Baer Online

I just had a weird experience with one of the old guard power companies, Pacific Gas & Electric. These guys were founded in 1905, so I have to salute their tenacity through the last century. Presumably, they are still around because they have been able to successfully innovate and adapt to change. And, given they have a nice little website to help consumers pay, I think PG&E is definitely trying to stay relevant and modern. I have to say though, some of that old school upbringing is coming through in a bad way on the PG&E website.

Last month I moved to San Jose, and so I also managed to get my first ever power bill that was addressed personally to me. In the past, one of my housemates always was on the hook. Well, no problem, I can pay a bill. Right?

Turns out it wasn’t so easy. The first difficulty is just figuring out when the bill is considered “due” — is the listed due date inclusive or exclusive (considered late the day after the bill is due)? Then if I mail back the check in their little envelope, is the bill considered late if postmarked by or received by the due date?

Both questions had me scratching my head, so I went to the PG&E website to find out. I didn’t really find any helpful info there, but as far as I could tell from a “how to read your bill” section, it seems like PG&E has a “must be processed by PG&E on or before the due date” rule.

Ok, fine. I’ll just pay online then so the transaction is instant; it was Saturday and the bill was due on Tuesday.

Oops, did I say “instant”? Not so fast, hotshot. If you pay by check online (bank withdrawal from a checking account), PG&E warns you about a three business day processing time! Say what?!

So, given the scary thought of PG&E cutting off power to my brand new apartment, I chose the other available online option — payment by credit card.

Well, at least I tried to pay by credit card. Turns out that PG&E only accepts Visa cards, but I have a Mastercard. Are you kidding me? I really want to pay this bill, but … can’t … because my bank assigned me a Mastercard? I didn’t even make the choice here between Visa or Mastercard — my bank made that decision for me.

Here’s where I think PG&E is showing its age a little too much.

• Internet transactions are considered “instant” – the customer should not be responsible for PG&E’s 3 days to process a checking account withdrawal. Note that the customer is only responsible for this delay when transacting online, but not when physically delivering a check to PG&E via mail or at an office.
• Internet transactions have less overhead for everyone – paying online should be a win-win situation for both customer and PG&E, since the costs/overhead are lower for both sides. The customer doesn’t have to pay for a stamp, while PG&E doesn’t have to pay overhead to run local offices or deal with hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail received each month. Paying online should be the preferred way to pay, so incentivize, not penalize (with regard to processing time and options)!
• Old guard companies have exclusive relationships with a vendor — I don’t see how PG&E only allowing Visa cards helps the customer. This probably originated with some biz dev deal guaranteeing exclusivity for a percentage point or two less processing fees.  But “only Visa” in and of itself doesn’t help the customer at all — it is no different than Mastercard in my opinion — and instead hoists an inconvenience on the customer for no apparent reason. I remember going to restaurants in my youth that only allowed one card company or the other, but really now, when was the last time you saw that practice in the last 10 years? It just doesn’t happen these days.

The two questions I have for you are:

• Do you think PG&E has an opportunity here to drum up traffic to their website and get more virtual payments, and thereby reduce overhead costs for the processing of physical payments?

• Do you think PG&E should start allowing Mastercard and take the 1-2% hit to the Visa processing fees? Will accepting Mastercard reduce any bad revenue metrics like number of missed payments? I’m actually not sure about this one, because ACH/bank withdrawal is significantly less expensive than credit card… so moving some of the traffic that is currently satisfied by ACH into Mastercard could be disasterous for PG&E in terms of fees.

By the way, I ended up paying the bill on time. But I had to ask my fiancee to pay with her Visa card!

Tags:   ACH · customer · innovation · internet · mastercard · PGE · power bill · utility bill · visa2 Comments