How Long Should Companies Make E-Bills Available? 299
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the forever-billed dept.
from the forever-billed dept.
theodp writes "If you say goodbye to paper and hello to green, you may learn first-hand that no good deed goes unpunished. Try to pay your final Verizon Wireless bill online after switching carriers, for example, and don't be surprised if you get a sorry-Dave-I'm-afraid-I-can't-do-that reply. Other vendors may curtail e-Bill services 30 days after you end service. And a promise of access to up to seven years of paperless statements is somewhat empty if you'll be cutoff as soon as you no longer have an account. With more-and-more companies enticing consumers to go paperless, how long a period of time should the records be made available online? Should it extend beyond the life of an account?"
more paper == more trees (Score:3, Informative)
I hate how people think that reducing paper will reduce environmental impact. Trees that are used for paper grow VERY fast, and even out here in the Pacific Northwest, in logging country, I've seen the clear cut fields, but what they don't show you, is across the road is a 5/10 year old forest that is already hella bigger than you ever thought trees could grow in 5/10 years. I dated an ex-logger for awhile, and he told me, "we cannot cut it down fast enough."
If you want to save trees, DON'T WORRY ABOUT PAPER OR WOOD PRODUCTS, those industries cannot use the wood fast enough. What you DO want to worry about are the people CLEAR CUTTING RAIN FOREST LAND in order to grow enough crop in order to feed their family. Give subsidizes to every farmer near the rain forests to not go out clear cutting, and WOW! Deforestation problem solved.
"Paperless is green" is a foul's quest. BTW, I also dated a guy working at a paper mill, toilet paper, and paper towels (even nice paper towels) are made from saw dust... the scrap that is left over from making lumber. They're actually using WASTE product to make their consumer products. So, again, use as much toilet paper as you want, we won't exceed available supplies of WASTE SAW DUST.
Re:statute of limitations (Score:3, Informative)
30? I doubt that. When I worked for JCPenney I had the task of disposing of old receipts. We had an entire room filled with boxes which were stuffed with register tape. The law required 7 years; anything older was tossed into the dumpster.
ignore my post (Score:3, Informative)
Re-reading the gp, and he's probably implying he had to log into some account management web tool. Which would provide the access control. Never mind ...
Re:Alternative to online account access/storage (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Alternative to online account access/storage (Score:3, Informative)
You know how many times I've gotten somebody else's mail in my business PO box? Like GP said, physical mail is not secure.
Re:Another blow against libertarianism here on /. (Score:3, Informative)
Err, no. If the debt that the debt collector bought is found to be invalid, the piece of paper the debt collector has is worth as much as a share of Washington Mutual. That's a risk a debt collector takes when purchasing debt.
Sounds like they hired the Mafia rather than an actual debt collecting agency. While the real debt collectors don't often follow the debt collection laws, it more often amounts to telephone threats and slander than actual thugs coming around.