The Editor
The Anguillian

Dear Sir:

ANGLEC’S BILLING SYSTEM

I am writing this letter to the attention of the General Manager of Anglec. I am very unhappy with your billing system. You send customers a bill each month with a date in bold print saying: “Please pay Current Charges before 9/20/2007 to avoid disconnection.”

People are looking at that date and believing that they are paying their bill on time when in fact they are not. I came in on 9/192007 to pay my bill and I was made to pay an additional 2% late payment charge. I was then shown at the very bottom of the bill where it says “A monthly 2% late payment will be applied to all arrears in excess of 27 day.”

So my question to Anglec was 27 days from what date? They told me 27 days from that date they read my meter. That date was located on my bill and said 8/21/2007. That is the same date printed on my bill s the billing date and the same date on the postage stamp on the front of my bill. However, it would be impossible for Anglec to read m meter, print m bill and mail my bill all in the same day.

So my problem with this system is that Anglec is legally correct with this charge. However they are morally wrong in misleading their customers by clearly asking you to “Please pay Current Charges by one date to avoid disconnection, knowing that if you pay even a day before that date you will have already incurred a 2% late charge.

They have also neglected to put the exact date that your bill is due. After standing there and figuring out what the 27 days from 8/21/2007 was, we determined that it would have been 9/21/2007. So instead of telling me to pay my bill by 9/18/2007 Anglec also misled me to believe I was paying my bill on time by telling me to pay it by 9/20/2007.

I think it is quite clear Anglec is making money off customers who think they are paying their bills on time only to be charged an additional 25 late charge.

After receiving no response from Anglec, I have chosen to inform the general public of this disturbing practice.

My recommendation to the General Manager is that if you ask your customers to come and pay their bills by a certain date then make that the date their bills are due. Here is an example: Cable & Wireless give you a date and say you must pay your bill on or before this date. No hidden agendas.

Again, I am writing this letter because we all have a moral obligation to do the right thing and we set an example for our youth.

So please do the right thing and change the wording on your bills to reflect the date on which the bill is due before any late fees are added.

A Concerned Customer

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