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.
Photo by Damir Babacic on Unsplash
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.
Photo by Hert Niks on Unsplash
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?
Photo by Fredrick Suwandi on Unsplash
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.
Photo by Klim Musalimov on Unsplash
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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