Special offer

What the heck! You want to charge me so you can bill me???

By
Managing Real Estate Broker with Jody Keating Connective Realty,LLC, Bryan/College Station,TX

I just read an article about large companies that want to charge you for sending you your monthly bill. Yeah, get that! Can you imagine! They are graciously giving you a choice of either go paperless or we will charge you for billing you.bill

T-Mobile sent out letters to all of it's customers that receive their bills on paper, by regular mail, stating that from next month they will be charging you an additional $1.50 for a simple bill or $3.50 for an itemized bill, unless of course you decide to go paperless, in which case we won't charge you to bill you. Their reasoning behind it, is that it is more environmentally friendly to go paperless.

Now I'm not disputing the environmentally friendly point, even though any bills I get paperless, I still print out and therefore use paper, ink and electricity, not to mention space to store it, since the IRS requires that you keep a paper copy of all deductions on file for 7 years, what I'm really aggravated about it that these companies have the audacity to tell me that it is costing them money to send me a bill that I have the right to receive before I pay and then to hide their greed behind the environment.

They didn't give a rat's ass about the environment when they are sending out all of the junk mail soliciting my business. And why now are they touting that it is costing them money to mail me a bill. Surely this overhead cost was factored in when they figured up what they would charge for services. Surely the total cost to mail me my bill was an amount that they didn't pay for out of their own pocket. I'm sure that I have already been paying them to mail me the bill, as everyone else is but now they want to charge me again.

greedAnd for all the money that they are going to collect from these charges, are they going to turn it over to some environmentally friendly organization that will use it in order to protect the environment that this money is in honor off or are they going to take it to further line their pockets and boost their profits.

Maybe they should turn some of this money over to the federal postal service so that they won't have to close more post offices and cut more jobs only to have our postal rates raised again because these companies are too greedy to mail us our bill and thereby keep money pumping through the postal service.

What about all of the people that don't have internet service or don't trust the internet with personal information, they are more concerned about identity theft. Are they all forced to pay this additional fee, just so that they can pay their bill? Surely we are entitled to have our bill itemized so that we know exactly what we are paying for. It's not like T-mobile or any of the major phone carriers make a habit out of making sure their bills are correct. Mistakes on these types of bills are common but now we have to pay an additional $2.00 on top of the $1.50 they already want to charge us just so that we can check their mistakes for them on an itemized bill.

postmasterThe reason there is not more outrage about this is because the people that this is really going to affect are the very ones that don't have internet access and therefore can't write blogs like this. So to all you none internet users we're looking out for you. I'm sure that everyone reading this post knows at least 5 people who do not use the internet to receive or pay bills, in fact they may not use it at all. That works out to be $3.50 per person by five people $17.50. you do the math, that's a whole lot of money for not providing you with your right to get an itemized bill for a service you have to pay.

Also, a legal question. Wouldn't this be a breach of contract and therefore if you didn't like it, you could walk out of it without penalty.

I had heard that some companies are offering a discount if you went paperless. Now that makes a whole lot more sense. I think I just might have to pay them a visit.

Oh and while we're on the subject, I wonder when these money hungry companies decide that they will charge us for mailing in a check and not paying it by automatic withdrawal of eft? I wonder!

Ok I'm done venting now, thanks!


Comments (5)

John Rakoci
Eagle Realty - North Myrtle Beach, SC
North Myrtle Beach Coastal Carolinas

If my cell carrier follows this- I'll try to find another that does not. Most monthly bills for 2 homes and a business are automatically withdrawn from my checking- an invoice is required for tax records. If that is too much of a bother for them I will do everything possible to find another supplier that appreciates my business enough to understand.

Sep 03, 2009 10:23 AM
Jody Keating
Jody Keating Connective Realty,LLC, Bryan/College Station,TX - Bryan, TX
Broker/MM/Realtor, Bryan / College Station, TX

Thanks John,

I agee with you. Thanks for your comments.

Pass the info on......

Sep 03, 2009 10:28 AM
C Tann-Starr
Tann Starr & Associates, Inc. - Palm Bay, FL

Oh my word... I may have to go check out Sprint on this subject. Awesome friggin vent! :-D

Sep 03, 2009 12:49 PM
Jody Keating
Jody Keating Connective Realty,LLC, Bryan/College Station,TX - Bryan, TX
Broker/MM/Realtor, Bryan / College Station, TX

Thanks C Tann-Starr

I was wound up.............but ya know what, it sure felt good haha!

Thanks for the comment and yeah check it out although, I think sprint is the one that discounts $5 for paperless billing, so with them, it might be the way to go!

Sep 05, 2009 04:56 AM
Brian Griffis
Realty Choice - Springfield, MO

Hi Bryan, great name.  I have T-Mobile so I guess I just see it from another angle.  Why should I pay extra so that all the people who want something mailed out to them can have it?  Let's face it, the costs of postage, printing, and labor have all gone up because of inflation but T-Mobile's rates have not.  All companies charge for paper bills, most just don't break it out as a separate charge.  I would rather keep my low rates, look up my bill online if I want and let the people who have to waste paper pay for it.  By the way, some may not have internet access, but I bet their children do, or there is the library or a T-Mobile store will print it out for them in many cases.  People who want to know what their bill will be can also use Boost or similar prepaid plans that have a set monthly rate.  Do your research, I think you will see even with a $5 discount for paperless billing with Sprint, you still pay more for the same number of minutes. For instance, Sprint charges $59.99 for 900 minutes, and with T-Mobile I can get UNLIMITED minutes for $49.99.  $1.50 for a bill, I think I could handle that if I wanted one. 

Sep 07, 2009 03:35 AM