Very interesting article this morning on the struggles that companies are having persuading their customers to go paperless.  (I know, its not employment law, but it is interesting, and there is a lawsuit involved). 

 

Companies have two strong incentives to reduce paper billings:  it reduces their costs, and it gives them environmental cred.   (If all of T-Mobile’s customers received electronic bills, it would save 13,500 trees per year.)  To that end, after several months of trying to persuade its customers to go paperless, in August T-Mobile started charging a $1.50 monthly fee on all accounts that insisted on receiving a paper bill.   And the new strategy worked:  after the fee was announced, the number of customers signing up for paperless billing jumped from 1,000 per day to 33,000 per day. 

 

Unfortunately, some customers did not appreciate the “stick” approach to switching to paperless bills.   On September 5, a class-action lawsuit was filed against T-Mobile in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging that the fee for the paper bill constituted a “material  modification” of the customers’ contracts with T-Mobile.   Six days later, T-Mobile announced that it was discontinuing the fee for paper bills. 

 

For customers, it is true, there is a hidden economic cost to not receiving paper bills.  It’s easier and quicker to open an envelope and glance at a bill than it is to log onto a web site and navigate the payment procedure.   In addition, there is the reasonable fear of missing a bill that is sent via e-mail rather than on paper.  Still, the environmental argument for going paperless is very compelling, and one would hope that the savings realized by the company would ultimately be passed onto its customers.