DallasGo payments all charging convenience fee?
Posted by dacree324@reddit | Dallas | View on Reddit | 36 comments
Today is the first day to sign up autopay with the new DallasGo system for water bills.
I signed up and added my Credit card and oops, there's a service fee.
No problem I think, I entered my bank account information and went to use that to pay my bill.
There's still a convenience fee. I don't understand why.
betterthingsahead88@reddit
So confused - my account # from the last 9 years is no longer valid, I haven’t received the activation letter, and my bill is due today 5/18 - currently on hold to speak to a human
queequegs_pipe@reddit
exact same boat here. looks like calling worked for you. when i called this morning, it made me go through the whole menu select, told me every representative was busy, and then automatically hung up on me. i emailed the city and they were basically like "yeah give it a few days to work" - ridiculous!
betterthingsahead88@reddit
Oh the system hung up on me too but I called back and got someone after 50 min on hold. I just know if I didn’t sit it out I’d get late fees. Luckily today was a work from home day but otherwise I’d be SOL
queequegs_pipe@reddit
how many tries did it take you to get to a human? i called 6 times yesterday and once today and i'm still just getting automatically hung up on
betterthingsahead88@reddit
Frustrating!! I just sat it out on hold while doing other things and got someone after 50 min. That was my 2nd call.
betterthingsahead88@reddit
Took a full hour on hold to get a new acct # and an authorization code; $2.18 “convenience fee” if paying by either bank account or debit - ridiculous
awkward_mallard@reddit
Thank you for posting this, because it made me remember the postcard that I promptly threw away that said this was changing.
FWIW, I just signed up and there isn't a fee is you use the ACH Checking. Can confirm!
I had to create a new account but it puts up all your info once you confirm your account number and a piece of personal information on file.
betterthingsahead88@reddit
I tried using both bank checking account and debit and it was charging a fee either way - they have my TX DL & SSN - am I missing something?
awkward_mallard@reddit
OK I got curious about this and went back and looked more. They dont mention the convenience fee at any point when youre setting up the autopay, but when I manually tried to pay a test dollar, I got it too. So apparently they just sneak it in there and hope if you're on autopay you don't notice?
betterthingsahead88@reddit
I didn’t try to set up auto pay this time as I was in a hurry but might try next month and see
Zachhhhhhhh@reddit
Yes so I was confused about this too. It's only autopay that allows for no convenience fee. If you try to do a one time payment there's still the fee even if you use e-check. The FAQ says there won't be any late fees during the transition so I think as long as you setup e-check and put autopay you'll avoid the fee.
UnknownQTY@reddit
If they’re gonna charge me a fee, I’m gonna get some fucking credit card points out of it.
Ok_Foundation2125@reddit
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY - we all need to switch to cc (where they *actually* get charged) if this is the case because otherwise they’re getting free money (bc it doesn’t cost them 3% to get money through bank)
Purple-Claim-5782@reddit
This thread makes me want to mail a check for the first time in my elder millennial life.
Ok_Foundation2125@reddit
I’ve heard from multiple people that they lose checks and charge late payments. There is no way to prove they got the check on time!
Unbridled-Apathy@reddit
Looks like the fee may only be waived for checks via auto pay.
I'm imagining the hell that is ensuing with this flash cut to the entire customer base. I never received any snail/email with the activation code, and I'm probably not the only one.
dacree324@reddit (OP)
Oh maybe checks AND autopay need to be configured, I'll try that.
Ok_Foundation2125@reddit
Yes so I think the first payment charged a convenience fee and going forward if you have automatic payments set up with your bank info then it shouldn’t do convenience fee going forward. I’m going to keep an eye on it tho because mine was $6 so I can’t imagine people with pools, etc
scuddy_wuzz@reddit
Probably outsourced this “upgrade” to AI…
Konstantin_Levin@reddit
I can’t get the stupid 2FA email to come through.
IFERROR_lol@reddit
Same. the 2FA codes took hours to arrive on yahoo mail accounts. I switched to a microsoft account and had no issues there (setup 3 different accounts).
Suspicious-Town3990@reddit
Same
YaGetSkeeted0n@reddit
My guess is that it’s basically a cost recovery mechanism to help pay for the software, which I guess makes sense, but it makes it feel like a real nickel and dime situation
YaGetSkeeted0n@reddit
Actually, looking at the FAQ there’s no fee for the eCheck (ACH) option.
IFERROR_lol@reddit
It's not cost recovery. They contracted out to paymentus which is what most municipalities use. I supervise utilities for dozens of apartments in the area and the highest fee prior to this was $3 per account/payment. Now Dallas is trying to charge $228.87 for one ACH payment on one account.
Skydog69@reddit
I emailed them about this today lol and they said if you use your checking account with auto pay there’s no fee. Which is a relief, the new site is nice but the old one worked fine, I just had autopay on and never looked at it. I was pissed if I was going to have to use a check or in person to avoid these fees
steelareolas@reddit
If you scroll to the bottom there’s an obscure button to turn on autopay, which I activated and am using echeck. Stay tuned if the payment is processed without the fee.
WATTS123@reddit
I set this up too. Fingers crossed.
mixem143@reddit
Sigh...I cannot even create my account. I receive the multi-factor passcode sent via email, but I cannot get past the next page when I need to submit 1 of the 3 additional information.
What a Charlie Foxtrot....
WeAteMummies@reddit
Looks like this "Paymentus Technology Platform" is taking 3% for processing this payment and that fee is being passed on to you.
mmmarklar@reddit
talk about a botched rollout. how long were they down to get this up and running? and they're charging me extra for this monstrosity. they couldn't even get user accounts over? terrible.
jmccw@reddit
Not sure I've ever had to make a new, second account in the same system before. How many thousands will have to create a new email address just to complete that step? Poor form from the vendor. 👎
beefyboys@reddit
Basically, Dallas chose a crappy vendor
notadamnprincess@reddit
The last vendor was better and this one is lousy. I miss getting the email letting me know I had a new bill, and invoices that actually made sense - identified my the date of the invoice and not the due date of payment (seriously, who does that?)
adam_ltt@reddit
feels like every city service website redesign somehow ends up worse and more expensive than the old system lol
tabrizzi@reddit
That's why I don't sign up for stuff like that. I used to write a check, but since my back now has a free bill pay function, I just use that.