Holy crap, does anyone pay their MF'ing bill anymore?

[CancelMyService]

So my company suspends service if the bill is more than 55 days past due (nearly two months for those playing at home), and they don't do these suspensions on weekends/holidays.

Today we had nearly 200 calls in queue with 100 agents staffed, and at least 75% of the calls were from people who were disconnected either today or yesterday.

Considering anything more than 25 calls in queue is considered heavy, tonight was re-god-damn-diculous.

I'd wager most of it was from people being so engrossed in the holiday spending orgy that is the winter months, they either forgot about their cable bills or had no money left.

That's not even counting the people who call in with like 6 returned checks in a 2 month span wondering why their internets are broken. I seriously don't know why my company even bothers with post dated check payments either. Anyone who's at that point is pretty much over their head. In theory it should be a last resort to someone having a short month, but it ends up being abused by people who don't even pay their bills until someone from collections calls to advise them they're about to get disconnected.

[Misanthropical]

No, they don't and then whine about it when they are cut off.

Why should I pay when I can't use it anymore? Oh, because you did use it and then came up with some cock-n-bull story about why you should have it given to you for free.

[hawkchick11]

I admit it, I forgot to pay my cable bill this month

Only cuz the roommate took it and if its not sitting right next to my computer with the other bills, I forget about it.

[Cyphr]

I'm still in college so all the bills are semester start lump sums. However i subscribe to a MMO or two and kinda forgot to leave enough money on the debit to let the auto charge not get bounced I guess it happens to all of us.

[Bright_Star]

How do people NOT pay their bills during the holidays? What do people think-that creditors are gonna be nice & cheery & say.."of course you can be late. Just pay it whenever you want"?
I make damn sure I pay my bills before I even THINK of doing any holiday spending.

[Talon]

I'll admit I almost missed the due date for my credit card payment. But I was up to my eyeballs in exams, and then helping a friend move out. What's their excuse?

[IHateStupidCustomers]

Apparently paying your bill ontime has gone out of style...

I saw a commercial for a credit card (don't remember the company) that offered some kind of reward; cash-back, rebates, lower interest rate or something if you paid your bill on time.

I thought that was funny.

Rewarding people for doing things that they are already supposed to be doing...

[Becks]

I saw a commercial for a credit card (don't remember the company) that offered some kind of reward; cash-back, rebates, lower interest rate or something if you paid your bill on time.

I think it's Discover, but I could be wrong.

[allniter]

How do people NOT pay their bills during the holidays? What do people think-that creditors are gonna be nice & cheery & say.."of course you can be late. Just pay it whenever you want"?
I make damn sure I pay my bills before I even THINK of doing any holiday spending.

You gotta point out to them that it's past January 1, and the rules of being nice over the holidays no longer apply. You don't have to pay if you don't want to, but we don't have to care what happens if we don't want to either.

[IHateStupidCustomers]

I think it's Discover, but I could be wrong.

Yes, that does sound right...

And I know someone who works for a credit union that gives customers a 25 day grace period or something like that for their credit cards.. So, people can pay their bill up to 25 days late before they get a late fee. Crazy.

[Becks]

You gotta point out to them that it's past January 1, and the rules of being nice over the holidays no longer apply.

What about those that celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings?

[PhotoChick]

And I know someone who works for a credit union that gives customers a 25 day grace period or something like that for their credit cards.. So, people can pay their bill up to 25 days late before they get a late fee. Crazy.

Ummm... no. That's normal. You get you credit card bill and its dated X/01/XX(whatever day it closed) and you have a 25 (or whatever) grace period before you're charged interest. So if you pay in full by the due date (X/25/XX) you aren't charged any interest. If you don't pay in full it's still due on X/25/XX but your charged interest.

[CancelMyService]

What gets me are the people who think we have some obligation to offer some sort of assistance/extension/etc for people who don't pay their bill.

Then when you offer the option of doing a post dated check (which is a horribly bad thing for a company to offer), they get all upset because they don't have no checkins' accounts.