Southern California Edison AKA the U.S. Mint of Southern California Rosemead California

I last paid my bill by calling up SCE customer service and reading my payment information over the phone to the clerk who took my call.  He must have entered my information incorrectly because the payment did not go through.  I did not find out about this until I got my next SCE bill and saw a returned check fee.  First off, I did not pay them by writing a check.  But, whatever.  Even if you are paying electronically from your checking account, they will still charge you a fee if they are unable to process the payment.  I am very precise when I give out my numbers for payment purposes, and I know I was not at fault here.  As a matter of fact, I remember not having a lot of confidence in the clerk who was helping me, and I repeated my payment info twice!  

Once I saw the return check fee, I called them up, expecting to get the fee removed.  They told me it didn't matter whether the clerk made a mistake or I made a mistake, that 'return check' fee was staying on my bill. The person I spoke to (a supervisor) wasn't very nice about it either.  I told him I would be filing a complaint with the Califonria public utilities commission over this policy.  This is outrageous.  

So any time I pay my bill, I run the risk of a return check fee if their underpaid, overworked clerk does not enter my payment information correctly??  Since this 'mistake' was all done electronically, within seconds, explain to me how they can justify collecting more money from me in the form of the 'fee' for their inconvenience.  What inconvenience?  How many millions of customers are they collecting these kinds of fees from in any given year?  I would like to know how much SCE makes every year by charging customers for mistakes that THEIR OWN CLERKS MAKE..  

This is a way for a privately-run, public utility to mint money.  Shame on them!  

Don't forget to call and/or file your complaint with the public utilities commision.  If enough people complain, they will be investigated and forced to change this outrageous policy.