My Stress-Relieving Nightmare with the 'Gosuslugi. Dom' Mobile App

Hello fellow readers!

I've been seeing the Government Services. Home mobile app everywhere lately. It's supposed to be a convenient online service for Russian citizens to tackle everyday issues without leaving home, from creating applications for utility services to keeping tabs on apartment account balances. We're being told this app will make life easier and more convenient, freeing us from bank commission fees for payments and saving us time spent running around to different institutions, waiting in lines. But is that really the case?

So, what's the deal with the 'Government Services. Home' app?

You can download it for free from the official Government Services website (via QR code) or from app stores for Android smartphones and Apple devices. After installing the app, you'll need to go through a simple authorization process within it using the 'Government Services' mobile app.

Government Services Home what app

Brief guide to registration and logging in to your personal account in the 'Government Services. Home' mobile app

To register, you'll need to have a verified account on 'Government Services.' After authorizing through 'Government Services' on your smartphone, you can log in to your personal account and start using the program.

Government Services Home InstructionThe home page looks like this. ⌘

Government Services Home Gis Housing ReviewsThis is the login stage. ⌘

Government Services Home LoginConfirming login to the app using 'Government Services'. ⌘

Government Services Home AndroidAt this stage, you need to come up with a PIN code for login and confirm it. ⌘

Government Services Home App LoginThe next step is to select your apartment based on the information provided by Rosreestr. ⌘xa0

After all these actions, you'll see a long page on your screen. ⇐

Government Services App Reviews

Government Services Android App User Reviews

Install Government Services AppWhat can you do with the Government Services App?

The app gives you access to a wide range of services related to utility management. In theory, you can:

view your utility bills, submit meter readings, pay for utilities, submit applications and requests, and get information about their status.

In the 'Meter Readings' section, you can submit your meter readings. ⤵️

Government Services App Meter Readings Reviews

Government Services App Meter Reviews

Utility Services: Checking Meter ReadingsI love how easy it is to view and pay bills for my apartment in the "Bills" section. Just click on the bill, and you'll be taken to the payment page. ⤵️

My Personal Account in the Utility Services App

Utility Services App: My Personal Account

Utility Services App: A Convenient ToolBut let's get real – all this convenience is just theory. In practice, it's a different story.

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My negative experience with paying utility bills through the 'Government Services. Home' app

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I decided to try paying my utility bills through the mobile app 'Government Services. Home' in April 2024, thinking I could save some money, but I soon regretted it.

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After logging in to the app on my smartphone, I navigated to the 'Bills' section. At first glance, everything seemed fine – no hidden traps.

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Next, I went to the 'Payment' section, chose the service, and clicked 'Pay'. Then, a payment page opened, where I had to choose from three payment methods:

Using a bank card. Using the 'Mir Pay' system. Using the Fast Payment System (FPS).

government services home paymentI chose FPS and was redirected to a page where I had to select the bank for the payment.

Mobile app review for public servicesI chose "Sberbank" and was redirected to the Sber app on my smartphone. After entering my password, I paid part of the services. Unfortunately, I was unable to pay some of them because the program refused to accept the payment. As it turned out later, this played a crucial role in the emergence of debts for utilities, which appeared in the bill the following month.

It's worth noting that after payment in my personal Sber account, a full receipt is not generated. Instead, some sort of receipt is created, which is hard to understand. If you look at the receipt in your Sber account through a browser on your computer, it shows:

the payment operator (in this case, GIS for utilities), the last four digits of the card used to make the payment, the date and time of the operation, the type of operation (in my case, it says I paid using the Sber QR code), the commission fee (if there was one), the MCC code for the trading point, the card balance.

Pay public servicesIt's impossible to find out which bank and who specifically received the money using this so-called receipt.

In the Sber mobile app, the receipt is quite different (if you save it as a PDF on your device). It's way more informative. It includes details like:

date and time of the transaction, type of operation, document number, last four digits of the card used for payment, transaction amount, Sberbank operation number, recipient's address, name of the legal entity receiving the payment, name of the receiving bank.

Sber payment through Gosuslugi DomAt the end of May 2024, I found out about my debts from a utility bill receipt. And it wasn't just one debt – I had multiple outstanding payments, which was both surprising and frustrating. xa0

I started investigating the debt. Through various channels, I discovered that all transactions were going through Bank VBR (Address: 129594, Moscow, Sushchevsky Val, d. 65, corp. 1).

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I mentioned earlier that there's a Accounts section. Scroll down, and you can navigate to the History of Accruals and Payments subsection. In theory, this is where you can view all payments made through the program. However, it's not quite that simple, as the app is not fully developed and is managed manually.

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I didn't have any issues with payment history when I first directed my complaint. But two working days later, after I filed a complaint, someone quickly sorted it out, but not quite right. In the history, there were two payments I made through the app, and they had a weird status. They were both completed and not completed at the same time.

payment for utilities through public servicesIf you're experiencing issues where your payment history isn't reflecting and you have a debt in your bill, I'd recommend submitting a complaint. The organization responsible for coordinating work on creating, operating, and modernizing the Housing and Utility Services GIS system is the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation (Minstroy of Russia). "Public Services. Home" was created through a joint effort by Minstroy of Russia and the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation (Minsvyaz of Russia) based on the GISS. That's what I found out later. xa0

When you encounter problems with payment in the "Public Services. Home" app, some people suggested directly submitting a complaint to the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation (Minsvyaz of Russia). So I sent my complaint to this ministry. In June 2024, I received a response from the ministry, stating that my complaint had been forwarded to the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation (Minstroy of Russia) for consideration.

Russia's Ministry of Digital Development website form

Sample letter to the Ministry of Digital Development

Letter from the Ministry of Digital Development with their response to my inquiry

Letter from the Ministry of Digital Development addressed to the Ministry of RussiaJust a few days later, I received a response from the Ministry of Russia. It stated that my inquiry had been forwarded to the operator of the Housing and Utility Services GIS - AO "Operator of the Information System". And that's the very same company responsible for running the GIS system.

Letter from the Ministry of Russia addressed to AO "Operator of the Information System"

[image] letter from the Ministry of Construction of Russia, addressed to AO "Operator of Information Systems"In July 2024, I received a response from AO "Operator of Information Systems", which informed me that all payments had been sent to the banks of the payees via payment orders and that all their obligations to me had been fulfilled. To back up their claim, they provided me with all the payment orders. The response also recommended that I follow up on the receipt of money by the suppliers of communal services, which I did subsequently.

[image] letter from AO Operator of Information Systems

[image] letter from AO Operator of Information Systems to the municipal servicesWhere did the debt in my bill come from?

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I've been dealing with the service providers for my utilities, and it turns out that when I pay through the 'Government Services. Home' app, the money doesn't even make it to the specific provider's account. Instead, it gets split proportionally among all the service providers. So, if you're paying for a specific service like hot water supply through the app, the local agent in charge of collecting, distributing, and paying out the money will still distribute the payment proportionally among all the services listed on the bill. This means the money you paid for hot water supply will end up being distributed to cold water supply, capital repairs, and so on. That's why, if you dare to pay your utility bills through this app, pay all your bills at once. If the app refuses to accept a single payment, just don't pay at all, or you'll end up dealing with unexplained debt on your bill in the future and wasting time and energy trying to figure out why.

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Conclusion

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By saving on commission and paying my bills through the app, I ended up with a huge headache and wasted a lot of time and energy that I could've used for something more beneficial. I even had to pay penalties that were charged during the period when I was trying to figure out my payments and wasn't paying for my utilities. It took me over two months to sort out the debts, including those caused by the Government Services. Home app.

The app developers' biggest mistake is that everything is paid for separately. It's impossible to pay all the services listed on your utility bill in one go. If 'Gosuslugi Dom' allowed you to pay all the amounts listed on your bill in a single payment (just like you can when paying with a QR code in any bank app), that would be super convenient and worth it. Unfortunately, this lack of polish, plus the time, stress, and energy I wasted, is why I'm giving this app one star - and even that's a stretch.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any more questions about the app that's the subject of this review, feel free to ask! I'd be happy to answer them. It's also great to hear your own experiences with the app in the comments.

The information in this review is just my personal opinion, and it's subjective. It's based on my own experience with the app.

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