MCI Bills Me for Billing Me

Hillbilly61

Get a load of this folks: My wife and I are paying/reviewing bills and get to the MCI phone bill. The f*ckers tacked on a $1.94 fee for issuing me a paper bill. No kidding!

I was not given notice nor the option to go electronic beforehand. If something like that is done, like a couple million times per month (for each customer), we are talking very serious revenue - just to collect fees owed using a traditional means to do so.

oifvet0608

Gotta love capitolism...I don't hear them bitching about needing a bailout either. All t-com companies do it, even in Germany. You are not the only one.

Hillbilly61

What if I don't pay it? Does this mean they quit issuing me phone bills?! :rolleyes: Where I come from the cost of billing is a part of the cost of doing business. No less than why you have to pay postage to send your payment in. They suck up the cost to bill you, you suck up the cost to pay 'em.

oifvet0608

Well brother...you live in America. Land of the free (as long as you pay), home of the intrest payments (which you will pay later unless you do now). It doesn't happen that way anymore...sorry. I would call them and politely inform them that you were never informed of the cost to get a paper bill, tell them you are not going to pay and see what they say. It's worth the try.

Hillbilly61

I was thinking about reporting them to the State Attorney General's Office. They look for high profile **** to go after corporate America here in N.Y. and are quite creative in doing so. This seems to fit.

oifvet0608

Trust me, they have good lawyers that know loopholes. What they are doing is legal. I'm sure it is in the very small print of the contract that you signed when you got the service. Feel free to try though but I think you would be better off calling MCI and explaining the situation.

schwarcw

Don't renew your contract, and go somewhere else. If they want you to stay, ask for all your surcharges returned.

SKsolutions

It's cost shifting. It's the new way of **** you, one line item at a time.

Airplay355

Switch to e-billing and be done with it. Paper bills suck anyway. I don't get any bills in the mail because I hate mail and I hate that I have to shred everthing with any personal information on it or some d-bag will go through the garbage and hijack my identity.

I bet if you called and asked them about the fee and said you want to switch to e-billing then would remove the fee. It's cheaper for them to use e-billing so they probably just tacked on the fee to get peoples attention. It worked didn't it?

steveinaz

There's quite a few banks, creditors, etc that charge for "paper billing." Anyway to make a buck I guess.

polktiger

Airplay355 wrote: »

Switch to e-billing and be done with it. Paper bills suck anyway. I don't get any bills in the mail because I hate mail and I hate that I have to shred everthing with any personal information on it or some d-bag will go through the garbage and hijack my identity.

I bet if you called and asked them about the fee and said you want to switch to e-billing then would remove the fee. It's cheaper for them to use e-billing so they probably just tacked on the fee to get peoples attention. It worked didn't it?

You actually think online is more secure? I will keep my paper shredder.

oifvet0608

werd