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T-Mobile Backs Off Plan To Charge $1.50 For Paper Bills

Posted by timothy on from the just-send-me-a-pdf dept.

netbuzz writes "Following a torrent of customer complaints, bad publicity and the threat of a class-action lawsuit, T-Mobile has abandoned a plan announced this summer to charge any customer wanting a paper bill $1.50 per month. While the news is being cheered by many T-Mobile customers, it's not going to be as popular with others who praised the extra fee as an environmentally sound inducement to reduce paper use."

7 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Just reduce the bill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They could do just the opposite and give people a $1.50 reduction in their bill if they opt-in to a paperless billing system.

    1. Re:Just reduce the bill by mrdoogee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I came here to say this. Why not encourage environmentally friendly behavior, instead of punishing for adhering to the status quo.

    2. Re:Just reduce the bill by sakdoctor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And they could claw back the lost revenue by adding $1.50 onto everybody's bill!

    3. Re:Just reduce the bill by Smitty825 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd love to go to a paper-less billing system...except for one thing...

      Why can't the companies just email me a PDF of the bill I normally receive? It would contain the due-date of the bill and how much I owe. If I am splitting the bill with roommates, then it's easy to forward to each other. If I want to keep a record of what I've been charged for, then it's easy for me to store it, etc.

      Currently the way "paperless" billing works is that I receive an email from saying my bill is ready to be seen. I then have to go to their website, enter my username/password (because they've written some sort of Javascript to prevent the browser from remembering it for me), click 3 or 4 times to find my bill and then discover that all of the information is located on 3 or 4 different pages.

      To me, the hassle of receiving a paperless bill isn't worth it...

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      Doh!
  2. Paper bills = accountability by stillnotelf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I understand the environmental argument, paper bills make for accountability. With online-only billing, you have no way to resolve certain account disputes, because they hold all the data! I'm not putting on my tinfoil hat and saying they'll deliberately screw up the records and double bill you - but mistakes do happen. Having a paper trail is the best way to protect yourself from mistakes. Also, consider this: what happens to your account when you close it? How can you prove that you had the account once it's closed if it's online-only? With a paper trail, you can prove it! (This applies more to banks than cell phones...)

  3. Use less paper then by Neil+Watson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If T-mobile bills are anything like the ones in my post they could reduce paper by condensing the bills to just one page and stop including fliers to sell me more products. I suspect however, that this was more about another adding another charge and not about actually saving money.

    There has been a law passed in my area that charges a few cents for plastic shopping bags. The assumption was that the charge would somehow go to bettering the environment. Instead it goes into the retailer's pocket. Revenue by legislation. Glad I use bins.

    --
    UNIX/Linux Consulting
  4. A paper bill is a legal document. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A paper bill is a legal document. An online bill carries no legal power whatsoever, leaving the account holder with no rights other than what the company wants the account holder to have.