I owed Con Ed money, so I went to their website (www.coned.com) to pay.

After going to "my account," I signed in with my account number, and chose the "pay my bill" option. I filled in the boxes to pay directly from my checking account (because if I pay by credit card they charge me an extra $4.75). Then I got a screen saying "Unable to accept Pay Online request." This happened three days in a row. I took a screenshot to prove Con Ed's refusal to accept payment.

Here's the fun part:

I have now made a serious, good-faith effort to pay my bill, and they repeatedly refused to accept my payment. It seems to me that, legally, I no longer owe them the money. After all, if I go to a restaurant and order food, then when I try to pay they tell me it's on the house, they can't come after me later and demand that I pay for my dinner.

Con Ed is once again asking for a major rate increase, on top of the increase they got just last year. Perhaps they need to raise their rates because more and more people are trying to pay online and Con Ed isn't getting their money.