I owed them money a few years back and had to pay them using some online payment system.

It was necessary to do this because they failed to implement the payment plan that they agreed to. So interest was piling up and they weren't withdrawing what I owed them.

So I sign up on this system. They had to MAIL me the password. By USPS mail!

So it finally comes. I log in and pay off the entire amount.

Later, I find out that the system applied the payment to the wrong year. Apparently this was my fault somehow, as the system defaults to the current year, not the year that you owe on.

So I have to call to get that straightened out. The person applies the payment to the correct year. yea!

Now can I find out my balance? Is it paid off? "Let me transfer you to the department that can do that."

Apparently, that's a different skill set altogether. No way to check it online. Why would you ever need to do that?

Finally get to a person who can tell me. And it turns out they started the original withdrawal of funds from my bank. So now they owed ME money.

And that came by paper check, delivered by USPS of course.