When Exactly is a Paid Bill Paid? Bell Canada’s Finding Out

September 28th, 2010. By Hunter West

Up in the Great White North, a class action lawsuit against Bell Canada and its mobile subsidiary Bell Mobility has been settled, with plaintiffs claiming to have been docked late charges for bills they had actually paid before the mandated deadline. 

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, and as is often the case in such matters the defendant admits to no fault, wrongdoing or obligation—but did agree to take certain actions in response to the class action, filed on behalf of Suzanne Brazeau last April. 

One of those actions is the donation of funds to various charities on behalf of individuals who may have been Bell, or Bell Mobility customers from March 26^th, 2008 through August 9^th, 2009 and may have incurred unjust late charges, but who are no longer customers with the network. 

The lawsuit, and the settlement illustrate the challenges of living in these times. 

Gone are the days when one spouse went out to earn a living, leaving the other to stay at home and run the household—tasks that usually included bill-paying accomplished at a leisurely pace well ahead of the due date, with a postal service unencumbered by cutbacks and downsizing. 

Gone too, are the days when there was basically only one way to pay a bill—by check. 

Today, the options are numerous and varied. Yes, you can write a check and mail it. But you can also pay through your bank—either in person, by telephone or online. More and more consumers are doing so using the latter strategies, and many more have cancelled out of receiving a paper bill altogether in an effort to save a tree. Or save a fee. Since we pay electronically anyway, why not accept a bill in the same fashion—by email? 

Then there is the pace of our lives. Both spouses working, often including weekends. There are so many demands on our time that inevitably things get left to just before the deadline. 

But so long as the date on the check reflects a date earlier than the due date, or the postmark on the envelope—or so long as a bill is paid through a bank, either online or by phone ahead of the due date (like, the day before) then you should be okay. 

Right? 

Not necessarily. Some billing companies refer to the due date as the date they actually receive the payment, not the date on which you paid the bill, either by check or through a bank. As for the bank, the payee may think that she/he has made the due date by hitting the ‘send’ button with a day to spare and given the fact it’s an all-electronic transaction, it is assumed the money pops into the issuer’s ‘IN’ box just as fast. 

Not necessarily. It may take the bank a day or two to process the payment. By then, you’ve missed the due date. 

But you didn’t, really… 

Bell has not said what it was about its protocol for calculating late char ges that brought on the class action lawsuit in the first place. But it did say it is changing the way it is calculating late payments. 

Other companies—be they credit card companies, communications, or any business that issues a bill with a due date—need to be cognizant to the harried lives that most of us lead, and inject some fairness into the mix—rather than taking advantage of an opportunity to make even more money off us. 

That said, due dates are there for a reason and must be respected. But consumers also need to know exactly how late charges are calculated, with no ambiguity. You can’t play the game properly if you don’t know the rules. 

True, service providers need to protect themselves from consumers who are simply lazy, too cheap or too eager to take advantage. That’s what late charges are for. But hard-working and well-meaning consumers need to know that service providers are on their side. We’re not asking them to cut us some slack. 

What we’re demanding, however, is fairness. Because there are competitors in the marketplace we can easily take our business to, instead. 

And some of us, might be just angry enough to bloody well sue you.

Tags: Bell Canada, Bell Mobility

This was posted on Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Class Action . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.