Telus Mobility’s New Paperless Billing is a Money Grab
Posted by the dood on Thursday, August 19th, 2010
“In a bid to be more environmentally conscious”, Telus Mobility is going to start charging $2 for paper billing starting Sept 21st, 2010.
There is a logical fallacy here.
If Telus Mobility really wanted to be more environmentally conscious wouldn’t they give everyone a $2 discount to switch to paperless billing? Darren Entwistle just found a new way to increase revenue! Most businesses need to have paper records of all their expenses so they will have to make sure they get the email and then print it themselves, and this doesn’t save much in the way of trees except maybe an envelope.
Face it, Telus is making a cash grab!
Source:
Original Article on the Vancouver Sun
Here is the solution: Decline both options, neither paper nor paperless. Just pay what you think you owe each month and refuse to pay late charges for outstanding balances ie. if your bill is normally 42.46 each month and you pay 42.00, after six months the accounting dept will be so pissed off they will give you a paper bill no charge. The obligation to bill you for what you owe is that of Telus not the customer, you do not have to do their work for them.
That’s an interesting way to look at it. Now the question is… will it work?
If telus would stop sending the page with the coupons and send the bill
on one page instead of two,it would cut down on two pages.
If telus would stop sending the page with the coupons on it.Let people
download the coupns if you want them.And the bill could fit onto one
page and not two
So… in order to have a cell phone, you must also own a computer?? …and pay for internet access!! What about those people who don’t have a computer? Or what if you have a computer and it crashes and you can’t afford to fix it for a few months? Some people have the bare minimum cell plan just to have the peace of mind of having a cell phone for emergencies and now telus wants to up that charge so that they can save a tree?? All they are doing is asking the consumer to pay for their paper, envelopes and postage and disguising it as “going green”. Absolutely disgusting!!
In Telus’ defense, it appears that sometime after I wrote this post (not necessarily because I wrote it, I doubt they read it), they seem to have changed their method to now not charging for paper billing, but rather donating $2 to some sort of charity if you decide to switch to paperless. I am glad to hear that.
Well now they are back charging $2 for paper bills!
Off course they keep sending free paper calendars to millions of customers…you would think most people use their cell phone calendar
Yes, they are back to charging $2 for paper billing!
I’m a bit peeved still.
Telus problem not customers!
For one they should reformat the mobile bill. Account details and bill summary can be put on one piece of paper,get rid of coupons. Telus is probably getting some kind of kick back % for advertising coupons they(telus) won’t just do it for free! Paper consumption is an internal telus problem not the customers it’s ridiculous.
They are (telus) monopolizing the situation also by charging people $2.00 because they don’t have a computers many people don,t have computers! The so called fee is donated to the NNC(nature concervancy of canada) up to the maximum of $650000. Where does the monies go after the maximum is reached? The maximum only accounts for 325000 people. Telus serves Approx 6.2 million mobile customers nationwide. The $2.00 fee is wrong, we as customer should not have to pay for telus internal problems whatever the situation or services.
Being charged 2.00 for the lenght of your sevice with Telus is wrong!
I was ticked to say the least when I saw the $2.00 charge on my bill. I called Telus and asked if they were joking? If I charged my clients an extra $2.00 for the paper I used when I printed their bill. I’m sure it would be the last time they called me to do a job for them. I am surprised no one has mentioned the fact that if you use online banking to pay your bill, which I’m sure most people do these days. You have to pay 1 business day before the due date or they charge you a late charge. When I asked Telus about this, there response was. “TELUS considers your account paid when we receive the payment, not when the funds are deducted from your bank account. If a payment is received after the due date, a late payment fee will be charged. A delay of three to five business days is typical in the Canadian banking system for a transfer of funds between banks. This delay is not an aspect of our billing systems and is not something for TELUS to fix”
My reply was “When you say TELUS, I think you mean to say Telus Mobility. Your counterpart, Telus Communications accept payment on the day the funds are deducted from my bank account. On a further note: Why is it that when my BC Hydro bill, or my Terasen Gas bill, or my Visa bill, or my City taxes, or my CRA payment, or my Home Owners Insurance, or my Workers Compensation, or any other bill I pay through online banking is fine and accepted on the day the funds are deducted from my bank account?
Perhaps it’s time for your Systems Analyst’s to look at this problem, as all of the other companies seem to have it figured out already. Perhaps 10 years ago a delay of 3-5 business days was typical. But these days, 1 day, is more the norm. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade your banking hardware and software to meet the needs of your clients. If that doesn’t work for you, then back date the payment date so that it fits with your schedule and there is no guess work required for the customer as to what day the bill needs to be paid without incurring a late payment charge.”
I too will be looking for a new service provider once my contract expires.
I agree with the above regarding coupons. However I earn part of my income from the forest industry. Paper is green. It is renewable and reusable.