Cough up sucker
News came through yesterday that Telstra will soon start charging an administration fee for those paying their telephone bill with cash or cheque. The fee is reported to be $2.20.
To a lot of people, including me, $2.20 isn't a large sum of money but to those who do not have a credit card and/or access to the Internet or those who have simply been lost in how rapidly the use of computers has progressed in the last ten years will find this charge difficult to come to terms with. To someone on a low income, people like pensioners, those on the dole or living off their own savings, $2.20 is a loaf of bread, a carton of milk or eggs or a tray of supermarket sausages.
Telstra is a reprehensible organisation that will stop at nothing to fleece the flock for all it can get. In the past, companies have always factored the cost of how they accept payments into their pricing. Why is there a sudden need to charge people for paying them cash? In Telstra's case they no longer have their own branch network, once known as the Telecom Business Office, and haven't had for as long as I remember. Telstra struck a deal with Australia Post to accept payments on their behalf. So with their expensive-to-run branch networks gone and the post office accepting bill payments and handing out rental telephones on Telstra's behalf, Telstra's costs have dropped significantly over time.
However in the 21st century it is a passion for many companies to develop new ways to rort customers.
People shouldn't have to pay a company for the privilege of paying a bill. Telstra's new boss, David Thodey, should look at this and give consideration to scrapping the new charge before it ever sees the light of day.
Written at 06:15 on 22 July 2009 by Lord Watchdog.
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