Eastlink: No Internet Bill Pay!

I used to think that Island Tel Advanced [sic] Solutions was the only company of PEI that wouldn’t accept online payment of bills through my local Credit Union. But I was wrong. Regular readers will recall that we switched business telephone service from Island Tel to Eastlink back in December. While Eastlink’s service has been excellent, I found today, going to pay our bill online for the first time, that they don’t support this.

When I called their customer service centre, I was told that “we really wish we had it” but that “we’ve stopped telling customers it’s only going to be a couple of months because we’ve been telling them that for a year.”

Online bill payment is, I think, a very basic “price of entry” for any utility, and I’m frankly amazed at this oversight by Eastlink. Ironically, they accept online payment for cable television and for high speed Internet, just not for telephone service.

While this isn’t enough to push me back to Aliant, every month when I have to call them up to pay by credit card, or write them a cheque, I’m going to think a little “boy these Eastlink folks don’t have it together, do they” thought, and that can’t be good for business.