Telecom to charge $1.50 for paper bills

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom to charge $1.50 for paper bills

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#1004383 12-Mar-2014 16:20

rugrat:
tdgeek: If you register for My Telecom, you get online bills, avoid the new fee, and have everything on your bill easily accessible online. This includes links to change services/plans, etc, and access to the last 18 months of bills. The online bill is identical to the paper bill. And you get an email to alert the bill has been processed.

The cost of a paper bill is significant to any company, and the desire to be green. This cost has been absorbed for a great deal of time. In today's connected world, I feel this is fair, it's the way of the future. This is my opinion, I do work for Telecom.

Yes, but then I have no bill to take to New Zealand Post to pay. If I pay eletronically I like it to be by credit card, as then I only have one payment each month for every service and goods brought in that month. Easier to manage, then money coming out all over the place, but telecom charge for that.

Fair points

Credit card companies charge , from memory 3.5% give or take

Pay by D/D through your bank, or if you prefer more control, internet banking.

Online is the way, more so for most everyone participating in this forum

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#1004384 12-Mar-2014 16:21

rugrat:
tdgeek: If you register for My Telecom, you get online bills, avoid the new fee, and have everything on your bill easily accessible online. This includes links to change services/plans, etc, and access to the last 18 months of bills. The online bill is identical to the paper bill. And you get an email to alert the bill has been processed.

The cost of a paper bill is significant to any company, and the desire to be green. This cost has been absorbed for a great deal of time. In today's connected world, I feel this is fair, it's the way of the future. This is my opinion, I do work for Telecom.

Yes, but then I have no bill to take to New Zealand Post to pay. If I pay eletronically I like it to be by credit card, as then I only have one payment each month for every service and goods brought in that month. Easier to manage, then money coming out all over the place, but telecom charge for that.

Pay by internet banking, safe the $1.50, save the Credit card fees, save the painful queue at the Postshop, save the parking fee, petrol or bus fare., save some trees, save space from not having to keep paper accounts.......

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#1004385 12-Mar-2014 16:22

tdgeek: If you register for My Telecom, you get online bills, avoid the new fee, and have everything on your bill easily accessible online. This includes links to change services/plans, etc, and access to the last 18 months of bills. The online bill is identical to the paper bill. And you get an email to alert the bill has been processed.

The cost of a paper bill is significant to any company, and the desire to be green. This cost has been absorbed for a great deal of time. In today's connected world, I feel this is fair, it's the way of the future. This is my opinion, I do work for Telecom.

They have had the online statement option and mytelecom system for many years, probably even close to 10 years, so I can't see that 100% of the cost saving they are making is infact being absorbed by it, as it isn't a new system, and they have been running both billing methods in pararlell for many years. So they have to be making a saving on making this change. I can't see how they can't be. Perhaps if they showed costings on it, in their customer communications, then people maybe more sympathetic. The costs of running the online system would be comparatively similar as they would be if 40% were using it, vs 95% of customers would be using it .They may need a few more servers to run it on. Whereas mailing out bills, the cost is directly related to the number being sent. $18 per year per customer isn't that insignificant a saving on mailing out invoices.

My issue with online systems is that they have to be extremely reliable. So often I see companies online systems and meters broken down, or offline for maintenance when you want to use them.

mattwnz

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#1004387 12-Mar-2014 16:26

KiwiNZ:
rugrat:
tdgeek: If you register for My Telecom, you get online bills, avoid the new fee, and have everything on your bill easily accessible online. This includes links to change services/plans, etc, and access to the last 18 months of bills. The online bill is identical to the paper bill. And you get an email to alert the bill has been processed.

The cost of a paper bill is significant to any company, and the desire to be green. This cost has been absorbed for a great deal of time. In today's connected world, I feel this is fair, it's the way of the future. This is my opinion, I do work for Telecom.

Yes, but then I have no bill to take to New Zealand Post to pay. If I pay eletronically I like it to be by credit card, as then I only have one payment each month for every service and goods brought in that month. Easier to manage, then money coming out all over the place, but telecom charge for that.

Pay by internet banking, safe the $1.50, save the Credit card fees, save the painful queue at the Postshop, save the parking fee, petrol or bus fare., save some trees, save space from not having to keep paper accounts.......

People will end up printing them out, and will probably end up using double the paper, due to not everyone having double sided printers. You can also save a percentage off your telecom bill if you have a Farmlands Card.

mattwnz

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#1004388 12-Mar-2014 16:29

tdgeek:
mattwnz: Apparently if you only have a phone line, and have broadband with another provider, you will still get a paper bill.
I personally don't have a problem if they reduced their fee to reflect the change, so both parties win from it. I think 50-50 saving share would be fair. I recall my old provider did this when they moved to online billing.

If you have an account, I.e not prepay, you can register to My Telecom, online bill, no problem

I was meaning people with a landline and no interenet. Like a large properotion of the elderly out there. They apparently will still receive paper invoices with no fee, according to the article, as they can't get invoices any other way.

tdgeek

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#1004389 12-Mar-2014 16:29

NonprayingMantis:
rugrat: Looks like I'll be changing Isp's then.

Snap looks like my best option.

They only send email bills, but don't think they charge for credit card payment just got to double check that.

Snap charge $5 for a paper bill.

Not surprising, and that is not meant as anti Snap. A paper bill has the cost of the paper, the machinery to produce the printed bill, it has the be enveloped, and there is postage. There is a labour cost. Snap is smaller than Telecom, so a higher cost per unit seems fair as does a higher charge. It's mathematics, pure and simple. As online bills are used more, the unit cost of paper bills increase.

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#1004393 12-Mar-2014 16:34

You can go to online billing and maybe win a car

Online billing

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#1004399 12-Mar-2014 16:38

tdgeek:
NonprayingMantis:
rugrat: Looks like I'll be changing Isp's then.

Snap looks like my best option.

They only send email bills, but don't think they charge for credit card payment just got to double check that.

Snap charge $5 for a paper bill.

Not surprising, and that is not meant as anti Snap. A paper bill has the cost of the paper, the machinery to produce the printed bill, it has the be enveloped, and there is postage. There is a labour cost. Snap is smaller than Telecom, so a higher cost per unit seems fair as does a higher charge. It's mathematics, pure and simple. As online bills are used more, the unit cost of paper bills increase.

Yep, I don't have a problem with it either, but I just thought it was funny that rugrat wants to move from Telecom because they charge $1.50 for a paper bill, and move to Snap, who charge $5 for a paper bill

tdgeek

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#1004400 12-Mar-2014 16:40

mattwnz:
tdgeek: If you register for My Telecom, you get online bills, avoid the new fee, and have everything on your bill easily accessible online. This includes links to change services/plans, etc, and access to the last 18 months of bills. The online bill is identical to the paper bill. And you get an email to alert the bill has been processed.

The cost of a paper bill is significant to any company, and the desire to be green. This cost has been absorbed for a great deal of time. In today's connected world, I feel this is fair, it's the way of the future. This is my opinion, I do work for Telecom.

They have had the online statement option and mytelecom system for many years, probably even close to 10 years, so I can't see that 100% of the cost saving they are making is infact being absorbed by it, as it isn't a new system, and they have been running both billing methods in pararlell for many years. So they have to be making a saving on making this change. I can't see how they can't be. Perhaps if they showed costings on it, in their customer communications, then people maybe more sympathetic. The costs of running the online system would be comparatively similar as they would be if 40% were using it, vs 95% of customers would be using it .They may need a few more servers to run it on. Whereas mailing out bills, the cost is directly related to the number being sent. $18 per year per customer isn't that insignificant a saving on mailing out invoices.

My issue with online systems is that they have to be extremely reliable. So often I see companies online systems and meters broken down, or offline for maintenance when you want to use them.

The cost isn't related to the number sent. If you had 800,000 paper bills sent or 8000 the 8000 is very expensive.

These are my opinions, note. Align the online bill to online TV. Let's scrap that. I just ordered two hard drives from mighty ape an hour ago, do I want a letter in the mail in three days time to confirm the order? Online is not for everyone, but it is what we use most of the time, these threads are one of many example. Do I feel like I am being backed into a corner? Ja!! :-)

tdgeek

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#1004401 12-Mar-2014 16:42

old3eyes: You can go to online billing and maybe win a car

Online billing

And being an employer I probily wasn't qualify, damnnnnn!

mattwnz

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#1004402 12-Mar-2014 16:43

tdgeek:
NonprayingMantis:
rugrat: Looks like I'll be changing Isp's then.

Snap looks like my best option.

They only send email bills, but don't think they charge for credit card payment just got to double check that.

Snap charge $5 for a paper bill.

Not surprising, and that is not meant as anti Snap. A paper bill has the cost of the paper, the machinery to produce the printed bill, it has the be enveloped, and there is postage. There is a labour cost. Snap is smaller than Telecom, so a higher cost per unit seems fair as does a higher charge. It's mathematics, pure and simple. As online bills are used more, the unit cost of paper bills increase.

It is all automated these days, so no real labour involved apart from NZ post delivering them. It is also usually contracted out to specialist companies. Obviously there is a cost involved though, but that would scale depending on the quantity. It would likely cost snap more, as they would have a far smaller customer base, so they aren't getting the economies of scale, or they may even do it inhouse. But they may have always charged.

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#1004417 12-Mar-2014 16:49

I can't believe this thread went longer than a page.

You can't even buy a coffee for $1.50.

Email people. Email.

rugrat

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#1004521 12-Mar-2014 19:45

NonprayingMantis:
tdgeek:
NonprayingMantis:
rugrat: Looks like I'll be changing Isp's then.

Snap looks like my best option.

They only send email bills, but don't think they charge for credit card payment just got to double check that.

Snap charge $5 for a paper bill.

Not surprising, and that is not meant as anti Snap. A paper bill has the cost of the paper, the machinery to produce the printed bill, it has the be enveloped, and there is postage. There is a labour cost. Snap is smaller than Telecom, so a higher cost per unit seems fair as does a higher charge. It's mathematics, pure and simple. As online bills are used more, the unit cost of paper bills increase.

Yep, I don't have a problem with it either, but I just thought it was funny that rugrat wants to move from Telecom because they charge $1.50 for a paper bill, and move to Snap, who charge $5 for a paper bill

Snap don't charge for credit card though, happy to get bill by email if charged to credit card free of cost.
Can charge $2 on credit card in shop down road and they don't charge extra.

I get sky bill by email, and sky doesn't charge extra for credit card payment.

End story, telecom not providing bussiness in way customer interested in, other providers will, so customer goes else where.
In meantime telecom spending 20 million approx, for name change to improve their bussiness in future.

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#1004533 12-Mar-2014 20:11

Can you pay by credit card with telecom now on the new system? Last I was with them you couldnt, they expected you to call up and read your card details with CSC out to some random over a phonecall to charge a phone account to it.

Richard rich.ms

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#1004543 12-Mar-2014 20:39

richms: Can you pay by credit card with telecom now on the new system? Last I was with them you couldnt, they expected you to call up and read your card details with CSC out to some random over a phonecall to charge a phone account to it.

That is pretty insecure, especially if you are giving them the CSC number over an unsecured medium,. I didn't think they could ask for the CSC numbers over the phone, as isn't that sort of transaction considered 'card not present' , so shouldn't be needed either.

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