Kamala would love this Venn diagram. My House Need is to pay the garbage bill. Our Budget is adequate. Our Goal is to pay the bill online. Is this a Viable Project?
No! I can’t login to my account. It says “Hi Bill” but that is it. I can go no further. Ah, they have a Customer Service number available 24/7. I call the number with my cell phone and click “1” on the automated menu system speak in English. Do you wish to pay a bill online? No, I want to talk to a person and find out why I can’t login to my account. But there is no number to click for that. I click “0" three times, that often works. Our phone system is very busy right now, you are being put you on hold, or you can leave a message, and we will call you back at our convenience. Arrrgh.
We have an electric oven that quit working. The service technician that came asked me to turn off the circuit breaker, then turn it back on. How will that help? Well, your oven is operated by a computer circuit board. Use the circuit breaker to reboot the computer. There, that solves your problem. Here is my bill.
On a daily basis, something doesn’t work “right”. Our computers, our phones, our TV, our appliances, our ground fault outlets, our cars and fortunately with rarity all power to our home. I know it isn’t the electron’s fault. Did I mention we have a gas cook top, our furnace, my barbeque, and our 17+ years old vehicles, all which have Internal Combustion Engines? Please don’t tell anyone! I have read that some government officials are mandating we switch to all electric appliances. And that other governments intend to require only Electric Vehicles. Still others are determined to replace fossil fuels with wind (when it is blowing) and solar (when the sun shines) to generate electrons. Oh, I almost forgot, the power company is replacing our electric meter with a “smart” meter which can be turned off remotely by them and/or local government officials when they deem necessary. Don’t get me started on digital currency.
Here’s another part of the problem. If I can’t login to our garbage provider’s website, what is the “root cause”? Is it my computer? Microsoft’s browser? Microsoft’s Windows operating system? Could it be the cable provider? The Internet itself? The vendor’s website? The vendor’s computer? When I call on my phone is the problem with my phone? With the phone app? Maybe I’ll just emit some CO2 on the way to their office with my checkbook.
The hardware changes all the time. The software and phone apps are constantly updated. And no two software programs or phone apps operate the same way. I have to learn, remember, and relearn the changes all the time. There are days when I just want to chuck it all and live off the so-called grid. They better not come after my wood stove. ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING, WHAT A DUMB IDEA!
Stopped by the garbage hauler’s office, checkbook in hand. I have paid here before but notice they have remodeled. Oh, the door is locked during business hours??? I knocked on the glass and someone inside pointed to a side door. He met me there and asked what he could do for me? I said our bill was overdue and I haven’t been able to pay online. I followed him to an administrative office to be informed that following the remodel, this was now an operation only office and they couldn’t accept payments. My host mentioned they had a Drop Box outside. I didn’t have the bill or an envelope with me, so I suggested my best course of action was to change providers.
Went home and called a local provider. We would be happy to provide you with pickup service. And their rates were competitive, when can we start? Well, you should look at your current provider’s policies then call us back. OK. Went online, discovered their website was functional again so I paid the overdue bill, YAY. Went on to review the quarterly bill now good through 10/31/24. In fine print, the policy says they do not allow proration, nor do they offer refunds if you cancel mid-quarter. I have put a note on my calendar to cancel ~10/30/24. ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING, WHAT A DUMB IDEA!
10/24/24 Another update. We have a utility bill due 10/18/24. Here is that story:
I am mad as hell with NWE!
We received a bill for $193.88 due 10/21/24. for more than 60 years, my wife has paid our bills. She has done a very responsible job, and we have a high credit rating. We are Montana State graduates, both 85. I have an MBA and a PhD. On October 8th she was admitted to the hospital emergency room unresponsive. She is somewhat recovered and was released on October 14th. I told her your bill was due and if she would advise me, I would pay your bill on time. She said she uses our bank's bill pay feature and I tried to do this. It said you wouldn't receive the payment until October 27th. next, I tried on her computer to log in to our account #######-#, but the username and password she recorded wasn't accepted. Today, I drove to your office with checkbook and credit card in hand. I have worked with your local customer service people there before. Today, I am greeted by a locked door and a notice that your customer service office is closed until further notice and to use the drop box if paying a bill. I couldn't see a drop box anywhere and left with much profanity.
Tonight, I decided to login to your website as me. After nearly an hour trying to meet your username and especially the password requirement, I was able to pay $193.88 by credit card, albeit with a processing fee of $2.75 which wasn't announced until late in the process. So, you are now paid a day late. (Please note I have followed the very important steps to correct my grammatical errors in this message shown in blue double underline.) As I wrote in a recent Substack article in frustration trying to pay our garbage bill, "ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING, WHAT A DUMB IDEA!" No reply is required, but don't expect me to support your next request for a rate increase. and at the end of the month, I will change garbage haulers. You are damn lucky to be a monopoly.
They replied anyway as follows:
I am very sorry to hear that you had trouble paying your bill and apologize for any inconvenience you experienced. Customer service agents are available to assist with troubleshooting our online portal and our phone number and office hours are listed below. Your payment is free if you pay online with your bank routing and account number from either a checking or savings account. I am happy to hear that your wife is doing better, please let us know if you need any assistance in the future.
If you have any questions, please call us Monday-Friday, 7:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (local time):
Montana and Wyoming: 888-467-2669
South Dakota and Nebraska: 800-245-6977Or stop by one of our convenient walk-in offices [The closest is Butte MT. It is only 80 miles from here]; hours may vary, go to NorthWesternEnergy.com for more information
I feel so much better now.
I might have just mailed our check to NWE, except that we no longer receive mail or get pickup on a regular basis thanks to another monopoly, the USPS. I might have written this as a Letter to the Editor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, still another monopoly, except that they no longer have a daily delivery man (or even a daily publication, what with a Weekend Edition and no paper on Monday). The paper is now sent by mail with the noted uncertain delivery.
The times they are a changing with monopolies increasingly in control. Makes Substack my go to place for Freedom of Speech.
03/16/25 The latest update. Another one finances, this time our bank and a cellphone bill.
In October my wife had an episode where she fell out of bed and was unresponsive for a time. She is OK now except for some memory loss. She has paid our bills and produced a very high credit score in the process. But now we have agreed I should get more involved in our finances.
To this end I have started working with our bank, Wells Fargo (WF). I wanted to review our credit card transactions and see how we have been paying our bills with the WF Bill Pay feature. In the morning I login to WF to start my review. Oh, Oh, I can’t see our credit card transactions. I go to see a WF banker who tells me they do not offer joint credit card accounts and ours is in my wife’s name so I can’t see the transactions. At home I do a search to find:
If you’re on the younger side, you might not know what it means to jointly apply for a credit card. Not to worry, as this “old-fashioned” concept dates back to the pre-Internet era when financial services and products were less evolved. https://upgradedpoints.com/credit-cards/joint-credit-card-guide/
Well at 86 I qualify to be “old fashioned”. But I want a joint account so we can check each other and talk about things we find. Ah, the only bank I can find is US Bank to set up a joint account. Two or three weeks later we’re all set. We can both be logged in at the same time reviewing transactions.
Meanwhile back on WF, I begin a review of their Bill Pay system…
05/08/25 - email to the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce
Hello, I want to register a complaint. My wife and I are 86, graduates of Montana State in physics and chemistry. I have an MBA and a PhD as well. We are old and on occasion forgetful, but still reasonably bright. In today's world it is frustrating and difficult just to pay a bill from one of your members or others. We used to receive a bill in the mail, pull out our checkbook, write a check and mail it back. Pretty simple. Now we may get a bill in the mail, but delivery is sporadic and may go for a week or more without delivery. Or it may come to my wife's email (she has three addresses) or to my email (I have two, the one I entered above and use on a regular basis and one I'm required to have because I bought an Android phone). Each vendor has its own website with a unique interactive design including settings telling them how to communicate with my wife or myself. But they are all different. Our Wells Fargo bank website has a different setup also with settings to designate our choice of communication to my wife, or to me. They do not offer a joint credit card account so I cannot logon as me and see transactions because the card is in my wife's name. But they do offer a Bill Pay service which can be automated with some vendors to the point the bill comes to them, and Wells Fargo recommends the account be set up for automatic payment with no opportunity for our review until after the fact. We have paid bills twice sometimes, once as set up in Bill Pay and once because they or one of us received a bill. Some vendors send a notice advising a bill is available not the bill itself and the notice, one of hundreds split between email and text may end up deleted and we get penalized for late payment. Our checking account may show two identical transaction amounts, but some give no clue who initiated the payment. We have made appointments with their Main Street Office bankers who can't tell us and calls to Wells Fargo Customer Service results in being told they can't determine who initiated the obscure transaction either. In many cases we can also use our cell phones instead of a computer. The hardware and software are constantly updated so learning how one bill pay system works doesn't help with any other setup and even with a single vendor the procedure is likely to change from year to year. Electrify and digitize everything, what a dumb idea! I would like to know what the Bozeman and US Chambers of Commerce have to say.
05/12/25 - The Bozeman Chamber of Commerce Reply
Bill
Thank you for your email.
We totally understand your frustration. I don’t like it at all and I am going to be 60 years old this year. My Mother, who lives in Eastern Montana, who will turn 95 in August deal with this very same frustration.
If Wells Fargo were a member of The Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce, I would forward your email to them or put you in contact with a “live person’. Unfortunately, I do not even know who is still employed at the local bank.
My recommendation would be to move to another bank – privately owned bank as we hear this about all the corporate owned banks now.
If you decide to switch banks, we hear great things about Bank of Bozeman and Stockman Bank.
My apologies as I do not feel I was much assistance here.
Thank You,
Karri Clark
Director of Sales & Membership Operations