Story behind atts paperless billing : from att employee

[imported_ghengis]

With all these 300-page iPhone bills being mailed out to AT&T customers, it was only a matter of time before someone started wondering how many trees would die a day. Now an AT&T rep is commenting on the issue and says that the company encourages paperless billing and is no longer giving customers detailed statements.

Says the rep:

Hey, I just saw your post about AT&T’s paper bills being enormous today through a link on Digg.

I actually work for an AT&T call center, and while I’m not defending AT&T, I thought the following should be known:

1. AT&T is aware they are killing a lot of trees and is just starting to prevent it by going to “summary billing”–meaning no more call/data details for every phone on the account, just basic charges. This happens by default for every new customer as of August 10th.

2. We are told to encourage customers to use ATT.com to view their detailed bill online rather than looking at all the specifics on their physical bill. We’re also told to encourage paperless billing altogether; an option offered to customers when they sign up their phone number online. All of this is offered free on their website and is available to them 24 hours a day. There are a few exceptions where they wouldn’t be able to view their latest bill for a while, but I am still new there, so I don’t know all the specific factors that will cause this.

3. Also, any customer that changes their rate plan (which, trust me, is about half the calls I get every day) as of August 10th will automatically be put on the summary billing. They have to actually pay an extra $1.99 per month per line to view their call details now. This is where we are trying to push for the customer to view their bill online in hopes that they eventually just sign up for paperless billing. While this method of charging can be taken as two ways, A) ATT just wants to make an extra buck, or B) ATT really does care about trees and is just trying to sway customers away from viewing their bill on paper, I like to think that they are doing the latter. Though, it’s probably the former. ATT doesn’t have the greatest scruples in the world.

If you have an iPhone, e-billing should be default. Makes sense, does it not?

mission accomplished: at&t mending its tree-killing ways

The report is accurate. They've been talking about going summary for the last 4 months. The theory that we were given in financial/billing was that it's almost unheard of anymore for people to either not have a computer or access to a computer, so when one is on paperless billing it means that they have access to their call information and such anytime they want it.

However, after talking to one of the guys that works as a trainer for new reps, his take on the news was that it was being done to prevent customer call/call backs. The average cost for att to handle a call (considering power, computers, connection, wages, etc) is about $8 per call. If people have "self-serve" option to be able to view information, and/or make changes to their account, it will also bring down the cost of operations and save the company a buck as well.

My personal suspicion is that the trainer was partially right, but I also think that the report posted above is partially correct as well. I'm sure that with the mammoth novels that iphone billing is, att didn't want to have to fork out the postage costs to mail those suckers out.

i see your trainers view, but as of today att it loosing a lot of money but in log run it will pay off.

Okay, I have to rant.....

We (att as a company) decided that it would be more environmentally friendly and save postage if we went to summary billing.

Last night when I got home from work, I checked the mail and there sitting in my box staring at me was "2006 Annual Report - Delivering On Our Promise."

This is a 8.5 X 11, 85 page catalog for stockholders of at&t. It contains what the plans for the next year are as well as revenue reporting from the last year. This thing, if i were to take it to the post office would cost me about $1.25-1.50 to mail out due to it's weight with the heavy glossy paper.

Why do we need this stuff? First I'm not a stockholder, second it wasn't even addressed to me personally. On the mailing cover it said at&t employee. And here's the kicker of the whole thing....I got 2 of them! Each separately enveloped and mailed out to me.

Way to go at&t, that "R" for "return on operations" just went in the toilet with all this postage and paper.

[imported_ghengis]

lol, you made me laugh . It reminds me the old saying from my grandpa

"penny smart, dollar stupid"

ayhhhh wayy to go att.