T-Mobile Backs Off Plan To Charge $1.50 For Paper Bills 285
netbuzz writes "Following a torrent of customer complaints, bad publicity and the threat of a class-action lawsuit, T-Mobile has abandoned a plan announced this summer to charge any customer wanting a paper bill $1.50 per month. While the news is being cheered by many T-Mobile customers, it's not going to be as popular with others who praised the extra fee as an environmentally sound inducement to reduce paper use."
Just reduce the bill (Score:5, Insightful)
They could do just the opposite and give people a $1.50 reduction in their bill if they opt-in to a paperless billing system.
i like paper bills (Score:4, Insightful)
I personally like paper bills... It helps me keep track of when I've PAID those bills...
discount (Score:4, Insightful)
So... (Score:2, Insightful)
Paper bills = accountability (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:5, Insightful)
I came here to say this. Why not encourage environmentally friendly behavior, instead of punishing for adhering to the status quo.
Dear T-Mobile... (Score:5, Insightful)
Give a "$1.50 a month Discount" to all customers asking to not have a paper bill sent.
This goes over very well if you give a discount instead of trying to boost your profit margin.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:5, Insightful)
And they could claw back the lost revenue by adding $1.50 onto everybody's bill!
I hate the lies (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies always pass it off as being "green", but that's not the real reason. T-mobile stores are still overly-lit, selling merchandise that's over-packaged, and handing out paper fliers.
The truth is that its expensive to print bills. And I don't blame them for wanting to get rid of them, but if you're going to save money, then pass a little of it on to me.
My bank just paid me $5 to go to e-bills and for me, that was enough.
Carrot vs. Stick
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:4, Insightful)
I suggested a similar idea to a bunch of store-owners who were organizing to protest high credit card fees. They said the fees kept skyrocketing, and that meant increased prices, which would hurt the customers. I said if they want to help customers, encourage the shoppers to stop using credit cards by offering a 5% discount for cash payment.
The store-owners looked at me as if I was nuts. You see they expected credit card companies to reduce fees, but heaven forbid the store owners reduce *their* fees to the customer. That's sacrilegious. Same with T-Mobile - heaven forbid they offer a discount for using paper. They want to collect MORE money not less.
Aside-
Discover Card gave me 5 dollars to go paperless. Eventually I decided I didn't like it because I kept forgetting to pay my bill (which ended-up costing me more than 5 dollars in late fees). So I went back to paper. Discover Card balked but when I said, "Give me paper or lose my business," they decided to give me paper statements again.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd love to go to a paper-less billing system...except for one thing...
Why can't the companies just email me a PDF of the bill I normally receive? It would contain the due-date of the bill and how much I owe. If I am splitting the bill with roommates, then it's easy to forward to each other. If I want to keep a record of what I've been charged for, then it's easy for me to store it, etc.
Currently the way "paperless" billing works is that I receive an email from saying my bill is ready to be seen. I then have to go to their website, enter my username/password (because they've written some sort of Javascript to prevent the browser from remembering it for me), click 3 or 4 times to find my bill and then discover that all of the information is located on 3 or 4 different pages.
To me, the hassle of receiving a paperless bill isn't worth it...
Re:Paper bills = accountability (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree. For anything interest bearing, anytime I have a billing dispute, for purchase records, and more, I print most of my bills anyway. I keep all copies in file for 5-7 years after the account is closed. (only 3 years for my utilities regular bills).
Many companies have tried to make me switch to electronic invoices. I only accept where they automatically send a complete invoice as a non-editable file that can be saved (and printed) seperate from e-mail (aka, not embeded HTML), i do not accept from companies that send me a "reminder" as I'll NEVER go there just to print the bill... and why should I at my time and my expense if I'm not getting discounted for the trouble?
CUT DOWN THE TREES, they're a 100% renewable resource, reduce CO2, and I don't even want to HEAR about landfill space (we have a national shortage of landfills with a multi-hundred year waiting list, and could use as much trash as we can generate that's non-toxic...)
Signed PDF? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why not allow customers to download or get emailed a digitally signed pdf copy of the statement or bill.
If they could just get it right... (Score:2, Insightful)
I hate that. But only because they get it wrong. O2 do that with the iphone accounts and you cannot get them to change it. I used my iphone for business and have to save the bills so I left them. I wouldn't have a problem if they simply gave you the option to receive the bills as pdf's via email, so the amount of work I have to save them is to just push a button. That would then be preferable to paper bills, however, forcing you to login and navigate their website and download them and if you forget one month do more work is just too much trouble to stay with the provider, so I left them for a provider which did provide paper bills.
Why can't they just get it right? It's not rocket science.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:2, Insightful)
Well what's the difference really? They could say that the bill is $50 and you have to pay an extra $1.50 for a paper bill, or they could say the bill is $51.50 and you get a $1.50 discount for not receiving paper bills. Same thing.
But you're right in that it's smarter marketing to frame is as a discount rather than an additional charge.
Re:i like paper bills (Score:4, Insightful)
The farm trees for paper, like they farm wheat (Score:1, Insightful)
I never understood the "save a tree" crap.
They farm trees for paper, the same way they farm wheat for bread.
If I don't eat a slice of bread no one commends me for saving a stalk of wheat.
Yeah, I know there are other things that are environmental problems besides growing the trees, but it was "saving the trees" that was the root cause of this "don't use paper" admonition.
Environmentalism causes a lot of superstitious behaviour.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:5, Insightful)
Stores don't do that because it hurts impulse buying. If a customer goes in the store with $20 and a credit card, and sees something desirable for $100, but $95 with cash, they are likely to say "well I will come back when I have the cash" and then forget about the purchase entirely. But if there is no price penalty for the credit card then they will probably use the credit card right away.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, you get the benefit of not having a paper record of your bill to use for tax or other purposes, not having a reminder that a bill is due, having the vendor suck the money out of your account before you even know there is a problem with the last bill, and the fun of trying to get the money back when you prove they overcharged you for something.
Like Comcast, which offered me a "delivered, no cost digital self-install kit" and then went ahead and charged me $10 for it anyway.
Thanks, I think I'll keep the bill and pay after I see it is correct.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:4, Insightful)
Why can't the companies just email me a PDF of the bill I normally receive?
If you had ever worked in web application development or computer security then you wouldn't be asking that question. Can you say phising [wikipedia.org]? There are reasons why online banking and other financial institutions, for example, never use e-mail for account correspondence other than to inform you that your statement is ready for viewing without providing any links . The public Internet exists in a constant state of open warfare and any transaction involving money or billing is bound to be targeted by the bad guys. Could it be made secure? Possibly, but NOT in such a way that average users would (a) be able to set it up OR (b) be able to understand and use it properly.
Re:A paper bill is a legal document. (Score:2, Insightful)
The exact reason I get paper bills. I deduct for home business, I need records. Plus, when you go paperless you have to go to their site and manually download the bill. It would be a different story if they emailed a secure PDF to you.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:3, Insightful)
For me, it's not worth $1.50 to have to deal with T-Mobile's website. It is the most appalling and annoying site that I have visited for quite a while. Features that used to be there no longer exist and, because of all the scripts and flash, it takes forever to navigate. I'm sure someone at T-Mobile likes the way it "looks", but it is the ultimate example of form before function.
We're not talking about the rights of the company. (Score:3, Insightful)
If you don't have a paper bill, it may be in some cases difficult to assert any rights you have concerning mistakes in the bill.
Re:Just reduce the bill (Score:4, Insightful)
Going automatic is a scary proposition, fraught with traps. Some fraudulent charge could land on my credit card and be automatically paid before I learn of it. Getting the money back is only one problem. If the charge is big enough, it could overdraw the bank account, and wouldn't the bank love that? Have fun arguing with the bank over the many penalty fees they'll gleefully charge as check after check bounces. Of course, not going automatic means I'm constantly flirting with exorbitant late fees as they play their little games to try to manipulate me into missing the due date. A popular one is to make the monthly due date creep forward, bouncing around a bit to make it less obvious. Over a year, I've had the due date creep from the 15th to the 6th of the month. I dumped that credit card. There's doing without any credit card, but that too is awkward.
Some problems I've had with going paperless is it breaks down, and they don't email an actual statement but instead a mere notification that a new statement is ready for viewing on their website. Lot of rigamarole logging into email, finding the email, then logging into the website and finding the statement. Then it breaks down as sooner or later, I get a notice by snail mail saying they were unable to deliver the latest notification by email and are permanently switching me back to paper. Gets real old setting up paperless again and again.
Re:In practice, there are problems. (Score:2, Insightful)