Orting: Small Town With A Small View

If you're 45 or under, you too were probably excited to find out that the City of Orting 'recently' gave us all the luxury of paying our water bills online.  Wait, 'Gave' is not the right word...

So after sauntering into the City Building to hand Jane my water bill, business-card-sized notices were strung throughout the office proclaiming our CIty's leap into the 21st Century and provide online payments for all of us who:

1. Don't use Snail Mail
2. Don't want to have to come downtown and walk up to the 'payment box' and drop our letter in
3. Don't want to hear poor Jane listen to another excuse of why  whoever called her didn't pay their bill this time
4. Do use online Bill Pay for everything

Dang!  Wrong phrase above.  I said, "21st Century" above like that was something good.  

The 21st Century happened  almost 14 years ago!  The 21st century is the current century of the Anno Domini era or the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001, and will end on December 31, 2100.  It is the first century of the 3rd millennium. It is distinct from the century known as the 2000s, which began on January 1, 2000 and will end on December 31, 2099.

No, the City of Orting rolled out their online payment program and tacks on a HEFTY $2.95 convenience charge to your bill for credit card transactions.   For the average water bill, that's an additional 7% to 11% increase!  Convenient! 

I understand a percentage or two.  I use Amazon everyday, I get it.  But ATM Fees for paying your water from your mobile?  What is this?  We funding another $10,000 sidewalk painting for our downtown shoppers?  You know, the ones that frequent the bars, the medical building, the real estate company, whatever is down that creepy hallway by the liquor store?  Or, maybe...JUST MAYBE...we'll see enough money to stock the food bank for a year thrown into a Golf Cart feasability study!  That was eco-friendly too!

In all their forward fashion, the City used a 3rd party vendor 'Invoice Cloud' to build their payment platform on and then advertise it as 'eco-friendly'.   That must make that $25 Late Fee powerful enough to cure Global Warming!  We're safe from Lahars!

So online bill payers of Orting rejoice!  Our City has stepped up convenience for us all by bringing in a fee that is archaic and couldn't quite look into it enough to see that there are other options that weren't so revealing of their depth of knowledge of online, er, anything. 

PS:  Next time you're in the City Building, give Jane a smile :-)  She's nice and has more patience than Job (this is not pronounced 'jawb').