots of people are discovering glitches in online bill pay systems. The banks want people to use them because studies have shown that people who use online bill pay stay with that bank longer. However, people have experienced problems with checks not arriving (or having the receiver of the check throw it out thinking it’s junk mail) or problems with changing addresses. The real issue seems to be how well the banks respond to these problems when they occur. If the bank responds well, and solves the issue, people are happy. However, it seems that many banks take a “too bad” attitude when things get screwed up with online banking.
Comments on “Glitches Irk Online Bill Payers”
online banking
I’ve been using the US Post Office for 4-5 years (it think…). The USPS offered the service long before my bank did. I’ve never had a problem with them. If never missed a payment either.
Are we talking about the same thing?
My bank (Washington Mutual) offers an electronic bill paying service where they transfer funds automatically or one-time to the account of various approved payees, like the phone company (SBC), electric company (PG&E), or cable company (AT&T Broadband). Don’t know what they do for non-approved vendors. Is the electronic bill paying this article refers to the same as what my bank is offering?
There was a problem with people paying their cable bill electronically and AT&T Broadband not marking the account properly for a while. That generated a _lot_ of customer complaints to AT&T and the local city council cable liaison. AT&T demanded proof of payment and wouldn’t accept Washington Mutual’s statements of payments made–only a cancled check was acceptable. Made me glad I kept my account to paper checks only and I’ll leave the bank in a New York minute if they discontinue returning paper checks.