Bill Pay Hell, and how they screw you over

I don't know about you, but I pay all of my bills through my bank using a service called 'bill pay.'  Such a deal!  I haven't bought a book of stamps in, oh, maybe three years.  Everything was wonderful, until this past week.  In the past, I just keyed in dollar amounts without really looking at when the bill was actually going to be paid.  I mean everything was getting paid on time so it didn't seem to be that important.  On 6/6/13, at 7:15 AM, I keyed in three bills and for the first time I looked at when they were going to be paid.  To my surprise I saw that two were going to be paid on 6/10 and one on 6/12.  I was quite surprised.  My brain grappled with this information and forced itself to wrap some form of logic around the two being paid on Monday, 6/10 - I mean, there was a weekend involved.  However, the being paid on Wednesday, 6/12 just didn't make any sense.  I immediately sent an email inquiring what might be causing the hold up.  The response was not what I was expecting.  You see my bills are actually being paid by Bill Pay (cap letters) not my bank (?) and the timeliness of payments depends upon the relationship Bill Pay has with the biller.

This can be inconvenient as hell

Well, the first thing that went through my mind was "hhmmm, that sucks."  So I shot off another email asking if I might possibly change that payment date.  The response from Customer Service at my bank was negative.  Changing the pay date is not permitted, payment date is set by the relationship Bill Pay has with the biller.  Even more distressing was the fact that 'a check was being cut on 6/12 and being mailed on 6/13.'  Bill Pay is mailing a check 8 days after I keyed the dollar amount to be paid.  That's 8 days, and you have to figure it's going to take the USPS at least 2 days to deliver the payment.  As far as I am concerned, this is pure horse shit.  I shot back another email asking how this was supposed to be convenient.  My third response was a rather generic "if you have questions you may want to call our 888 number."  I'm not calling.   Nothing is going to change.  Bill Pay is supposed to make things easier, not complicate them.  I went back and looked at all of the bills I've have paid through Bill Pay (hundreds and hundreds) and saw that those billers who accept electronic payment (UGI, PP&L) get paid right away, those who don't (like my dentist's office) have to wait.  Obviously Bill Pay wants me to write my own checks and only use them for electronic payments, which is pretty damn stupid.  You see the billers who accept electronic payment?  I can pay them myself, I don't need to use Bill Pay.  Like I said, this is horse shit.