More updates:
I sent this email this morning:
Good morning,
I'm still not sure exactly what's going on, but maybe I haven't been clear? I'm not unwilling to pay fees that I may owe, and I'm not trying to be uncooperative. However, the way this email discussion has happened has me *very* concerned.
First, I don't know how to verify that this isn't an elaborate phishing scheme spoofing an official entity like I've been warned about countless times by my IT friends. How can I know that this isn't that?
Second, if it's not a phishing attempt, is something being done to fix whatever glitch is happening in the system so that two months from now, in January, I won't get another message asking for payment yet again?
And third, assuming that all you've told me is legit, which part am I supposed to trust? Do I trust that the messages I receive directly from the City that literally say I've paid mean actually that; or do I trust the messages months later that tell me the first ones were wrong and mean nothing of the sort? I'm not sure how to resolve the opposing messages here.
What assurances do I have to allay these concerns-- that I may have my identity stolen; and that I can trust documentation from the City in the future?
Thanks,
[APowers]
And got this response:
Andrew – I’m sorry that you feel like this is an elaborate scam. You can search my name in Google and see that I am a legitimate employee of the [City]. If you’d like to call me, my number is [###-###-###].
Let me be clear that your $119 payment was not paid by your bank. Again, it would be very easy for you to confirm that by reviewing your September bank statement. Either there is a charge for $119 or there is not. We don’t have your bank account number and I am not asking for it or for any of your private information.
There is no glitch in the system. You submitted your payment online and you were given a receipt of that payment being entered. It takes a few days for transactions to reach the bank, at which time your payment was declined by your bank because the account number you entered was incorrect. I created a new invoice in the system, so that you would be notified that the payment was still due. I also notified [employee who wrote first email], so that she could reach out to you and explain what happened.
To reiterate, any further refusal to pay the $119 owed for your short-term rental permit will result in revocation of said permit.
More happened after this exchange today, but I wanted to address AMandM's comment as a digression.
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I think the fundamental problem is that you are attaching too much weight to the original receipt. When you think about it, almost all non-cash receipts are issued in anticipation of the actual transfer of funds from payer to payee.
Actually, I DON'T think I'm attaching too much weight to this. If anything, perhaps not enough. I think this is a *very* serious issue, on a legal level, particularly for the City as a government entity. The government body is issuing legal payment receipts and then claiming that those receipts don't matter when it comes to proving receipt. But that's
the *entire* point of a receipt. That's it. If that function is abrogated on principle, business is inoperable. Either a receipt IS a proof of payment, or it is a giant unmitigated legal principle disaster.
We all know this when it comes to a large private party sale, say, a car; which is why we do not, under any circumstances, give the buyer a bill of sale until we have the money actually in hand. Because the receipt *proves* the payment. We can't go back later and claim it only proves they gave us their account numbers.
This is exactly why the bounced/cashier's/stopped check scam works-- I sell my thing, take the bad check, it bounces, and now it's
too late, because now they are in possession of a document (a bill of sale/receipt) that says I sold them my thing in exchange for fair payment. The receipt is legal proof of payment.
I think the fact that I have proof of payment when no payment actually took place is a BIG deal in a small instance. But it's the principle of the thing, and the principle really is massively important.
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Okay, so that was the email exchange this morning. I'm not operating in bad faith here, and the City person gave me a way to verify her legitimacy as not a scammer, so I made a trip to the City offices to do that. Prior to that stop, I stopped at my bank and had them thoroughly check for any City transactions, just to make sure I knew what was actually the case on my end, before talking to someone at the City. Bank could find no trace of a payment or authorization to pay the City.
I got to the Planning Dept, and asked for the employee by the name on the email, and she knew who I was and what the issue was. That was good.
In talking to her, I realized that there was even more confusion than was apparent. The multiple people responding from the Planning Dept didn't get the screenshots and docs that I had initially shared with the person who started the email conversation. When I explained what was going on, she asked to see the receipt I had, and when I showed it to her, her whole demeanor about the exchange shifted. She agreed that my receipt showed actual payment confirmation, and that that was a real problem. I offered to pay the fee, but only if she could give me honest legal proof of payment; she did, and processed my payment. I also asked who I needed to speak to about the problem of sending payment receipts with no actual payment, and she said she will be personally meeting with the people in charge of the system to address this issue.
And, running an AirBnB is a business. You have a responsibility to treat it like a business, including all the regulatory requirements in your location. This isn't the government making a land-grab on your personal home.
I agree, and I think part of running it as a business is taking time and effort as warranted to hold the regulatory bodies accountable to good practices, instead of just cowing to any action they may desire.
Time to drop the rope. You must have something better to do with your time.
Can't you just look at the date of your receipt and then look at your bank statement. If the payment didn't go through, then just pay it. You're spending more time on MMM than what this issue is worth. Move on.
Eh, I don't feel like I've spent an inappropriate amount of time on it. I think I've gotten at least as much value out of this whole deal as effort I've put into it.
