Doxo website founder disputes 'negative picture' portrayed by Jasper officials

Jasper Mayor Paul Evans
Jasper Mayor Paul Evans

JASPER, Tenn. - When city leaders warned Jasper residents last month against using third-party payment websites to pay their water bills, the co-founder of the site specifically mentioned he wasn't happy about the portrayal.

Roger Parks, co-founder of doxo.com based in Seattle, said he contacted Mayor Paul Evans about the story in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and that Evans "walked away with a different impression" than what was in the article.

"I am mostly troubled that no one involved in this whole article talked to doxo or has seen the user experience, or knows how it works - and the outcome is what is a very negative picture of us and our service ("warning")over what is apparently a single (or two or three ever?) customer issues," Parks said in an email. "Unfortunately, that damage has already been done."

Parks was particularly agitated with City Attorney Mark Raines's description of doxo when he said in March that the company was "taking advantage of people."

"For the city attorney to defame us like that, without any discovery of facts, it's really frustrating," Parks said.

Evans said the reason the doxo website was mentioned during the city meeting last month was that it's the first site that appears in a Google search.

"If you're the first one, most of the time, that's the one people are going to use," he said.

Evans said he knows there are several other websites that offer the same service and that he didn't know which one was used by the customers who had trouble with the slow payments.

"It didn't tell us what company they used," he said. "They had proof they paid it. Well, we didn't have the money. It wasn't credited, but we worked with them. I worked with them to get the water turned back on."

Parks said there are currently 231 doxo users in Jasper, including businesses, who use the site to pay their water bills with the town, among other things.

"We have been sending payments to the town of Jasper since mid-2016, and this is the first time we have been made aware of any issue related to those payments," he said. "We track the status of payments so we know that those payments have been [made]."

Parks said the company reaches out to the town every month via postcard or email to let them know users are sending payments using the service and invite them to receive those payments directly for free.

"We actively are trying to engage and educate around our service," he said.

Parks said payments made through his company aren't late because they are sent according to a schedule provided to the user.

"In fact, in the case of the town of Jasper, we are sending the funds via paper check, so we specifically require the doxo user to check a box acknowledging the delivery date, and if that is too late, to go pay the bill via some other means," he said.

For a town or any biller to tell people not to use third-party payment services "isn't appropriate," he said.

"Ironically, we have been offering a way for users to make a payment online to the town of Jasper longer than Jasper has offered something," Parks said.

Jasper hasn't put the warning on its website against using third-party payment companies other than the town's own system as city leaders suggested they might do last month, but Evans said Jasper's system is the only one the town can control.

"If you're having trouble paying a $20 water bill, come in [to city hall] and talk to us," he said. "Work with us. It's easier to pay a $20 bill than it is a $100 bill - a whole lot easier. We work with everybody."

Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events