Single Gal and Dealing with the City

Oy vay. I have had it. Maybe they caught me on the wrong day, and maybe it’s always this way, but my last dealing with a city employee makes me realize why people curse them.

I have a hard time paying bills on time. That is the charm of the Single Gal. Since I am always floating and flitting around, it’s hard to make time on a weekend to sit down and get bills paid and do all the boring things you need to do to make your life and your house work. I know everyone else does it and it’s time to grow up, but we all have to accept our limitations.  Anyway, online banking is my savior and automatic payment is my heaven—you can’t forget when a machine does it for you. I know myself well. If I don’t set up some form of automatic payment, my bill payments will probably be late.

So I set out to try to do this for my garbage bill.  I first tried to do it six months ago, then three months ago, then a month ago, and finally, most recently, last week.  If you have ever tried to use the City of San Jose website then you can feel my pain.

Click this Link.
Sorry, this page no longer exists.
Click another link.
Sorry, this page no longer exists.
Back arrow.
You have been timed out due to inactivity.

I thought this might have been a temporary glitch, but it happened time and time again.  When I tried to call for assistance, they said my wait would be ten minutes.  No thank you.

I got my most recent bill and had a day off, so decided I could repaint a room and wait for it to dry while I was on hold with the city.  I finally got someone on the line and said, “I need to pay my bill and then sign up for automatic payment.”  The city employee took all of my information to pay my current bill. But, of course, it wasn’t that easy.

“Oh, sorry ma’am, the system has timed me out.  Can I have that information again?”

So I repeated my name, address, VISA card number, the code on the back of the card, and expiration date.

“Oh no, it’s not letting me do this still. Let’s try once more.”

I guess the third time’s a charm, right?  Again, I repeated my name, address, VISA card number, the code on the back, and expiration date. Then I let the employee know I wanted to sign up for automatic payment because my bill was always late and I wanted to make sure to get them their outrageous payments on time.

“I am sorry ma’am, but you have to use our website to set that up.”

“I have tried so many times and it won’t let me. Can you just do it over the phone for me?”

“No, ma’am, sorry, I can’t. You have to do it on the site.”

“Well, you don’t understand, it keeps kicking me out. You just took all my information and have it stored. Why can’t you just help me?”

“Well ma’am, you need Internet Explorer to sign up on the site.  Do you have Internet Explorer?”

“No, I have a Macintosh computer, so I have other browsers.”

“Well then, you have to find a computer with Internet Explorer.”

“So you are telling me that all the Macintosh users in San Jose cannot use your website because they don’t have Internet Explorer?”

“I guess so ma’am.”

“So, the city where Apple Computers was founded cannot be used on your website?”

“I guess so ma’am.”

“Well, do you have Internet Explorer?”

“Yes.”

“But you can’t sign up me up.”

“That’s right.  You have to use our website…”

CLICK. . . . . . . .

I think I ended with all sorts of choice words about the website, the city, and something about taxpayer money going to the wrong person and hung up. I had never been confronted with such an empty vessel of idiocy in my life. When I told a friend, their response was: “And what did you expect from a city worker?” Enough said.

And then I got my water bill in the mail.

12 Comments

  1. “So you are telling me that all the Macintosh users in San Jose cannot use your website because they don’t have Internet Explorer?”

    “So, the city where Apple Computers was founded cannot be used on your website?”

    I thought Apple was founded in Cupertino.  You learn something everyday on this site.

  2. The motto of far too many public employess: “We don’t care ‘cuz we don’t have to.”
    And #2—in my experience there are far more who would be canned by a private employer than those who wouldn’t be.

  3. Jack Daniels is made in a ‘dry’ county. Seattlites mostly won’t touch Starbucks coffee. And just try to catch an Australian drinking Fosters.

    And don’t even get me started on San Franciscans and Rice-a-Roni.

  4. SG- Your experience is one we’ve all had to deal with, and not just with the City. I go through this whenever I have to call PG&E, ATT, Comcast, Visa, you name it. I hate these websites, and automated phone systems. It is enough to make you scream and claw your eyes out!

  5. Single Gal:
    My favorite thing is when you call the main city number and ask for the phone number of a specific person or city department, and they ask you why/what for.  (I guess they’ve been trained to screen calls).  Drives me crazy…just give me the damn number!

    Pete Campbell

  6. Single Gal,

    Try loading the web pages for the city’s customer service online department.  If you are behind a corporate firewall, odds are you will not be able to access the pages.  The Mercury News reported this problem over a year ago and the city’s IT department has not done a thing. 

    The IT department for some strange reason insists on using port 8443 for the secure connection to the customer service department.  Most web servers are configured to use port 8443 out of the box, mainly for testing and configuration.  When the site goes live, the normal procedure is to use the very standard port 443 that is allowed to pass through almost all firewalls. 

    The fix is trivial but it appears our IT department has better things to do than make their web site conform to standards.

  7. A well written piece Single Girl, however I do not understand the need to associate one worker with thousand of others. Why are people always drawn to this? Is it an easy way out?

    P.S. The City’s website is awful.

  8. Continuing:  I found the email I sent to the mayor and city council on Feb 16, 2007 outlining the solution after the Mercury News article ran. The Mercury News identified the problem of accessing the customer service online department but not the solution. 

    On April 19 2007, Ms. Pyle’s office forwarded me an email from the city’s IT department head:

    “I apologize for taking this long to give you an update.  Shortly after Mr. xxxxxx contacted the City we reviewed his concerns and concurred that the improvements should be made.  We looked at several options for correcting the problem and decided to implement a fix where that would minimize the disruption to the home users of the system. The fix we selected requires a purchase of new hardware which is underway and hopefully we will receive in a couple of week. It will take a few weeks of configuration after the computers arrive.  Please contact me if you have additional questions or any concerns.  I keep you up to date as we proceed on the project.”

    Looks like the IT department has been sitting on this “few weeks” project for over one year.

    The names have been redacted to protect the innocent and the guilty.

  9. San Jose needs to return to the KISS policy.
        “Keep It Simple Stupid”, It`s not rocket science.My God, what`s the problem, has everyone lost touch.Return to basics.

  10. The flight of the competent from SJ is going full tilt, especially IT. All of us “overcompensated” are feeling the brunt of Senior Management appointments based on one’s capacity to toe the party line of Green Biotech Smart Growth Strong Neighborhoods are dropping into the cesspool of cynical morale. Sorry, you get what you elect, with the blessing of the Mercury News. Screw up the City and on to County governance.

  11. Have Pierluigi put his software expertise to use in fixing this glitch. He loves to expouse his software background so he would be the perfect person to contact.

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