Day: October 30, 2023

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There’s a real case for eschewing utility companies internet portals

The most recent case in my experience is Golden State Water.

Envelope.jpegNot only are they trying to raise the rates excessively. (What else is new?) But they’ve got this stupid system where you can’t use their web site to change anything except your email address. Oh, and using their website requires that you submit to paperless billing.

Apparently they’re not even in full control of their customer portal. They may have contracted it out, so God only knows to whom. It does explain why the site is kinda screwy.

All of this started because I’m closing one of the two post office boxes. There’s a lot of the mechanics of living that I’m having to alter since the other half died. Thus far I’ve been employing a minimalist approach because honestly I thought I’d be the hell out of California by now. That’s not going to happen, for reasons that I won’t go into.

I’m going to be here until at least Spring of 2024 so I’m having to work through a lot of the fundamentals. Mailing addresses for utilities, I’ll have to pay for 6 more months of Post office Box rental. I need to close the other halfs P.O. Box and all that kind of thing.

But, and this is the trouble spot. Most all of these utilities want you to monkey with their websites, create accounts and such and then… Don’t let you make basic changes to your account. I have one account that won’t let me change the phone number without deleting and re-creating the account. There’s another that won’t let me change the email address. Both of these situations are funny because I know folks who change phone numbers and emails more often than some people change socks.

If you can’t change basic stuff, without having to recreate an account, then the vendor will have loads of zombie accounts on their servers. That’s just as much a security issue. Figure one person might have at minimum 2 accounts, possibly more. If the account database is compromised bad actors would have access to two or more emails and passwords.

I get that there are security issues. I find myself asking if there are such security issues, then perhaps we shouldn’t be conducting business over the internet.