You know, I actually love taking care of my bills online. I'd far prefer to jump onto the computer and whip out my bills all at once. And I really hate getting paper bills (fills up my mailbox, kills trees, etc.). Plus, I'm a reasonably computer savvy customer, who can navigate most websites with minimal difficulty.
Given all that, why does it seem as if some companies have bill pay websites that were designed by Rasputin? I mean, my phone company's website is so diabolical it's hard to tell if they are really, really insane or really, really stupid. It's like they have these little trapdoor links that they've designed to send you down the rabbit hole. You click something that looks promising, and wheeeeee! You're sliding off into some random part of their website where you can do something like order a long distance card in Russian. Which, funnily enough, wasn't what I was looking for today. And in order to get back to where I was, I have to log in, yet again. Son of a boogersnot.
In spite of having approximately 800 links that you could possibly click in an almost infinite number of combinations through out their pages, I've only found 2 that actually do anything: look at your bill and pay your bill. Personally, if that's all you're going to offer, I think that's fine. Just be honest about it. I'd be perfectly happy to have an account manager that has 2 buttons: [Look at my bill] and [Pay my bill]. Oh, and one that says [Rabbit hole]. Just for a fun. Wheeee! Hey, look! Phone in Russian is телефон! So educational.
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6 comments:
I'm SOOOO with you - I had to print out a bank statemnt from last September and the hoops I had to jump through and blind alleys I went down ate up an hour++ of my precious time - I curse you bank web site designers!
You always have to wonder, do they product test those things or do they just throw everything on the screen and let the chips fall where they may? There are some very decent sites out there. And there are some that I need to pop a sedative before I even touch them.
I pay all my bills on line. I love it. And my bank has free web billpay, so even the 2 bills that I can't pay online (gas company and water company, come on guys its 2008!) can be paid online. It is wonderful. I never even writer checks anymore. Even my son's afterschool care has a website to pay bills. Awesome!
My banks website is the most jacked up of them all. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Well actually, a like-ish/hate relationship with them. But I've got so many bills hooked to them for automatic payment, it would be major drama to move. Hoist on my on petard.
Clearly I have much more user-friendly cell and bank websites. The only check I write is for rent. Never had a problem :~ btw, SO much easier to post comments to this site ... I like the switch!
Yeah, Blogger has been showing to advantage lately. Over on 360 I get a knot in my stomach every time I try to reply to a comment. There are one or two things I haven't smoothed out yet. But with everything that's going on with Yahoo in general, I'm not holding out much hope that their new blog platform will be showing any time soon. So I'm working hard to make myself at home here.
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