Les Bonnes Choses

I glimpsed a headline in an old newspaper, now being used as a tray liner. It, and the accompanying by-line, indicated that the Canadian federal government was legislating more clarity in the bills that your cable and phone companies send you every month. The problem that this legislation addresses is that these bills may span multiple pages and include an Amount Owing figure that bears little resemblance to the rate you were quoted when you first subscribed. These bills include recurring equipment rental charges, extra charges for using a touch-tone phone, and, in a move that really tickles my self-reference funny-bone, even charges for receiving a bill in the first place.

I received a text message from Telus a couple days ago. I have (for the time being) a pre-paid plan with them, which I top up every couple of months, for when I'm in Canada. The idea is to avoid paying roaming charges when I visit, thereby allowing me to actually use my phone. It seemed like a good idea in my head, but maybe I should put it to paper to see if I'm actually ahead of the game by paying $25 for 250MB of data and 200 text messages for 30 days (after which time it expires, though I am left with $5 worth of calling time which lasts another 30 days).  I used the strikethrough text decoration in the previous sentence because the text message I received was to say that, as of July 17, that same $25 will now get me just 100MB of data. If I never use even 100MB of data in a 30 day period, it really doesn't matter -- I might as well call it unlimited, because I never run in to my limit. But it's the principle of it all. Plus, it actually would make a difference if the litigants in a class action lawsuit against Bell get their way. This lawsuit alleges that prepaid service is not fundamentally different from a gift card, which is not allowed to expire.


I mention this related event because I don't know that the legislation about phone/cable/utility bill clarity is actually required. I doubt many customers are terribly puzzled by these line-item charges tacked on to their monthly statements. They know very well that they are being nickel-and-dimed in a bait-and-switch routine that suggests a monthly bill of x but winds up sending out a bill of 2x. They could probably save a bit of money and fire the marketing people tasked with coming up with benign or important-sounding charges to use on their bills. Just end the charade and give them nice utilitarian names like gouging fees 1 through 8. I think the only puzzlement that most people experience when reading their bills is how some business sectors got the privilege of printing their own money.