The Enigmatic Telephone Bill (2)

In my series of posts on the Enigmatic Telephone Bill I am talking about the complexity of price plans and services, explaining various discounts that are used by telephone companies and showing how easy it is for the telephone companies to miscalculate your bill.

In this post, I will share with you my telephone bill.

Actually I get 5 telephone bills! One bill from my cellular provider, one from my internet provider, one from my international calling provider and 2 from my land line provider – one for each line. You probably would suggest to me to have my bills on line, or via e-mail, but I am an old school woman, who, for accounting purposes prefers to have her expenses documented on paper.

So, I will pick my cellphone bill, mainly because EVERYODY has a cell phone (at least all my followers….).
For my cellular provider, I am one customer with one account and 5 subscribers. I get one monthly bill for all my subscribers. Luckily for the operator, I pay my subscribers in full. Sometimes there is a split charge, when the subscriber pays part of the total. I will discuss Split Charge in the future.

There are 3 different rate plans for my subscribers.
One is very simple and straight forward. Unfortunately, the rate per minute is the highest of all 3. In this rate plan, the subscriber is charged a fix monthly charge, and then a fix rate per minute.

In the second rate plan, there is a monthly charge, which is deducted from the usage charge. In addition, I defined 10 numbers within the operator network, for which, each 2 minutes are considered as 1 minute for charging purposes. Actually, when I signed for this rate plan, I was told that for these 10 numbers I get 50% discount, which apparently is not the case.
This rate plan is considered Tier discount. Depending on the total monthly usage (total minutes), the rate per minute is set. The more you talk, the less you pay (per minute). Now, because the calculation for my preferred 10 numbers is as explained above, I reach a lower tier.
The bill shows you the rate per minute you are charged. Unfortunately, the operator updates these tiers once in a while, and it is difficult to keep track.

The third rate plan is the most complicated of the 3. Different rates for week days and weekend days. Free text messages at night. Content services with fix and/or per usage charges, 10 preferred numbers with discount, etc.

Confused? I am! And I designed Telephone Bills, I developed and implemented Billing systems, I conducted investigation into Billing systems as a result of customer complaints.

In my next posts I will discuss Rating issues, over and under charging, discounts and other Billing concepts.

Stay tuned!