The other day I mailed out five bills that were going to five different states. A credit card payment went to Delaware, the water bill went to Maine, an insurance payment went to Pennsylvania, the electric bill went to Massachusetts and the Times payment went to South Dakota. (I love the Times. The book review and the crossword puzzle are both worth the price of the paper.) Four of the bills carry a late charge if payment arrives after the due date, and the paper will simply stop delivery if your account is remiss. Guess which payment posted first?
If you guessed the Times give yourself a prize. The only company that doesn’t charge a late fee posted their check a mere three days after mailing. Plus, it was mailed the farthest of the five bills. How can we explain this? Let me try.
American corporations, in their quest to inflate their bottom line, will take money any way they can. If your credit card payment is late, not only will you be assessed a late charge, they can, and probably will, raise your interest rate. To me, this is double jeopardy. And these are the same financial institutions that benefitted from TARP. You would think that they would work with people in a more compassionate manner, seeing as it was taxpayers that bailed out their risk taking asses in the first place. But noooo – say it like Steve Martin – they would rather pick at our dying carcasses like the vultures they are, until we have no more to give. Isn’t capitalism grand?
And the other bills I sent out are basic necessities of life. Electricity and water are not something you can shop around for. They are public utilities that are supposed to serve their customers well. But we all know how that works, especially after the freak snowstorm in October and Hurricane Irene in August. The interests of the customers runs a sad second to the profit margin of said companies. And the insurance company, which already charges a five dollar processing fee for each monthly payment, will also add a ten-dollar late charge if your payment is tardy. And none of them care if the mail is responsible for your late payment. I tried that excuse one time and the customer service rep told me I needed to mail the payment earlier. Which brings me to my next lament . . .
Why aren’t the bills mailed to us sooner. I receive my insurance bill less than a week before I need to mail it back out. I remember a time when we had much more leeway between the arrival of the bill and the need to remit payment. When, and why, did the companies change this? Is it that they actually want us to be late, thereby necessitating late fees and charges? I would hate to think American companies would be so devious as to do something like that. They wouldn’t put profits ahead of good business practices, would they? Or do they consider such behavior a good business practice? I think the latter applies, Don’t you?
As of today, none of the other checks have yet posted. The only one in danger of being late is the insurance payment, and I will rail mightily if they try to hit me with a late fee. Still, I doubt it will do any good. For the most part, customer service has become a forgotten art, practiced by fewer and fewer companies, but I will save that rant for another day.
breezespeaks 