monopoly bureaucracy, take 2

Why my electric company... well, the only descriptors I have are words I don't like to use.

• They charge a fee for each bill payment automatically deducted from one's bank account -- just $0.20, less than the price of a stamp, but still. Should be free.
  
• They charge $5.95 for paying by credit card instead of bank account electronic funds transfer. (Granted, this money does not go to the electric company but to the company they contract with to process credit card payments.)
  
• When you attempt to use the automated voice system to pay by credit card, they don't tell you the amount of the service charge, only that there is one. You have to read your bill or the website to find the amount.
  
• I have to sign up by telephone, and the automated voice system won't take my work telephone. I forgot my cell phone today, so I have yet to see if I can sign up using my out-of-state cell phone number. If not, I guess I'm SOL, since I no longer have a land line.
  
• The live customer service person could not do an electronic funds transfer for me.
  
• The customer service person could not transfer me to the numbers he advised me to call.
  
• The customer service person told me that I could pay using a credit card which, according to the website, the company does not accept.
  
• The customer service person did not use any of the polite pleasantries that serve to mitigate the annoyance of having to call in the first place.

Grah. I had trouble getting set up with them when I moved in, although I did not have to visit their office in person.

And now the minutes of my lunch break that I meant to spend walking outside have been spent calling the power company and writing about it. :p