oh lord. will the nabobs at the City of Yarra never get their act together?

In July, I made a booking for a room for a family Christmas do. there will be maybe 40 adults and 25 kids at this thing. last night I got an email requesting final payment, which I'd forgotten (the letter I received said it was "confirmed", so I actually thought I'd paid). no problem, I thought, I'll pay by credit card over the phone. this is, after all, a huge, multimillion dollar government in its own right.

no. no, I must go to a town hall, in heavy traffic a few days before Christmas, and pay IN PERSON. no phone payments are possible for "casual bookings". after long discussion with the man in charge about how STUPID this is, he's faxing me a form which I can drop off at a slightly less inconvenient location. but it's still a pain. I have no choice; they have my bond and I have aunties and cousins descending on said location in a week. I guess I should be grateful it's not earlier this year, when they still required payments in cold, hard, cash. what is it, a council or a drug dealer?