Ever since then, I’ve been impatiently for my next TEP bill. Yes, really. I’ve been eager to try out the “new” e-bill system and see how it compares. Also, I told Michael the webmaster that I’d give him my feedback. So here it is!

Step 1: Looks the same at this point!

Step 1: Login to account manager and click on the “View/Pay Bill” button. It’s suspiciously exactly like it was before so far, but I have faith that it will be better! I wonder if it’ll take me directly to my current bill.

Step 2: Look! Pretty and organized!

Step 2: Nope. Not my current bill, but what’s this lovely looking list? Could it be my bills in reverse chronological order, starting with the current bill? It is! What a great change from before, when the list of bills seemed to be randomized like my iTunes on shuffle, or like I was playing hide and seek with my current bill. It looks way nicer, too! And there are pretty buttons that look like buttons and, more importantly, they’re all consistent in appearance so far!

Step 3: I’m going to click on “Pay” now. Wish me luck! Wha? An error dialog box? What did I do? Wait, it’s not an error message. It wants me to set up my bank account information. Hmm. Wasn’t expecting this type of dialog box; it’s a bit odd. Also, it’s a little bit of  a hassle that I have to enter in my banking info again, but it makes sense that I should have to since I haven’t used this particular system before.

Step 3.5: (Not counting this  as a full step, since I wouldn’t normally have to enter in my banking information.) Decent looking form, and the buttons are still looking consistent! They’re still in the wrong order, though, but it’s not the worst of things. And to be fair, Jakob Nielsen says that it doesn’t matter. I’d still like to think there should be a web standard for this, but yeah, not the worst of things. As long as it stays consistent!

Step 4: (I’m not taken directly back to the payment screen, but it’s easier to find now!) Now I click on “Pay” one more time, expecting to be taken straight to my payment screen and be on my way! Except . . . there’s another one of those pesky dialog boxes. What did I do wrong this time? Oh. I see. It wants me to confirm my action. Not sure how I feel about this one – I think it’s unnecessary step.

Step 5: Ah ha! Here’s my payment screen, and doesn’t it look pretty and simple. I enter the relevant information and then I press the “Submit” button and I’m pleasantly surprised to have a very straightforward payment confirmation screen – no extra, superfluous steps like with MyCheckFree! Wow, I was seriously not expecting it to be that easy, but like I said, I’m pleased. And I’m even given a link back to “My Payments” so I can double check or edit my payment if I need to.

Huge improvement, TEP! And thanks, Michael the webmaster, for letting me know this was available for use instead of MyCheckFree! My only complaint, really, is the dialog boxes. They’re a little unexpected, and I’m not sure why they are from the browser instead of the application itself – perhaps that would make them less jarring? All in all, I’m now a much happier customer and not just because my bill was way lower this month thanks to the change in temperature.

Before writing my post, I did complain via TEP’s website survey, and I got a quick and courteous response from the webmaster, Michael Beard. I mentioned in the survey how unhappy I was with the e-bill feature and told him to expect a nice long letter detailing my complaints. By this time, despite the reply I got from Michael, I was intent on writing what is now one of my first blog posts. Well, he took it in stride and also managed to solve my problem – all within 36 hours of posting my open letter.

Much to my surprise and delight, there is a different e-bill feature that I can use… and has been for three years. The less-than-helpful MyCheckFree is a legacy feature. And I couldn’t be happier to be through with it!

Here are the emails I got from Michael yesterday and today (posted with his permission):

Sara,

Thank you for sending that link. I’m sorry for the problems that you detailed in your letter, but the information was quite helpful. As you pointed out, that site is MyCheckfree.com, and that’s how they present a billing page for all companies who use their service. That’s one of the reasons we switched to a different provider about 3 years ago. If I had seen this information a while ago, I would have suggested then that you cancel TEP e-bill and, if you’d be willing after that bad experience, re-enroll and try the new service. It’s much more user-friendly and intuitive, and it even looks like our site.

If you are using CheckFree’s services for any other bills, you might not want to cancel TEP e-bill since then you’d end up going to more than one site to pay your bills. If, however, your TEP bill is the only one on the CheckFree site, I highly recommend that you cancel, wait a month as a double-check that everything pending is clear, and then re-enroll. I’m sure you’ll find the new provider much better.

Let me know if you’d like to pursue canceling e-bill, and I’ll work with Customer Service to get that done.

Sincerely,
Michael Beard

and

Good morning,

Since we are already talking about this issue, there is no need to push the request anywhere else. Consider it under way! I will contact Customer Service and ask them to cancel your current TEP e-bill enrollment. I’ll also ask them to let us both know when your next billing cycle is coming up. As I mentioned before, we don’t want to miss anything. After your next bill is generated, you can then sign up once more for the e-bill program. Note that you won’t need to do anything with your Account Manager registration. You’ll still be able to log in as before while you’re “off” the e-bill program. What you’ll see is that the “View/pay bill” button will say “Sign up for TEP e-bill”. Just wait until you get your next bill in the mail, then click that button, and you’ll be on your way with the newer provider.

There is only one program, TEP e-bill, so it would be a bit confusing once you know that there is an old, legacy, provider and a newer one. That’s just because we have one paperless billing option. We are in the process of redesigning the entire Account Manager section, and when it is implemented it will include a button/link to check out the new e-bill system. We have already worked out the mechanics of it so that if a customer decides to switch, all they need to do is click a button. No need to go through the manual process you and I are working out at the moment. As a side note, the reason we couldn’t just mass migrate everyone to the new program is that CheckFree offers more biller enrollments on their site, and switching everyone would have caused a huge problem for anyone paying other bills through them. It has to be customer choice.

Feel free to post my response. You had a very bad time of it in the past, so showing resolution would be great!

I have a few things going on this morning, so I’ll send in the request to Customer Service about your e-bill enrollment as soon as I get back.

Sincerely,
Michael Beard

and finally . . .

Hello again,

Our customer care folks are really good, and quick. I received word back from them that they not only turned off the CheckFree link, but they already switched you over to the new provider. Excellent!

As you navigate around in there, please let me know if you have any questions. There are different options as part of the overall e-bill system, so feel free to contact me with questions. Also keep in mind that we are working on a re-build of Account Manager, which will also affect how this newer e-bill system looks and works.

Take care,
Michael Beard

Thank you, Michael and TEP for being responsive. I haven’t checked out the new system yet, but I’ll be sure to give you my evaluation of it!