They Don't Want My Money

Yesterday was the day to pay bills and although it should be a straight forward thing (if you have the necessary funds of course), it wasn't. We live in a digital era, bills are paid online for decades now and all it takes is a few clicks to fulfill your contractual obligations with your service providers. In theory I might add, as reality shows otherwise.

I'm managing my dad's bills too, to save him from the headaches of keeping a record of all the accounts and passwords one has to have, as well as to keep him safe, because at his age, paying attention to every single detail and avoid being scammed is getting difficult. He's pretty advanced digitally, compared to people his age, he also likes to show off with what he knows (don't ask me how much work goes into teaching him all the new things) but he has his limits and I have to step in where it is needed. Bills fall in this category.

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This month the gas company issued him a bill of (fasten your seat belt) 0.02 Romanian lei, or RON. To help you understand how much this amount is, converted to €, it means 0.004€. Two decades ago or so, I'd have said it's not worth the paper it is printed on, but it's 2026, I opted for digital billing ages ago as paper billing is only for the digital illiterates (no offense intended). Regardless of billing form, it's a debt towards the service provider and has to be paid. Yesterday I wanted to, it's just that the app notified me that I can't pay it online, as the minimum amount payable digitally is 0.2 lei, which is 10 times more than the amount I had to pay.

The most obvious solution was to go back and select another option, which is to transfer more, a payment in advance that can be used when next month's bill is issued. No brainer. This is what my economist mind thought immediately, but it turned out that I'm the only one who thinks that, as there was no such option available at this service provider. I think shocking doesn't even begin to describe how it felt to find out there's no viable digital option left in this case at the moment.

The other option is, to actually go to the headquarter of the company and pay it there, if it's possible, but there's a chance you meet some ATMs there too, which usually handle payments. The problem is, the office is 7 or 8km from where I live and a visit there costs me both time and a lot more money that I owe them.

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After some thinking, I decided to leave it till the next bill will be issued, which is not going to be pennies for sure as there will be consumption this month. A 14 day warning notice of termination of services is going to be issued for this, but if I pay right away, there will be no problems and can avoid having my contract terminated.

What I still don't understand is what's the logic behind it? I understand that these amounts are billed automatically, regardless of the amount, but why is there no option to pay it?

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Transferring small amounts may be costy for them, I know, but why you can't transfer money in advance, beats me. From an accounting point of view, it's not a big deal as there's legislation regarding the matter so why couldn't the devs implement an option?

There's an option to task your bank to pay your bills on your behalf, which I don't like as you have no control of the bills and payments. Meaning there have been cases of overcharging in the past and the bank is in no position of knowing it it is overcharged or not, automatically pays the bill, then you go to court and fight for months or years, to get your money back. Besides, they would have faced the same issue as me.

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This is a classic situation, where everyone is right, no one is responsible, yet, who's going to pay the consequences is the customer, in this case me.

Imagine leaving the country for several months and you don't want to worry about monthly bills as internet access will be questionable, or you want to stay off the grid for a certain period. You could just transfer a nice amount in advance and problem solved. Most likely if you pay them a visit and ask in person, they could take care of it, but that again, requires a visit to their offices.

Photo by Klim Musalimov on Unsplash

Yesterday I noticed an odd thing on PeakD, that made no sense and seemed a glitch, so I contacted one of the devs, who's an amazing person and have been fixing bugs whenever I have reported them. The issue I mentioned is going to be fixed as he already found out what it is and needs some adjustments. When it comes to service providers in real life, you can forget about this option as you can't achieve anything, your complaints fall on deaf ears as who's going to bother for 0.004€, right? Well, those who get the order to terminate the services provided will, as the process is digitized and the executor is not in position to judge how much you owe.

Yes, there are flaws in the system and you have to find a smart way to solve the problem, as they don't want my money.

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There was a time that I got a bill in college for when we weren't even there. We had turned off the breaker for the house so no electricity would even flow but there is still some small amount that somehow gets through, and insignificant amount of around 50 cents a month. When we returned to our house in August there were dozens of notices from the electric company warning of past due payment and that the electric was going to be turned off if we didn't pay this $1.50 in a house where there is clearly nobody there. They went through the trouble of turning the electricity off, which means sending a person out there to manually do it who is likely making $40 an hour not to mention all the paper and postage associated with the bills. In the end they tried to charge US for reconnection but when we refused and explained that it is very common for college students to not actually be in the city during summer they reluctantly complied and now there was what? maybe $50-$75 worth of supposed expenses associated with this insignificant bill? It's all so stupid. This was long before the days of getting electronic notifcations about bills and what not too, but I guess the system was already automated by an extra illogical robot at the time.

Two-factor auth always ruins the process.

It's sad that our country is lacking a lot of information when it comes to online payments and so on. Imagine there are still people going to the bank for a small deposit or transaction, which is something that we all should be able to deal with. But that's not the fault of the consumers, but rather of a population that was never educated in the financial field. And that comes from a person who graduated Finances and Banking, and I still feel like I didn't learn as much as I should.

I think the blame is to be shared here as there are plenty who don't want to learn, or be educated and I am not talking of 80 year old people, but the youth. You see them always complaining but still refuse to learn and educate themselves. Take for example the denomination, that took place on the 1st June in 2005, 20 years ago. How many are still talking about millions?

One thing I know for sure, if I don't educate myself, no one will and blaming others won't help me in any way. But there are things that don't depend on me and this is such one.

Oh, that's for sure. When it comes to the younger generations, they literally have no excuses. Especially since they spend most of their time on the internet, and information is one search away.

I probably would have just paid the extra .1 or whatever to get it where it needed to be. Then let them figure out the overage. Definitely not worth traveling to the headquarters, especially with the price of gas right now!

I probably would have just paid the extra .1 or whatever to get it where it needed to be.

No option for that, as I mentioned in my post.

They don't let you just send more or do they have some kind of check in place that says the amount you entered doesn't match the amount required? That seems weird.

No, you can only pay the amount of the invoice, or they let you also pay partially, for those who don't have the finances, but you can't pay more. This is the problem.

Rather frustrating 😄

Indeed a strange situation. Sending out a bill which can't be paid. But this is also a proof that automation doesn't solve everything. In the old days a person would have looked at it. Nowadays, a batch runs, calculates the bill, creates it, registeres the debt and sends it out. Even with such a small value, it could be that the system will continue the process and sends a reminder within a few weeks for an unpaid bill.
Paying up forward would indeed be a good solution. But a company doesn't want a situation in which they owe you, they prefer the other way around.

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But this is also a proof that automation doesn't solve everything.

Exactly. A filter could be set up, for these amounts that can't be paid and find a solution, like you get a pass, till the next invoice and pay both then. But as everything is automated, this is where we are.

The funny thing is that we are blaming automation, but in fact it's the fault of the devs, who didn't take this into consideration when coding the app.

And I still don't understand why I can't pay in advance, just transfer 5 euro or 10 or whatever I can and solve it. Madness.

Let's like always blame the analysts :)

😆

No, more like the project managers and those who approved it in this form 😂

What a joke, if you didn't tell me it was Romania I'd say it was Italy... Here the minimum on bills is 0,01€ and I always pays with debit card so it would work even with that amount... Didn't they have a customer service to phone at? Or they have monkeys there too?

I guess things are just as bad in your country too.

Didn't they have a customer service to phone at? Or they have monkeys there too?

I didn't even try as you waste an hour waiting, or you talk to artificial intelligence, but I don't see what they can do honestly, other than invite me to pay at the headquarters.

How bloody hell annoying is dealing with artificial intelligence on customer support...

Utilities are very frustrating. It is interesting that they seem to be this way around the world. The electic and gas are the worst.

I agree — they raise tariffs three times a year. People don’t understand what they’re paying so much for. And housing prices are sky-high.

Unfortunately. Lucky are those who don't have to deal with them.