July, 25, 2011

Dear Sir,

I sent this letter to customer service at BTC and copied Consumer Affairs but felt that I also should send this to the Letters to the Editor page to hopefully gain a wider audience.

I am rather disgusted that I received my July BTC bill (statement date July 1), today, July 25. With the Cup Match weekend that gives me three days — until July 27 — to pay this bill. Given that BTC advise that two working days be allowed for processing the payments that means that I must pay this bill today, the day I received it, or be subjected to automatic late charges.

There seems to be a trend among service providers to send out bills weeks later than the statement date, and I hope it is not with the hidden intention of reaping a huge volume of late charges when the customer has only a few days to organise payment.

I have paid my bill today but how many thousands of other BTC customers will fall into this trap this month?

GEOFF PARKER JR

Warwick