Asking for an opinion from readers

I am going to be a little off-topic this time and put a question out to the readers for an opinion on something that happened recently.

I am one of those types of people who believe that a credit rating is very important and I have developed a system of checks and balances to make sure that every bill is paid on time.

Part of that system is that I arranged with EVERYBODY that I owe monthly payments to and have their due date around the 15th of the month because I ALWAYS send checks out to everybody on the 5th of the month thus allowing time for the US postal snail to arrive before the due date.

I recently noticed that my phone bill had a due date of the third of the month.

So being the conscientious person that I am, I called the phone company about this to get the due date changed and I was informed that the due date is related to my phone number and if I wish to change my phone number then I can change the due date.

Well of course, I am not going to change my phone numbers simply to change a due date on a bill so I asked the representative if there is any way that they could make a notation on my account and she replied "no".

Therefore, I proceeded to talk to the manager who basically confirmed what she said in addition, also told me not to worry, that I have an excellent payment history with them and that I am a good customer.

I was satisfied with his answer and did not think that much more about it and made a few notes on my bill and went on with my business.

Yesterday, I get mail from the phone company with big red letters on the front "IMPORTANT OPEN IMMEDIATELY"

The letter starts out...

DISCONNECT NOTICE

Our records indicate that there is a total past-due amount of... and payment should be received by September 16 or the service will be disconnected and a restoral charge of $10 per line and a security deposit may apply to reestablish the disconnected service.

Of course this always happens on Friday afternoon when it's too late to really talk to anybody but I managed to call the 800-number anyways and the operator is telling me that their system AUTOMATICALLY sends out a disconnect notice three days after the due date.

I was in shock, the manager did not mention anything about this and don't they normally give a past due notice before a disconnect notice?

I have never been late on any bills and I have never in my life received a disconnect notice from anybody.

I called a friend of mine who also uses the same phone company and she told me that she was surprised because she pays her phone bill every three months and has NEVER gotten a disconnect notice.


One thing of particular interest here is... I talked to the manager on September 6 and the date of this notice is September 6. Coincidence?

So, I have some things that I am thinking about doing and actions that I'm thinking of taking but I wanted to get some other opinions on this issue first.