Can’t you pay online? Then there’d be a record of the date of transfer. If I had to mail a check, after what happened to you, I think I’d pay the extra to get them to have to sign for it on delivery.
I’m teaching my wife how to do it now. She prefers a paper trail and is not computer savvy but is seeing how fast and easy it is. I had to spend three whole months listening to her b*tch when the bank stopped sending back our canceled checks a while back.
In fact this ties in nicely to the story because she is sure the day she starts paying everything on line the internet will up and break on her...