A couple of days ago, hubbs and I suddenly realized our water bill was due the next day. The problem with the water bill is that we can’t pay it online so even though the amount is not even RM10, we have pay the bill in person. And what irks us is that we can’t pay in advance, for example, pay RM50 up front for the next few months. Advanced payment is only allowed if we go directly to the PBA, which isn’t very convenient. So we made our way to the post office in Tesco during lunchtime to pay the miserable seven-something bill. There were many people waiting in the post office already and it was disheartening to find out that we were about 50 numbers away from being called. SIGH.
Boredom does weird things to people, I tell you. Have you ever flipped your water bill over to see what it says on the back? Well, sometimes there is a need to state an estimated amount on the water bill and here is a list of codes associated to why a particular amount is estimated:
Hehe…. the funny ones are:
G: Anjing Garang (Fierce Dog)
L: Pembaca Meter Bercuti (Meter Reader on vacation)
…and so the wait continued. More and more people arrived at the mini post office and took their respective numbers but only one counter was available. The man behind the counter, who went by the name of Yee, was handling each and every customer with tremendous efficiency. Parcels, registered mail, stamps, bills, ASN accounts…. and he didn’t look the least bit frustrated that all of his colleagues had walked out for lunch. Yes, in the midst of the huge lunchtime crowd, I witnessed 3 of Mr Yee’s colleagues walk out, waving a cheery goodbye to the poor man, leaving him at the mercy of all the tired and restless customers. Tsk tsk… to think they can’t even reschedule their lunch time to accommodate the crowd. But kudos to Mr Yee, for here was a man that faced adversity head on and handled every customer with ease.
So finally after about 40 minutes of waiting around, my number was called. Paying the water bill took less than a minute. We even took the opportunity to change our voter’s registration address. Hubbs and I are registered voters and have been so since we hit the age of 21, but our voting address had been still in our hometowns of Ipoh and Taiping, and since we changed to the MyKad with our Penang addresses, we have yet to change our voting address. Up till that day. Changing our voting address would mean a change in our voting constituency. Mr Yee told us it would take THREE WHOLE MONTHS for the change of address to be reflected in the voters’ registration database. Why so long, no one knows…. hopefully the change would have already taken effect by the time the national election comes round.
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I used to pay my water bills online with no problems. I used RHB and they had Syabas or Puas as a payee. Not sure if Penang has the same providers.
The Giddy Tiger says: Unfortunately, Penang’s water provider is neither. It’s PBA.
Actually you can use Maybank Online to pay. It was already available a few months back. I been using it since.
The Giddy Tiger says: Hmm…I didn’t know because I don’t have a Maybank account. Can you pay for me ah? *wink*
At first I went wow over Penang’s cheap water rates but I went double WOW when I was in Capetown and learned from hubby’s posted colleagues that the water supply over there is FOC!!!!
The Giddy Tiger says: It is FOC??? Unbelievable!
maybank online or citibank online also can 🙂
The Giddy Tiger says: Don’t know about Maybank, but Citibank online does not allow online payment for PBA. For PUAS bills, can.
Yalor, water bill is the most troublesome one, I even got cut once for RM15 due (mimimum RM5 for 3 months). Sometime you wonder why news said there are corporations owed millions in water and electricity bills, while they are so hardworking in teaching us the small flies a lesson.
Jabatan Air is actually state control, i guess Jabatan Air Penang and Melaka haven’t caught up with their Klang Valley counterparts yet..
The Giddy Tiger says: You got that right.
LOL @ Anjing Garang (as well as the other listed reasons!!)! HAhaha.. Didn’t know our P.O. guys had such good humour :p
I’m surprised that it takes up to three months to do a simple thing. I registered to be a voter in less than 10 minutes!!
The Giddy Tiger says: Yes, the registration part is a breeze. But for the change of address to take effect, it’s three whole months! I checked my voting constituency yesterday and it still shows Ipoh.
You have to do that every month? How annoying.
The Giddy Tiger says: Or as and when the bill arrives.
Do you have a Citibank card? The minimum payment is RM5, but I’m not sure if they accept payment for Penang Water Company.
The Giddy Tiger says: I already checked and for Citibank, they don’t accept payments online for PBA, unfortunately.
How come your water bill so cheap wan? You never wash car on weekly basis issit?
The Giddy Tiger says: Aiya, how you guess ah? Paiseh… 😛
You sure you can’t pay your water bill online? Because as far as I’m concerned, we can pay almost everything online these days..
The Giddy Tiger says: I think we can do that with Maybank, but I didn’t check for sure, because I don’t own a Maybank account.
Your water bill so low? You don’t bathe daily? kekeke….
The Giddy Tiger says: Of course I bathe daily! Even my boy plays with the running water tap when he gets his shower…
haha…anjing garang LOL.
pay via online mah..then no need to wait so long :S
The Giddy Tiger says: I hope Citibank will come up with a service to pay PBA bills online.
My PB paid 6-12 mths in advanced at that inconvenient place…. so it save us the trouble to go and pay the less than RM10 bill every month. Susah satu bulan senang 5 bulan mah!
Until I read your post did I notice those stuff at the back of the bill! 😆
The Giddy Tiger says: Next time when your PB pays at that inconvenient place, can tumpang boh?
Wah… your water bill is so low ah? Kudos to Mr Yee for being such a good example of a worker!
I registered to be a voter when I hit 21, and it took over three months for the national database to be updated with my name… Malaysian efficiency kua.
The Giddy Tiger says: Good for ya…so 3 months is the norm eh?