Home Banking Payment Error

I received my bill from a utility company a few days ago and yesterday I got so excited to pay it off that I didn’t look very closely at what utility I clicked on while I was paying it online. I have been home banking for over a decade now and this is the first time this has ever happened. Instead of paying my electric bill, I paid my gas bill instead. I didn’t notice my error until I was ready to file the paper bill in my filing cabinet. It suddenly struck me that I clicked on Long Beach Utilities instead of Southern California Edison. I went back to the banks’ website to find out if there was a way to cancel the transaction. Not finding any, I finally called their customer support telephone number. After navigating through their telephone tree, I was able to get a live person. I explained my predicament but the lady informed me that the payment was already being processed as we spoke. This was about fifteen minutes after I made the payment, but the time of day conspired against me. I made the payment at about 2 p.m. which was past 5 p.m. east coast time. Well, the bank follows east coast time and they start processing transactions after 5 p.m., so once that takes place, no human can reverse the process. The customer service person suggested that I call Long Beach Utilities the next day so they can send me a refund. I figured that was too much hassle for the utility company and the bank so I decided that my erroneous payment will just have to be an advance for future gas bills, which would probably cover about two months. I went back to the banks’ website and this time I made sure I paid the correct utility company. I’ll be more careful next time. Now if only the computer can spit out cash from the bank when I need it, instead of having to go to the ATM…