Why darnit!

[Entropy]

Okay, we have two 'bill days' a month. I usually either pay online or over the phone if there is no fee, I am very anti payment fee.
Well, today I'm merrily (okay, not so merrily but who can be merry when paying bills?) making the evil payments and call a number for a bill that I usually pay over the phone for free. Go through all the motions until "There will be an additional 9.00 fee for this transaction, to accept the fee and continue please press 1" Grrrrrrrrrrrr! When did this happen? I just paid this same bill three weeks ago!
Okay, so, I'll pay online.
Go online, set up account, 'you need an activation code' okay... so, all the 'contact' numbers they have for us are way outdated even though they have our current home phone number. I call the number the website gave me. Give them all the information. "How can I help you today?" I tell them my issue and he goes 'oh, well we need the main account holder to authorize this'... well he's at work, my name is on the account and all I'm wanting to do is make a darn payment. Heck, if I was thieving anything I had all the info I'd ever need. But nooooo, husband has to call.
I know I know. Privacy policies and all that jazz but I swear I'm going nuts. What will really chap my behind is if anything like this happens while he's on deployment. We specifically called everyplace and told them I needed to be able to make all changes to accounts and all said 'that's just fine, we'll make note of it'.
Obviously not.

My thinking side will kick in in a few minutes but I really needed to gripe somewhere.

[lillyorchid]

I hear that! I HATE pop up fee's like that. GRRRR's along with you.
My father has his name as the account holder on our cell phone plan. He HATES making phone calls when they mess something up, change something, etc and ALWAYS tells me to call and take care of it. My name is on the account too, but he is listed first - so they always need to talk to him and won't talk to me. He hates it, but won't switch our names around it on.

[JLC]

Blech! I absolutely hate it when a business has such anti-customer policies that truly serve no purpose whatsoever. Sounds like some letters to "the powers that be" might be in order.



As for dealing with things like this while hubby is deployed...first off, get a general power of attorney before he goes (always something you need to do during a deployment or other overseas assignment) and check with the JAG office to see if there are any other more specific PoA's you might need. (Sometimes a "general" will not cover certain issues like mortgages or whatnot.)



And besides that...if hubby is gone, and you have this kind of trouble with a business...get his First Shirt or CO to step in and help you. A firm, authoratative military voice can accomplish amazing things!

[Entropy]

Getting any military higher ups to do anything with our current issue right now is proving very difficult so I have little faith they'd be of any assistance for this minor one.
I have the paperwork for the general PoA already printed and put in our file, luckily he's not suppose to leave for some months yet but still. Ug, about makes you want to pull your hair out.

[frankykeno]

Listen to Judy hon, she's a very experienced military wife that knows what is what.

As well I'd call whatever billing company you were trying to pay that wants to charge you $9 for a convenient payment method fee and raise a little hell. $3 to $5 is reasonable to save on time and so forth, but $9 is outrageous and I'd certainly make that known to that particular company. These companies advertise these online payment methods as convenient and so forth, they certainly don't however need to make more excessive hidden profit off customers with outrageous fees!

[Entropy]

I wasn't meaning any disrespect to Judy so I hope it didn't come across that way. I'm just sick to death of military run around and I'm not exactly looking for ways to have to involve the navy more.