All Hell To B-pay Because Of Online Account

Newcastle Herald

Friday September 19, 2008

Greg Ray

THE only other time I didn't pay a power bill on time I got a polite reminder.

We note your good payment record and just want to let you know that you're late with this bill. Maybe you mislaid it or something. Anyway, we'd appreciate you sorting it out, if you can, they told me.

It turned out I'd left the bill in my coat pocket where I put it after visiting the letter box. Embarrassed, I paid up fast.

This time things were different.

For a start, I didn't get a bill.

Then I didn't get a reminder.

I got home from work after dark and found a letter on my desk. When I opened it, I was shocked to read the words "disconnection warning". In fact, the letter said the power would be turned off the very next day if I hadn't paid by the day the letter arrived.

The letter, you might gather, was anything but polite. Naturally concerned, I logged onto my bank account on the internet and paid the bill, along with a $10 late fee, which I heartily resented.

First thing next morning I rang the energy company, navigating my painstaking way through the thicket of automated questions and button-pushing demands until I was finally allowed to talk to a real person.

I mentioned that I was annoyed about the disconnection threat and told the lady that I couldn't find any trace of either a bill or a reminder. I told her I was cranky about their rude letter and even crankier that the rude letter had given me exactly no time to pay the bill before the threatened disconnection date.

"It was mailed on the 10th," she said.

"Where from, Brazil?" I asked. "Today is the 17th and I got your letter yesterday. Six days is a bit slow, even for Australia Post."

Not the power company's problem, she said.

So where did my bill get to?

You were sent two, she said, before correcting herself. "Oh, no you weren't. You are on B-Pay View. That means you don't get a bill."

The lady claimed that I must have authorised my building society to give the power company permission to stop sending bills. Not because the bill would be paid automatically I avoid those arrangements because I like to know exactly what money is going where and when.

Apparently this B-Pay View thing just means that you have to log into your bank account to find out if you have a bill to pay.

Now, I had never heard of B-Pay View and I sure hadn't ever told my building society to tell the power company to stop mailing me bills.

Everybody reckons I must have accidentally provided some authorisation but if I did then it must be an awfully easy mistake to make, since I've paid so many bills on-line that I lost count years ago.

Sure enough, when I logged onto my account I found this B-Pay View thing, complete with unpaid power bill.

I think I've managed to disable the rotten thing, but time will tell.

Up until now I've considered internet banking to be a fantastic boon.

Now I'm starting to wonder.

gray@theherald.com.au

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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