Bell now charging for paper bill

[TorontoColin]

Let's please stay on topic here.

This has become standard practice for all companies, especially telecoms. Rogers, Telus, Virgin, Fido, Wind, Mobilicity, Koodo, Teksavvy, and Primus all charge for paper bills. Bell is actually late to the party here. It has nothing to do with profit, with the cost the cost of sending physical bills, Bell (or TD or any other company) will make somewhere between nothing and very, very little by charging for paper bills. Besides, they don't want to actually charge you for the paper bills, they want you to switch to ebilling.

ebilling is instantaneous, environmentally friendly, and cheap. There is no question that it saves the company money, but there are benefits for consumers too.

As far as I know, Shaw is the only major telecom not to charge for paper bills at this point.

[hugh]

Electronic statements/ bills are not only cheaper but also more accurate as they completely eliminate the physical part of the process which is where errors happen.

If the average consumer prints off their horrendously inefficient 6 page bill (which contains numerous colour logos and two pages of boiler plate text) on your typical inkjet printer, the cost to the consumer might be 20 to 25 cents a page which makes the cost to produce at least a $1.

Is ebilling cheaper for customers? NO.
Is it cheaper for the company? Yes.

Charging for an invoice is the height of monopolistic arrogance. Can you imagine if you went into a retail store and they said that it would cost an extra 50 cents to print, tear and handling the receipt but you can save if you go home and print it off on your printer?

At MacDonalds "For 99 cents would you like to upsize your fries and a receipt with that?"

[hugh]

It has nothing to do with profit, with the cost the cost of sending physical bills, Bell (or TD or any other company) will make somewhere between nothing and very, very little by charging for paper bills.

Sorry TC but it has everything to do with profits. The cost of printing, collating and mailing bills is very expensive.

By offloading the printing cost on the consumer, they save millions a month. IN essence, its a price hike without the government getting involved.

FWIW, I believe the practice (like system access fees) should be banned. Cutomers should have the option of SAVING $2 a month off of their POSTED rate.

If Bell or Rogers etc advertises $19.95 a month for a plan then that should be how much the consumer pays otherwise Bell should be required to advertise it as $21.95 per month.

[TorontoColin]

Why would you print it, unless you actually need to submit it for something? Read it on your computer and make a backup to a USB drive, cloud storage, or another PC if you're concerned about keeping them safe.

I'll grant that it's the savings for the company that motivates them to eliminate paper bills. But a paper bill is not a part of your plan. Insisting that we have a right to paper bills suggests that companies have an obligation to send them just because they did in the past. I don't believe that's true anymore.

[mr weather]

Originally Posted by hugh

Can you imagine if you went into a retail store and they said that it would cost an extra 50 cents to print, tear and handling the receipt but you can save if you go home and print it off on your printer?

The Apple Store at Eaton Centre does just that. You give them your email address and they email you the invoice/receipt.

[Jimsathome]

Folks,

IMHO this is about increased profitability. It has zero to do with going Green. It's another income stream thats not confined to Bell. Telus does it on my home phone, and Shaw does it on my Cable bill.

My perception of these companies dropped substantially due to this => especially when they make bullcrap statements about Customers coming first, and then Customer Service. It's all about taking more $$ from your pocket.

I find it a disgusting premise.

[TorontoColin]

It's about money, but more about saving money than an income stream. They don't want to charge you for a bill, because they would rather you switched to e-billing.

[woofendog]

I am a Bell customer for years, internet,television,and phone services. I am being charged $2.00 for the privilidge of subscribing to the internet service. If I cancel the internet service, they will not charge me the $2.00 for the paper bill. I receive only one bill now for all three services. The agent told me this $2.00 charge was for envoirnmental reasons. If I cancel the internet service I will use less electricity and also help the envoirnment.

[peano]

Thanks for the update. My tea is ready and I have dinner in the oven.

[flaminghomer]

My complaint with Bell is that you have to choose either paper OR ebill. I work from home so I expense my internet to my company. I have a reminder set up in Outlook so I remember to pull up the ebill, print it to PDF, and attach it to my monthly expense report. I prefer ebill, but the other half actually sits down and does the bills every month, and since he prefers paper bills, we were...well, not happy, but willing to shell out the $2 for paper, but then we lose ebill. So now when I do my expense report, I print out the one page ebill, and put it on the pile with our other bills. Still less paper than the mailed bill, and we save the $2.