Monday, July 21, 2008
Bad user interface mixed with uncertainty in debit card transaction processing leads to a frustrated customer, but in the end all Oligarchist Cell Phone Companies are equally bad so it's no use switching providers
Sigh.
All I wanted to do was pay a portion of the cellphone bill (Spring is getting the other half). I log into the payment site, and yes, they do have an option to pay a partial amount.
Good. I type in 68 for the amount. Then the debit card
information, yada yada yada, hit submit, and find out that I paid 68¢
of the bill.
Blink.
Blink.
Okay, I admit, I missed the confirmation screen, but I was concentrating on the “Debit Card Transaction” option:
Debit transactions may be processed via the STAR, Pulse, ACCEL, or NYCE networks. Please uncheck this checkbox if you do not want your transaction processed via the STAR, Pulse, ACCEL, or NYCE networks so your transaction can be routed through the Visa or MasterCard network, as appropriate.
Okay, whatever that is.
See, I'm already distracted from my primary task, which is to give the Oligarchist Cell Phone Company money.
I select the “What's this?” link:
If this box is not checked, the debit transaction will be processed through the Visa or MasterCard network. Contact your financial institution for more information about what the different methods of processing mean for you.
Um … whatever. I just want to make a partial payment, and that's why I didn't notice the 68¢ payment amount before authorizing the transaction.
I would like to think there was some discussion about
interpretation of inputs. I know myself, if I were paying 1¢ for
payment, I would type in 0.01, and for paying a dollar, I would
probably type in 1, seeing how I just typed in
68.
But I could see the rational here—there's an option to pay the entire bill, so the user wouldn't have to type in any amount and with a partial payment option, I suppose it's possible that someone would be likely to pay less than a dollar, although I find that odd myself. And they do have a confirmation screen, but the “Debit Card Transaction” option drew more attention than the actual data I just typed in.
This wouldn't be so bad but now I'm having trouble paying $67.32, because all I get now is:
PM700: We're sorry, but we are experiencing a temporary system error that prevents us from processing your payment.
Is that because I'm trying to do back-to-back debit card transactions? Do I need to wait? Or is there an actual error because the transaction server is down? Or the link to the bank is down? Or what?
Sigh.
