I opened my new, reformatted, supposedly-improved, larger-than-ever, phone bill from AT&T.
I fail to see how a larger bill format - at who knows how much staff time and expense to produce, including a specially sized envelope to mail it in - is going to endear them to me, cause me use their services more, or forget about all of the mistakes they have made - like charging me to reconnect my service that they erroneously moved to another location or waitng 6 months to have more than a temporary line installed after Hurricane Wilma.
This reformatted bill concept might be someone's idea of a necessary expenditure and activity at AT&T - maybe they even got a promotion or an employee-of-the-year nomination as a result. It just doesn't work for me.
How about saving us some money instead of looking for ways to spend it?
Aren't our phone bills big enough (in money) without calling attention to them by actually making them physically larger?
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Steve, I'm getting pretty tired of all the "new & improved" ways my services change billing formats on me, too. If they would just provide service and stop sending me newsletters and contract changes, I'd be much happier. I'm constantly getting changes in my health insurance riders or credit card agreements that they seem to think I have plenty of time to slog through. #@%&! lawyers & bureaucrats...
Brian, the number of special offers, changes, updates, credit card offers, and on-and-on - besides the regular bills - that I get each month are wearing me out. I'm with you. Thanks.
Isn't it a bit backwards of them to be proud of using up more paper/trees/natural resources? It's not very green! I wonder if they've gotten complaints about this.
It does seem that a lot of "improvements" are made without consulting the public about whether or not they think a change would truly be better. I agree with you, I think they're focusing their attention on the wrong thing.
Steve,
You're right. I get all of my bills emailed to me and never get them in the mail. I can get a statement online anytime I need it. Have the phone company switch you to on line bill-pay and tell them not to send bills in the mail. It works great!!!
Mike
Suzanne, the first rule about a public utility is that the public doesn't matter. The rest of your points are therefore good but moot. :)
Mike, that's not a bad idea. I may try it, but I have so trouble paying my AT&T bill online that getting the bill may be just as difficult.
Steve,
It just hit me! - AT&T - I had them with my cell phones in the past and with DSL in my office - they are a disaster area of a company. Good Luck!
I would switch companies if at all possible.
Mike Lewis
Mike, believe me if there was another company, I would look into it. Unfortunately with a monopoly it kind of rules out other companies. They have the local phone service unless you go VoIP and they have all the DSL lines - even if you use earthlink or verizon, you still use the AT&T lines. Competition is the answer, but not likely to happen.
I think my favorite part of reading the phone bill is the history behind the numbers.
Did you know that there is a tax on our current bills that was introduced to help pay for the Spanish American War? Once people got used to paying, no one seems to have questioned this and the other taxes that we pay on this communication medium.
That's why I switched to Vonage 4 years ago. I only pay $25 per month and that includes unlimited long distance. I also call overseas a lot and the rates are pretty affordable for that too.
I hope that you get a chance to check it out!
Melissa, that's incredible. You mean they haven't paid for it yet? How much more do we still owe? :)