CUSTOMERS ACCEPT they must pay their bills but when some phone users find they have to pay a surcharge to receive those bills by post, they have every right to feel aggrieved. In this digital age, the inexorable move to paperless billing, via e-mail, has greatly accelerated in many utilities. But in some cases, mobile phone companies have chosen to introduce electronic billing by stealth and to impose it on their customers without securing their clear consent for such a major change. Certainly, phone customers have received few compensating benefits in return.
All new customers with mobile phone company, Vodafone, are now assumed to want paperless billing. That is the default option. Should they wish to receive a paper bill, they are charged €2. And in the case of O2, more than two-thirds of its post-paid customers have switched to online billing but without having given explicit consent to that change. As the Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) has pointed out, customers who did not wish to receive electronic billing were forced to opt out of the billing changes that O2 proposed. They were not given a proper choice.
The advantages of electronic billing for phone companies are clear. Less paper is used, the companies save money and they can claim they have adopted an environmentally friendly approach. But they have done so without much regard for the concerns of their customers. The CAI has described their actions as unprecedented. For unlike UK mobile phone operators, which offer cheaper rates and other incentives to their customers who choose online billing, Irish mobile phone users have received no such benefits for such a change. Savings made by the companies from electronic billing are not passed on in the form of lower charges or cheaper rates.
ComReg, which regulates the mobile phone sector, has expressed its concerns to 02 about the switch to online billing. It seems those concerns have been ignored so far. ComReg has advised customers affected by this billing change that they are entitled to receive a paper bill.
Most people accept the environmental and other benefits associated with online billing but the legitimate interests of consumers must also be protected in such a changeover. Customer service should mean companies serving their customers’ needs. This should not mean forcing customers to pay their mobile phone operator to receive a printed copy of their bill.