Do you want my money or not?

Recently I had a big challenge paying my invoice to one of our website hosts.  You’d think they would want your money, rather than putting you through so many hoops to get the bill paid.

The problem started because I have not been getting all my emails, including their invoice, so when they didn’t get paid, they disconnected the site.  Fair enough, I guess. But I only happened to find out by chance, and then the fun began.

When you phone, you are given three options, one of which was to pay your account, but they ask you to do it online.  OK, but I can’t remember my password and when I tried my usual one, it didn’t work.  All of which means that I can’t log in.  Yes, I can click forgot password, but they can’t email me the password, because their emails are not getting through.

So I turn to Live Chat for assistance, three times.  Each occasion I get referred back to the website, and advised to get a ticket number, which you receive once you’ve logged in… but remember, I can’t do that.   

An hour later, my morning suddenly going from bad to worse, I phone again.  I am told all the lines are busy and to leave a number, and of course, the ticket number and someone will call me back.

Whatever.  All I want to do is talk to a live person, pay the bill, and move on.  Does anyone want my money?  It would appear not.  Eventually a live person phones me, he asks me again about our username and password.  Now we got this site eight years ago, can you remember your passwords from then?  I have a hard time remembering the one I came up with yesterday. Plus nothing about our account had stayed static – new address, new email and new credit card number and in fairness, I can see that this could seem suspicious, but I am wanting to give them money, not take it away.

Day 2 – we are still trying to sort this out and meantime,  my website is still down.  I have to re-register from another email address and receive the information, advised to log in and then I can pay the bill.  Guess what, the links don’t work.  We are back on Live Chat and Customer Support. Now we did get it sorted, but I had to come up with three, yes, three security questions that will be asked each time.  It’s like getting into Fort Knox.

All of which flags for me that if we want people to stay with us, to remain loyal customers, we have to make it easy for them to pay.  If you have to go through all this just to pay a relatively small bill, you start to question whether it is worth it.

So note to self – first I better remember the answers to my questions and somewhere safe write down the password, otherwise next year we could face the same challenge, and I am not sure I want to play this game again.