stoutfellow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stoutfellow) wrote2019-06-19 01:12 pm
stoutfellow) wrote2019-06-19 01:12 pm
Entry tags:
The Price of Procrastination
This morning, I started going through my bills. One of them involved my health and dental insurance.
Since I'm not teaching this summer, I have to make my insurance payments directly. I often wind up paying late, procrastinator that I am. This bill, however, was - as far as I knew - the first bill of the summer. I opened it; apparently I missed a previous bill, and they were demanding that I pay up, in full, by June 20 or they would do nasty things.
There was an item about how to make the payment online. I went to the named page, clicked on "Make Payment", and was offered the choice of a one-time payment, without creating an account, or creating an account and paying there. I chose the former. There were two drop-down menus, for Payment Type and Payment Method. I clicked on the first and selected the appropriate line. I clicked on the second: it displayed... the same options as the first. I shrugged and clicked. A text field opened, asking for identifying information, which I supplied, and then clicked on "Add Item". I was then informed that I must put a numerical value in the second drop-down... which did not allow me to enter *anything*.
:sigh:
I went the other way, creating an account and logging in. I was finally taken to a "Your Account" page.
This page has lots of links to FAQs and the like. What it does not have is a "Make Payment" button. There is a search box; I entered "make payment" and clicked. Three FAQs, seven documents, no place to make a payment.
Screw it. I'll pay by check, it'll be late, they'll do unpleasant but ultimately meaningless things, and I'll pay the next bill as soon as it comes in.
[I'm not going to talk about the time I overpaid them. That one unfolded into absolute idiocy, and more unpleasantness.]
Since I'm not teaching this summer, I have to make my insurance payments directly. I often wind up paying late, procrastinator that I am. This bill, however, was - as far as I knew - the first bill of the summer. I opened it; apparently I missed a previous bill, and they were demanding that I pay up, in full, by June 20 or they would do nasty things.
There was an item about how to make the payment online. I went to the named page, clicked on "Make Payment", and was offered the choice of a one-time payment, without creating an account, or creating an account and paying there. I chose the former. There were two drop-down menus, for Payment Type and Payment Method. I clicked on the first and selected the appropriate line. I clicked on the second: it displayed... the same options as the first. I shrugged and clicked. A text field opened, asking for identifying information, which I supplied, and then clicked on "Add Item". I was then informed that I must put a numerical value in the second drop-down... which did not allow me to enter *anything*.
:sigh:
I went the other way, creating an account and logging in. I was finally taken to a "Your Account" page.
This page has lots of links to FAQs and the like. What it does not have is a "Make Payment" button. There is a search box; I entered "make payment" and clicked. Three FAQs, seven documents, no place to make a payment.
Screw it. I'll pay by check, it'll be late, they'll do unpleasant but ultimately meaningless things, and I'll pay the next bill as soon as it comes in.
[I'm not going to talk about the time I overpaid them. That one unfolded into absolute idiocy, and more unpleasantness.]