[LINK] Want Bills by Snail Mail? It Might Cost You Money

[Chirgwin, Richard]

> I used to get charged a $1 for receiving a bill by paper, but 
> that charge 
> has recently dropped

A further remark. I would be surprised (staggered? astonished? incredulous?)
if the charges related directly to any real-world cost. Most certainly,
vendors have approached companies with TCO figures, but they're merely a
confection.

It's just social engineering - pick a number, see if users respond, then
adjust the number (or abandon the idea). 

The charge is dropped because:
a) users didn't change their behaviour; and/or 
b) companies discovered that the TCO figures were fabricated, and the cost
of tracking and enforcing the charge was greater than the genuine saving.

Certainly I pay online frequently. I use the phone even more frequently,
because despite the clunky UI, telephones don't cache my bank account
details on the local hard drive like crappy Internet banking apps do. But I
don't see why I should be penalised for receiving something provable,
persistent and auditable as the invoice.

RC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan Whitaker [mailto:jwhit@primenet.com]
> Sent: Thursday, 31 October 2002 07:31
> To: Ann Moffatt
> Cc: link@anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Want Bills by Snail Mail? It Might Cost You Money
> 
> 
> At 09:08 AM 30/10/02 +1000, Ann Moffatt wrote:
> >i know this reduces cost for business & govt etc but i do 
> worry that its 
> >the poor, old & illiterate that often aren't on the net that 
> will suffer. 
> >if enterprises really do start imposing financial penalties for not 
> >dealing on-line, hopefully welfare agencies will compensate 
> those who are 
> >affected.
> 
> I used to get charged a $1 for receiving a bill by paper, but 
> that charge 
> has recently dropped [dingoblue; still use them for mobile].  
> Maybe they 
> were told to knock it off.  The choice was to get the bill by 
> email or in 
> paper.  I decided paper was less arguable if required.  But I 
> do pay most 
> bills by online BPay or direct debit.
> 
> Jan
> 
> 
> JLWhitaker Associates
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit@primenet.com  --  http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/whitentr.htm
> 
> 
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