BillMatrix – unposted payments Part II

As we already discussed in the previous article BillMatrix provides a number of payment option including online and telephone payments. You can learn how customers should settle their transactions via the telephone payment service provided by BillMatrix here. The procedure scheme presents payment sequence accepted at AT&T company. A customer will undergo a ten step process to complete a payment. First a customer dials 800-809-0826. A series of recorded messages will prompt him/her through the transaction. At the 4th step a customer will be given a choice to Pay AT&T by using a Credit Card, ATM/Debit Card or Electronic Check. For credit cards, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express are accepted. Then a customer enters credit card or electronic check data, specifies the amount to be paid, authorizes the payment and waits for approval.

[img_assist|nid=10116|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=85]The online procedure is almost the same as that made by phone. For example, when you make a payment to El Paso Electric for electricity online you are required to provide El Paso Electric Account Number, Service Address Zip Code, credit card or ATM/debit card number, expiration date and zip code of where the credit/debit card statement is mailed for payment or checking account number and routing number. You specify the amount and choose if you want to make a deposit or regular payment.

Fees charged for the service differ depending on what utilities or services you are paying for. When making a payment with El Paso Electric customers are charged $2.95 for all forms of payment made using BillMatrix. On the site of El Paso Electric we find the following:

“The payments are processed by BillMatrix. The BillMatrix fee for this service will appear on your credit card bill or bank statement. El Paso Electric does not receive any portion of the BillMatrix fee.”

The same service may cost you a bit cheaper when you pay for the utilities to Southern California Gas Company. In their FAQ we read:

“For an additional fee through an independent provider called BillMatrix, you can pay by Electronic Check, Debit/ATM or MasterCard credit card through BillMatrix. While The Gas Company does not charge for this service, BillMatrix charges a convenience fee of $1.50 for each transaction.”

Where the problems emerge

Ignorance

Generally problems that rise with the payment system are related to the ignorance, to a lack of information which is actually provided by the companies partnering with BillMatrix. Thus a customer may face such an issue as late payment. For example you paid for your electricity to El Paso Electric but then you learn that you fell into arrears. The point is likely that you didn’t know the right schedule of payments. El Paso Electric informs its consumers on how they should settle their bills. We read:

“Payments made by 6 p.m. MT on a business day will post to your El Paso Electric account the following business day. Payments made after 6 p.m. MT on a business day or on weekends and holidays will take two business days to post to your El Paso Electric account.”

So this statement clearly shows that there are some limitations on the payment time with El Paso while there are other companies that don’t impose such limitations. For instance, Snohomish County PUD (public utility district) has no time limitations on BillMatrix payments.

“Using our third-party vendor BillMatrix, PUD residential customers can pay their PUD bills by credit cards, debit cards, and/or electronic checks. Payments will be accepted by making a toll-free phone call to BillMatrix and can be made at any time of the day, any day of the week.”

Besides, some companies that specify time schedule for the payments set their computers you are paying into to the time zone where that computer is located. Thus even if you pay 3 hours before the deadline as per your time zone it may be late against the time zone of the company that provides you some services. This was the case with a person that posted his complaint in the forum on Nissan Titan vehicles under the nick-name MileHighTitan.

[img_assist|nid=10118|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=254]MileHighTitan is a customer of Nissan Company. MileHighTitan bought a Titan car with them and is apparently making payments by installments. The problem the customer faced was that the payment made after 4 p.m. was posted only the next day and those payments made after 4 p.m. on Friday were posted only on Monday.

MileHighTitan complains: “Why are we being held accountable in another time zone when we purchased the vehicle in our time zone and the contract was signed in our time zone? Now on top of that, our contracts and our statements say nothing about the way the Bill Matrix system works and how a payment has to be made by 4:00 p.m. central time zone and how it won't post till Monday if made on Friday. Last time I checked dealers are open on Saturdays, vehicles are sold on Saturdays which would conclude to me that Saturdays are a business day in the automotive industry. But no, they will hold your payment and try to either make more money off late fees or hit your credit with a late payment which equates to more money down the road. Whenever I made a payment for either my last Toyota Tacoma, my last four mortgages, my last two boats or anything else I've owned when I make the payments they were posted instantly to my account.”

Another forum member Clint has somewhat different view: “I've used bill matrix a few times myself. Look at it this way, their computer must cycle payments once a day so that's why it won't post to the next business day. Secondly, Saturday and Sunday are not counted at any bank as a business day. I bet if you called Bill Matrix and they looked at your account they would see the payment so to them it is paid at that point, just not posted. Lastly, the computer you are paying into has an internal clock set to WHERE that computer is located so it must work by that time zone and we must learn to live by that. Would you expect a business you call to be open in another state just because YOU live in a different time zone?”

As we can see in this case a customer can find it inconvenient to avail of BillMatrix payment option especially if he/she pays on the last moment. That is why you shouldn’t use the service only because you were told it was good. It may be good by it may not fit your needs and circumstances. Hence you had better carefully learn all the information provided by the company you are paying to concerning the regulations applied to payments via BillMatrix. One of the requirements imposed by BillMatrix on companies that accept payments through their platform is that these companies should post BillMatrix’ FAQ content on their web site with links to the most frequently covered topics. Thus if you are reflecting on the use of BillMatrix to settle your bills you need to thoroughly read the FAQ section in order to escape disappointing surprises.

Black holes

[img_assist|nid=10115|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=640]Another problem you may face with BillMatrix is lost funds. You pay your regular bill but then suddenly you learn that your money was swallowed up by some collapsar. That is what happened to a customer of Southern California Gas that was already mentioned above. He says: “I just spent 4 hours on the phone with Southern California Gas. What the *** is wrong with these people? I used an automated system called Bill Matrix to make a payment weeks ago and today I come home and find out my service is suspended and my money is lost in some random pool of wrong information. Why cant customer service people just fix the situation the first time instead of me calling 11 different people, yes 11!!! Every single person told me to call someone else ............... Just *** handle it!!!!”

One forum member made a supposition that the customer misunderstood the situation: “Do you not balance your checking account? If it was weeks ago, you should have noticed that your balance didn't match your banks balance when they didn't deduct it.” The response was the following: “Maybe I read it wrong, but I read it as though they had paid it but the money was transferred to a random pool somehow. So the money would not be in their account. It would be floating around somewhere.

“Thanks for the advice! LOL My checking account was balanced however it was not showing up on my gas co. account as being paid. It was lost in some pool of funds without a matching gas co. account number”

This case prompts us to be ready to have our money mysteriously lost in ‘random pool’ after we make a payment via BillMatrix automated system. Another participant in the same forum notes: “I hate automated customer service when I call places...........I usually just hit a bunch of buttons until I get a human............” But the point is that BillMatrix Customer Service representatives can only give you the guidelines through the payment process – the guidelines you can hear when you use automated system. In one of the FAQs there is such a statement: “BillMatrix system does not provide the access required for BillMatrix Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to process payments directly. The CSRs can “assist” the consumer by walking them through the Web payment process.” Hum… So, they “can assist”, can’t they? Well here we came to the problem with the customer service closely connected with double payment issue.

Double payment and Customer Care

The third main problem with BillMatrix is that payment is irrevocable even if you miskeyed the information and your money was sent to somewhere else but not to your billing company. Here is one example:
“Bill Matrix "kidnapped" my money

Bill Matrix is a phone credit card processor. Yesterday I made a phone payment with them, and on the first attempt I miskeyed the information and it was declined....no problem, press one to try again.

The second time it was approved and they gave me a confirmation number. I checked by bank account and see they took it out twice.

WHAT? 

[img_assist|nid=10119|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=574|height=640]I immediately call them and they tell me that the card processing is a two-step process. First they take the credit card info and put a hold on the funds, then get approval. Since I made a mistake, the approval didn't come, BUT they still have a hold on the funds for 3 days. They put ANOTHER hold on it the second time around.

So, the bank says they can't do anything about it, and I cannot use my money until probably Wednesday.

Is this the way it is supposed to work, or was the customer service rep giving me a line of bull? How can they deny access to MY money when they did not receive approval from Visa yet? Does this mean I can call them and put all kinds of holds on people's money by simply keying in the wrong info?

This just doesn't see right to me.”

[img_assist|nid=10120|title=1|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=184]Another case. A mobile phone user made a payment to his cellular company Metro-PCS via the same automated telephone service and lost his money with an advice from the Customer Care Service to pay it again. Here you are:

“I just got off the phone with an agent from BillMatrix, which number is 1-800-967-9649 - agent (Vanisha) they actually are saying that they are unable to cancel an account online. She said, they cannot suspend an account online even when there is a potential of Identity Theft involved. She told me that my account had too many attempts in trying to make a phone payment when I only tried once. I enter my phone information and it tells me this message ' You have exceeded the maximum number of payment attempts allowed on this account. If you have questions regarding this policy, please call 1-800-967-9649. ' which is exactly what I did. I explained to her that this is weird and I was concerned due to the fact that I haven't tried or attempted to gain access to the payment center online and I wanted the account cancelled due to possible unauthorized account access. She said ' the only thing I can suggest is pay the account at a local store'. I can't believe this.

“She is telling me to ignore this, and just go pay and go on about my business like nothing is happening. People, Metro-PCS in connection with this company are really screwing up customers. They are making up stories about the website so that you have to go to the store and pay the bill! in other words they want the extra money just to pay your own bill.”

A conclusion is that you need to be very careful and attentive when entering your information over the automated telephone system to pay your bill with BillMatrix and counsel with the CRS before the payment and not after it because if you made a mistake you would likely to hear the same advice given to the customers above.

Intelligent expectations

A human is an imperfect being and everything he creates need to be constantly upgraded, improved and modified as so do we. You cannot expect that promised convenience turn out rosy and unclouded. All the services and things we receive and possess are partially convenient while having some detrimental characteristics. BillMatrix is a part of a blue-chip Corporation yet it is managed by ordinary people as we are. It has no divine origin. It is up to you to decide if you wish to use it or not but you must be more intelligent and possess maximum information about what you are offered to swallow.