I got my first bill from AT&T and it has
Aug 28th, 2008 by Andy
With my new iPhone comes my new AT&T bill. I had been on Verizon before so this bill was totally new to me (how exciting). The first thing I noticed is that they don’t make it too clear on the bill that I can pay online and where I might go to do that. I’m pretty clever though so I guessed the URL and tried to regiser so I could pay online. No dice. For some unexplained reason, they’re not currently able to allow me to register my account online. No big deal I guess. Instead of quickly jumping on a web site, punching in my credit card info, and being done with the thing instead I’ll write out a paper check, rip off the stub from the bill, stuff both into a tiny little envelope, stick a stamp on it (what are those going for these days? $1.95?), wait for a postal carrier to walk up the two flights of stairs to our office (okay, she’ll take the elevator), pick up the envelope, carry it out to her truck, drive it back to the post office, sort it, put it on another truck, drive it to Carol Stream, Illinois (or maybe to an airport and then fly it up there?), and give it to some AT&T dude there. He’ll rip open the envelope, punch some numbers into a computer, stick the check somewhere, and at some point AT&T will get some of my cold hard cash. Seems inefficient.
Anyway, the best part is that I was looking through the bill to see if I was missing something about how to pay online and I noticed this section on the back of the first page. The last line in the Electronic Check Conversion section says, “You agree to pay a fee of up to $30 if your check” - and that’s it. That’s how it ends: “if your check” - no period, no additional words that would make it into a sentance. It cracks me up when big companies make dumb misakes like this.
