West Allen Parish Water District warns customers against third-party payment site “Doxo”

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) – West Allen Parish officials say the only way to ensure your bill is paid correctly and on time is to go directly to their website to pay at: https: //westallenwater.myruralwater.com/

Some customers apparently paid through a third-party website, only to find that their payments were never made.

When some customers search online for a way to pay their water bill at Allen Parish, an option appears on doxo.com.

It’s an app where you can pay all your bills from one place. However, the West Allen Parish Water District said Doxo was not affiliated with them and they never received payment from doxo.com on behalf of their customers. They warn customers to double check and make sure they are sending the money directly to the parish as they will not be able to assist you once you click the “pay now” button on doxo.com.

KPLC-7 News reached out to Doxo for a statement and they responded to Allen Parish’s allegations with the following statement below:

Alleged claims of “affiliation with West Allen Parish

“As you can see on the West Allen Parish Water page, Doxo does not claim to be affiliated with West Allen Parish and specifically notes that we are not. Ironically, the “disclaimer” mockup provided in the media alert covers where we clearly state that we are not affiliated. »

Fee claims

“When it comes to paying a West Allen Parish water bill with a credit or debit card, the Parish charges 4% where Doxo charges 3.5% – so it’s actually cheaper to use Doxo with this payment method.

Finally, the parish disclaimer states that “Doxo may charge additional fees.” All fees charged by Doxo are clearly defined in the checkout flow. There are no “additional costs”; it’s wrong.”

Late Payment Allegations

“There is no delay between when funds are received by Doxo and when they are sent to the biller – this occurs on the same business day. Any delay in posting occurs after payment has been received by West Allen Parish. We have no visibility into their systems and processes for processing payments once received. Again, consumers using their bank to pay their bills operate the same way. Those payments go to the same processing center (so these are likely delayed as well). Users certainly shouldn’t be charged late fees for payments that arrive on time at the West Allen Parish payment address. Doxo has attempted to engage West Allen Parish in an e-deposit relationship (this is a free service from Doxo that many of our billing partners leverage), but have been unsuccessful to date.

Finally, with every Doxo payment, there is a payment schedule that tells users when and how the payment is sent, when it will be received, and when it should be processed/released. In the case of West Allen Parish, it is a paper check sent by post (similar to paying West Allen Parish through your bank bill payment service). In the checkout experience, Doxo asks the user to confirm the date before submitting the payment. And of course, everything is reiterated on the confirmation screen and email receipt (which links to the real-time status page; the payment is also cancellable from the top of this page). I would definitely encourage you to go through a payment experience yourself (you can easily cancel the payment and your account afterwards if you wish.”

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