We hate you Met-Ed

[LillFilly]

My boyfriend has automatic payments set-up for the electricity payments. About every 3-months, we get a notice from Met Ed that we'll be losing our power for non-payment. So payments seem to go through one month, then not the next. Account and routing numbers have been checked numerous times. Sometimes they take their payment on the assigned date, sometimes they don't take it. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm sick of getting notices from them. It seems to be on their end; I would think whatever system they use would deduct payments automatically, same date every month, but sometimes his account shows that they never took a payment at all.

[Shalom]

Is there some way you could set it up so your bank initiates the transaction and sends the money to them, rather than the power company yoinking it out of your account on their own? My bank offers this as an option, although I think there may be a fee for that.

[bhskittykatt]

Is there some way you could set it up so your bank initiates the transaction and sends the money to them, rather than the power company yoinking it out of your account on their own? My bank offers this as an option, although I think there may be a fee for that.

My credit union also offers this for free, though I've never tried it. My old bank did it too.

Your power company sure has it backwards. Most places have no trouble taking money from people's accounts!

[bainsidhe]

Hope it hasn't affected your credit rating if they keep practically turning off your power.

[suburbandecay]

Honestly, I would refuse to let any company that screwed up from automatically taking any money from my accounts. I would rather send it out myself, no matter how inconvenient it is.

[greek_jester]

Honestly, I would refuse to let any company that screwed up from automatically taking any money from my accounts. I would rather send it out myself, no matter how inconvenient it is.

Quite right. I've got a few clients who refuse to use have direct debits with a certain phone company due to them screwing them around in the past, even though they'd get a discount. They pay a standing order of a set amount every month instead, & just send in an extra payment when they get their quarterly bill if they're a little short.

In fact, I've got one who deliberately overpays on all his utilities all the way through the year just so that he has no need to pay in December (or just pays a pittance) so that he can afford to give his employees an Xmas bonus without being too out of pocket.

[wagegoth]

I get email notices for most of my bills, but I also have set up with my bank for them to get notices of my power and cable bills. I just click on the button when I want to pay it on my bank site. I get paid biweekly, so monthly payments can be an issue. Also, my power company screwed up one time and didn't register a payment that I had called in, which freaked me out.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Honestly, I would refuse to let any company that screwed up from automatically taking any money from my accounts. I would rather send it out myself, no matter how inconvenient it is.

Back when I had AT&T for phone service, I tried to set up the automatic payment debit with them. They would debitthe payment for a couple of months, then mess up making me have to send ina check for the past month. After about three tries to get their automatic payment system to work, I gave up on it.

I now have automatic payment with Verizon, and Dominion Electric, and they have never messed up.

I sent in the paperwork to set up automatic payment with the gas company, but it never happened.

[LillFilly]

We Hate You MetEd UPDATE

They did it 2-days ago. Even though after getting the notice the BF called and they double-checked all the billing info and said "Ok, it's all fixed."

10AM I wake-up to scuffling outside the bedroom window, where the box is, and notice NO POWER. I catch the tech heading back to his car. I explain the problems we've been having and he explained that he was sorry, and he's done a lot of calls for people with the same complaint. I appreciated that he didn't just drive off and at least talked to me. We called the number on the paperwork he left for us, made a payment by phone, and they promised power would be restored within 12 hours.

12 hours later, no power. Didn't have power until 12pm the next day. At least we have lots of candles and I packed frozen vegetables around the perishables, so we didn't lose anything except the ice in the ice maker.

Apparently, the BF has been TRYING to arrange for paper statements and billing for the last couple months, since the last notice we received. And yet, that request is never in their history. He made the request again, but I expect that we'll be doing this same song and dance in a few months.

[Kogarashi]

Time for some legal action? (Or at least the threat of it?)

[sweetj82]

If you are having this much trouble wouldnt it be easier just to pay the bill every month. I use thier website and never had an issue.

[LillFilly]

If you are having this much trouble wouldnt it be easier just to pay the bill every month. I use thier website and never had an issue.

I'll suggest it, but we've already begged to get paper statements, so I wouldn't put it past them to bill us in addition to us paying through the website, and then having to fight for our $ back. We'll give it a shot though, better than nothing. I didn't even know they had a website, or if that's an option where I live.

[blas]

My family tried auto pay with AT&T.....and not once, but twice, they "lost" the payment, shut us off, and made my mother pay a reconnect fee, both times refusing a bank statement of hers showing the funds being taken out. Ultimately, refusing to believe there'd be a problem on their end. We'd never not paid the bill before. The rep she talked to the one time was so apathetic, just kept saying "Uh huh" and "Mmmhmm" every time my mom made a comment about their poor customer service, this is how they will be losing customers, as soon as our contract is up, we'll never do business with them again.

They say AT&T is the fastest network provider around. The fastest at pissing people off, maybe.

[greek_jester]

My family tried auto pay with AT&T.....and not once, but twice, they "lost" the payment, shut us off, and made my mother pay a reconnect fee, both times refusing a bank statement of hers showing the funds being taken out.

Has she tried taking them to the small claims court for the cost of the reconnection fees & the payments they lost? It sounds like she could prove it very easily.

[blas]

We've had Verizon for over a year now, it's senseless and a waste of time and money at this point to go back and do that. My parents aren't the sue happy type, either. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles. We were so close to the end of the contract, it would be enough relief to never have to deal with AT&T again.