O Canada! > Canadian > Bell Canada > Is Bell really this hurting for more money? (paper bill fee)

Is Bell really this hurting for more money? (paper bill fee)

This is yet another scam on the part of all companies, not just Bell, to rip off the customer.

You pay $x for an "account fee" which includes the cost of printing and mailing you a bill. Many companies are moving towards e-billing to make a little more profit from the "account fee".

This has ZERO to do with being "green" (since paper is recyclable) but saving Bell money.
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reply to Calmuser
Don't print it; save it; its a pdf file. A bigger hard drive is cheaper than ink or toner and paper and clutter. Hard drive prices are coming back down or DVD re-writables at 4.7 GB are between $0.75 and $1.00.

My March bill is 7 pages is 435KB; Phone, 2 Cell phones, Internet and a bundle page.

A 4.7GB disk is 4,700,000 KB (don't get picky about the conversion). 4,700,000 / 435 = 10,805 months of Bell bills that can be written to a DVD.

I haven't received the email yet, but won't pay for paper and postage. Don't want to prop up Canada Post either.

Rick

reply to Calmuser
Either way, I always throw it in the garbage afterwards... I find e-bill a great thing, just save the PDF file and voila... takes no space.

reply to Calmuser
It takes what 55 cents for a stamp, say another 45 cents for envelope, paper, ink...

Then they have to pay for someones time to print it off, pack it in the envelope and put it in the mail.

They then have to spend money to field the calls from people complaining about Canada post, and in some of those cases resend out those bills.

Paper billing is incredibly expensive compared to the completely automated ebilling.

The company has a choice, either spread the cost of all this into the plans and raise prices a bit (causing the ebilling people to subsidies the cost of the paper billing people), or make it an add on and make those who are using it pay for it. Considering that they don't want to even deal with it anymore the make it an added cost to encourage people to switch.

reply to Calmuser
So what you pay an extra $2 for paper or pay extra bw to dl it.

Either way its always a lose lose situation with bell. f-you bell. Dump that pos company.

reply to Calmuser
The only fair thing for Bell to do is to credit people on eBilling $2.00/month instead of charging people on paper (a service they've always had) $2.00/month extra.

But when has Bell ever been about doing the right thing?
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MNSi Internet - »www.mnsi.net

reply to Calmuser
The biggest problem with the e-bill, is the Bell site mysteriously goes down and stops working when the Bill comes out!

Same thing as the Bandwidth usage meter, it mysteriously stops loading when your near the end of your billing cycle. Then after your billing cycle has renewed, POOF its working again.

It like they want you to go over the low usage limit!

I can get a copy of the PDF, but I always like to have a Hard copy just in case for my records.

which is why I opt to keep getting the paper bill, but now with an extra $2, I will print it myself.

reply to HeadSpinning

Indeed, how DO they come up with this $2 charge?

The interesting part, many businesses are going or have gone to this $2 charge to send a paper invoice.

Postage = 61 cents
Envelope = 10 cents
3 sheets of paper w/printing both sides = 30 cents.
Collating paperwork into envelopes = 29 cents
Raping & Gouging the customer = 60 cents. (aka profit)

All these prices are on the onsie-twosie quantities we are used to doing things at home.

More reasonable prices paid due to bulk (10,000 units/mailing):
38 cents Addressed Admail (source: Canada Post)
2 cents / envelope
8 cents / 3 sheet invoice w/printing
15 cents collating & envelope stuffing
$1.37 to Rape and Gouge the customer (aka profit)

Gets even more lucrative after that

As NightOwl noted, Primus credits you 50 cents off your bill for going paperless, which you can be well assured, they keep some back for profit, as well. That tends to support my estimates in the bulk cost breakdown.

Any company, no matter what size, charging a customer $2 for a lousy paper invoice is strictly raping their customer - - - BECAUSE THEY CAN!!

Going "green" - they don't give a rat's fuzzy behind about the environment. The "green" is strictly for the greedy profit margin.

Of course, they never lose the opportunity to insert advertising bill stuffers in the envelope.

Once they start charging for paper bills, they should be prohibited from inserting advertising.
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MNSi Internet - »www.mnsi.net

reply to HeadSpinning

reply to Calmuser
I'm pretty sure retention department can do something if you complain... lol.

reply to Calmuser
It is another way for bell to make more money. Yes it reduces wastage but it also cuts jobs and just puts money in Bell's pocket. If they really cared they'd reduce their fees by 2$ for those who want to switch to ebilling and leave regular paper bills as is. Instead they save money with all those who will switch to ebilling and get another 2$ from those who forget to switch or still want to receive a paper bill.

reply to HeadSpinning

reply to HeadSpinning

reply to vintagewino
The bill cannot be considered admail, addressed or not.