How Long Should Companies Make E-Bills Available?

theodp writes "If you say goodbye to paper and hello to green, you may learn first-hand that no good deed goes unpunished. Try to pay your final Verizon Wireless bill online after switching carriers, for example, and don't be surprised if you get a sorry-Dave-I'm-afraid-I-can't-do-that reply. Other vendors may curtail e-Bill services 30 days after you end service. And a promise of access to up to seven years of paperless statements is somewhat empty if you'll be cutoff as soon as you no longer have an account. With more-and-more companies enticing consumers to go paperless, how long a period of time should the records be made available online? Should it extend beyond the life of an account?"

Comments

Re:more paper == more trees

[commodore64_love]

>>>Give subsidizes to every farmer near the rain forests to not go out clear cutting,

Brazil and other rainforest countries argue: "You Americans and Europeans clear cut your trees to make room for farming. Why is it okay for you to do that, but not us?" And I agree with that question. The United States used to be one hufe forest east of the Mississippi, but we've turned it into farmland. It's hypocritical for us to clearcut our forests while telling other nations, Don't do what we do."

Perhaps instead of bossing-around other nations, we should focus on ourselves and revert some of that farmland back to the wilderness it used to be.