Late arriving Cellular Bill - Am I culpable?

[QuietPortage]

Times are a changin'. Before long, paper bills will be a thing of the past. Verizon emails me a statement and charges my credit card on the due date if I take no further action. Perhaps in the next decade or two, paper bills will no longer be an option and the problem will resolve itself.

Mailing is considered presentation of the bill. You agreed to those terms of service. You're welcome to discontinue that if you'd prefer to go with a different carrier. Sometimes the USPS loses things, or letters get caught in a machine and destroyed. You're still responsible to pay for the service that you already received.

I don't understand why this is such an epic deal for you, and it should show you something when everyone else is generally in agreement that you should have just paid it.

While you were on the phone with customer service, couldn't you have asked for the balance due and then mailed in a check? That would seem significantly easier than driving three hours. Heck, the person at the other end of the phone could have likely taken your credit card number right then.

Save yourself the heartache and have statements emailed to you, or just check your account statement online. If you really want to write checks for it, you can still do it, but this way you won't have to wait anxiously by the mailbox and get all bent out of shape. This anger over an incredibly minor issue can't be good for your health, but I suppose it's a sign that you have a pretty good life if something so insignificant is causing this much anger.

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: Bandito440
Times are a changin'. Before long, paper bills will be a thing of the past. Verizon emails me a statement and charges my credit card on the due date if I take no further action. Perhaps in the next decade or two, paper bills will no longer be an option and the problem will resolve itself.

Mailing is considered presentation of the bill. You agreed to those terms of service. You're welcome to discontinue that if you'd prefer to go with a different carrier. Sometimes the USPS loses things, or letters get caught in a machine and destroyed. You're still responsible to pay for the service that you already received.

I don't understand why this is such an epic deal for you, and it should show you something when everyone else is generally in agreement that you should have just paid it.

While you were on the phone with customer service, couldn't you have asked for the balance due and then mailed in a check? That would seem significantly easier than driving three hours. Heck, the person at the other end of the phone could have likely taken your credit card number right then.

Save yourself the heartache and have statements emailed to you, or just check your account statement online. If you really want to write checks for it, you can still do it, but this way you won't have to wait anxiously by the mailbox and get all bent out of shape. This anger over an incredibly minor issue can't be good for your health, but I suppose it's a sign that you have a pretty good life if something so insignificant is causing this much anger.


I AM PAYING the BILL . Why are you yet another of many saying I'm not paying the bill? I called to tell them that I wanted yearned for a BILL to payz. Jeez.

They offer paper billing they should get it to me. And here what you CANT answer because it'd destroy your point.... Why the wouldn't presenting a check in envelope to post office carry the SAME satisfaction of presentation.

You can't answer that. Gotcha. Well actually ... You ,got you.

Oh and btw ... Email it to me!? LoL email is way more glitchy and subject to outages most outings interception than any
of the thousands of paper mailings I have ever been sent.

I have the good life you say? LoL. A good
Life yes. Now, upstate NY ... That's the GOOD life. Great land values, sure big taxes but big incomes. Oh to have 50 acres up there. Land as financial security for the generations. Unless your terms of service fine print quietly changes to include instant and immutable remittance of said value of property realestate on auto payment.

But I'm sure you read all that.

 

[cb_13]

I was told any unpaid balance on a credit card whether overdue or current will go against debt/income ratio. Not a big deal for me as I already have a mortgage with a very reasonable interest rate and do not plan on buying any vehicles unless it's cash outright. For others it could be an issue.

 

[bubbatime]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
I am not posting this in hopes of being told about all of the convenient electronic automatic withdrawal methods of payment at my disposal. I have the right to pay and be billed on paper.


Where in the text does it say that you have a "right" to a cell phone bill, on paper, and delivered in a timely fashion?

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
I am not posting this in hopes of being told about all of the convenient electronic automatic withdrawal methods of payment at my disposal. I have the right to pay and be billed on paper.


Where in the text does it say that you have a "right" to a cell phone bill, on paper, and delivered in a timely fashion?

Your looking at the wrong document.

My terms of service, apparently a more powerful document, says I can choose paper billing. Yes the company gives me that.

But ya know what ... You're right darn it. What audacity of me
TO think that if I have to get the check to THEIR HANDS. That they should do the same.

Such audacity. (Note how there's really no reply you can offer because it's a double standard that a child can understand). And what I like about children is that they just say, "yep, ya got me on that". It's adults who bring the .."Yeah but" into an otherwise immutable truth.

All men are created equal...
"Yeah but the company (society) knows you are a female.. Sorry no vote."

Honor thy mother and father...
"Yeah but he's my stepfather and mom married him at 65, none of his business"

I get a service, I come home and get a bill from the box, I pay. Simple.
They get it to me, I get it to them.

This nonsense of "I know the bill, I should anticipate the bill" is nonsense. If their contractor doesn't get it to me, they need to change or affect their contractor. Same for me.

It should apply both ways.

 

[Olas]

I'm surprised you have paper statements for anything tbh, online accounts and direct debits allow me to pay all bills on the due date, with foreknowledge of EXACTLY how much those bills are going to be.

When obliged to pay x amount by x date, the variability of an unreliable postal service is an unacceptable one.
It's surprises me that anybody has had this issue since the Internet became widespread in the...what...mid 90s?

 

[Al]

Wow just Wow!! The OP just wrote a book an a late payment bill. Life is precious and the time you just wasted on this is gone forever.

I can't believe in this age folks don't have automatic payments for everything

and this:

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill. Just go online, get your bill and pay it from your house. Why call, drive 1.5 hours or do anything else that requires more time than necessary over a phone bill?

 

[QuietPortage]

Up until we took over paying her bills, my grandmother was in this boat. 93 years-old, and uninterested in learning computer use. Okay. She had a very strong sense of personal responsibility though, and no feelings of entitlement. If something got lost in the mail, she'd call the company and ask for the amount owed so she could get them a check before the due date.

Your responsibility to pay the debt owed is neither diminished nor erased by the provider's bill having been lost or destroyed in the mail.

I've never had an email lost, but have had items fail to arrive when sent through the USPS. It may just be time to choose an electronic method of delivery and move on. Mailed bills and paper checks are already in general disuse, and will become extinct in my lifetime. Waiting in line at the grocery store behind the old ladies who want to write checks for a loaf of bread is cause for much eye-rolling.

This is the way business is done, and the lack of sympathy here should be an indicator that you need to reevaluate the situation. I can't think of a single person that writes checks for cell phone use, which seems a bit ironic and amusing to me; paying for modern technology with the oldest and least convieneng method available.

 

[hatt]

Troll thread grade: A- Good job!

 

[Vern_in_IL]

I receive paper statements for everything. I see it as redundancy, concidering how easy it is the network to go down, and the goverment seeking a "kill switch"

I even pay with checks on some accounts, like my landline.... Again redundancy.

Just recycle the statements. Most services require you pay the first billing cycle upfront, insurance,etc.

 

[SumpChump]

Now I understand a few things about us modern Americans after this thread.

I see why others think we are childish. Evidenced by how many posters used the "but everyone is doing it" argument.

I see why others of the 7 Billion think we are rash and lack candor. Evidenced by the posters, except 2-3, refusing to keep the discussion to the idea of whether if I a MUST ensure the USPS gets it there... that THEY be held to the same requirement. Instead degenerating to the "old versus new" battle.

I see why others, and a good amount of citizens, believe we lost our core values that each person matters and the individual must be at least considered (not forgotten). Evidenced by the comments that "you're the only on that" , "who would even choose that method anymore". Really? As if the person who chooses a paper bill is less worthy of respectful customer treatment? I we can't ask a company to go or paper billing for the "one dummy" who wants it....how quickly do we let the "one who worships ____ " get shoved to the side and say "NO! You WILL work that day, it's only YOUR worship day".

I see why others, including myself, are bewildered at our unhealthy love affair with corporate power and the trance that a new type of propaganda out us into. Heck, I love the whole "company loyalty" thing But what I'm talking about is our allegiance to "the company must be right... They are big and official looking". This speaks again to the loss I respect for the individual, not the outlier, the individual. We have become so attached to the corporate teat emotionally and so beaten down with low expectations of those who SERVE US that a sense of pre-realease of responsibility is in the air. After all "companies will eventually spill XYZ, look how much they do, they bring us an important service". As if business can't be held to the standard of an individual.

I see why others, and many here, worry about dependance on technology. Notice I said DEPENDANCE not USE. It's a tool, great, technology saved my life a hundred times over. But the dependance and spoon feeding I dependance is sick and dangerous. I cited many valid concerns and weakness such as data breeches and tumbling errors which computers are so good at.... And nobody even really acknowledged it as genuine. We ram ahead letting someone else put their fingers into our accounts when even a family blood member couldn't. Not saying it's wrong. Just saddened that we really have lost most caution when it comes to just "signing up". Data breeches are common and we sign up. Right on the news in our faces and who asks.. Is THIS safe? Do you even know what security encryption they use? Nope. But you want to know the name of your dog's groomer. Data breeches and all people get is a "Were sorry" . Heck if your neighbor let someone into your garbage can area without permission you'd be upset and call police. Yet have no clue who is actually processing your bank auto data.

The saddest part is the "It's just the WAY it is now" mentality. NO, it's 2015, theses years were to be more advanced, more peaceful more secure, more choice, more interdependent. No "that's the way it is". And failure bein the norm and conformity being the norm and responsibility going out the window. For cripes sake. A guy posts about a business perhaps being obligated to "work with him" on ensuring timely billing and it's HIS fault? It's HE who is out of date and DESERVED what happened because he chose different?

Sad sheeple.

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
I receive paper statements for everything. I see it as redundancy, concidering how easy it is the network to go down, and the goverment seeking a "kill switch"

I even pay with checks on some accounts, like my landline.... Again redundancy.

Just recycle the statements. Most services require you pay the first billing cycle upfront, insurance,etc.


YES! You get it! Thank you.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

I understand your anger and agree with a lot of what you have said. However, if you have a stroke over it, then your phone company and all they stand for will have won.

I had a similar case recently--two important pieces of mail didn't show up, including the Verizon bill. I went online and did a one-time credit card payment. I also could have printed the statement and mailed it. Like others, I won't do automatic payments. I'm convinced that would be unwise after being stuck in the [censored] of the "customer service" phone tree for hours to resolve things like billing errors. I'll pay you what I owe; I don't trust you to pay yourself from my account.

When it comes to terms of service, privacy policies, statements of consumer rights, and so on, I always try to remember that they are not written for me but for whoever issued them.

In other words, the large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

 

[04SE]

Nobody has asked so I will....

What happens if you actually received the bill timely (like normal, pre-USPS problems), you paid on time and the payment was never received by the phone company?

Let me guess, it would be the company's fault as well?

SumpChump, chill out dude. Life goes on.

 

[hatt]

I prefer my bills be engraved on stone tablets. That newfangled paper stuff can't make it through a fire so great.

I am upgrading your troll grade to A+. Being able to conclude people are sheeple, with an unhealthy love affair with corps and dependence on tech, because they're able to easily cope with a single lost by USPS monthly bill was quite clever.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
I believe you will find that proof of mailing via USPS is considered "presented" legally.

The fact that the phone drone could tell you it was mailed on such and such day would seem to indicate they have proof of mailing.

And the TOS (which you agreed to) does say that doesn't it? But hey it is a (mostly) free market economy and you're free to not agree to the TOS and to refuse to accept this absurdity ... which of course means you won't have a cell service at least from that company. If enough people don't agree the company will then either change it or begin a decline.

I'm not saying it is right - but it is the way it is...
It's the "common law" of most states unless there is a statutory requirement to use registered or certified in a particular circumstance. Perhaps there is a consumer protection statute in your state which provides differently, I TOLD you to check with your consumer affairs office but you'd rather whine endlessly about it.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
It's a question for the Consumer Protection Division of your state Attorney General.


This, or something similar. Or their contractual rules on the subject could be contained in the huge document you signed when you started service. I know I didn't read mine..

 

[Olas]

It's not about redundancy nor reliance on technology.

It's about my responsibility to pay my bills on time, and when the universally unreliable postal services, both public and private*, are involved in the delivery of information to me, I fear the risk of not paying my bill on time.

It's about honour. I have to honour the commitment I made to pay the amount on the date, wether its mortgage, phone bill, gas, water, whatever it is I salinger my name on a contract declaring I would take certain actions. This is something critically important to me and I cannot take the risk of not receiving the information I need to take appropriate action.


* Some delivery services are better but none are perfect, and give the implications this is unacceptable to me.

 

[Propflux01]

One thing the OP doesn't seem to see is that regardless of what method he is using to pay his bills, as a customer, he is REQUESTING a service from a company. He knows by agreeing/signing his contract that payment is due. Even if the bill has not arrived, since HE has requested the service, it is up to HIM to pay it, regardless of the method. His excuse of a "tit-for-tat checks in the mail" excuse holds no merit. HE is the on who uses their service and even as he admits after meticulously paying for years, HE is responsible for the payment by the due date. HE knows he has used the service and that some form of payment is due. Even if he bill was not received in the mail, it not an excuse of payment. Even the courts consider a document sent through the US mail as served. If the world had the same mentality as the OP about this, I am sure no bills would be paid as it would just be too easy to say, "checks in the mail"...

I continue to have bills sent to my house, even though I pay online. I use that as a backup in case my "inner-net" decides to go away for a few days. That gives me a choice to go to a wifi area and pay my bills, or just mail them a check. Either way, I know those bills need to be paid, and if I don't have an actual bill, it does not exclude me from paying it by a certain date. If his check does not reach the company by its due date, regardless of method, it is late. Does not matter whether the USPS, UPS, FED-EX, or the PONY EXPRESS lost it, the payment is still due. Notwithstanding the OP also screwed himself by calling the company, as they record each call and they now have evidence that he knew he had a bill (they also know he had an issue receiving his bill, and admits of a mail issue in his area), So at that moment any chance of a late payment forgiveness is null. Instead of waiting for another bill, he could have made payment over the phone, mailed them a check with account number written on it once he found his balance out, or paid online.

 

[Dave Hess]

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