Paying for a phone call

[#1]

Got the monthly email from PN re charges for the last month. Because I'm on free broadband and have a legacy package inc. weekends and evenings it was for 27p for one call made during the day!

Why oh why, do they collect such a small amount by DD? Why not let the charges add up for a couple of months?

[#2]

Because that would be to easy and make a lot of sense? 

[#3]

Because it is all automated and it just gets added to the normal direct debit - doing it any other way would be much more difficult - there can't be many customers who don't have a monthly charge

[#4]

You are right of course Jim, in fact the other day I was hard put to remember when I last used a cheque book. I rarely carry cash these days either. 

[#5]

In automation, it's more simple to keep things consistent.

I'm pretty certain we'd have more objection if the bills came at random as well.

[#6]

There is that, but then automation can be just a bit too much 'consistent' and not unlike Mickey Mouse and the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I'm sure we've all tried to get refunds only to be told "it takes ten days" or whatever to process, or had our account debited 'automatically' and where neither God, heaven or earth can stop it happening again the following month.

I know I'm old and well past it but when "the computer says no" it's enough to drive many of us to distraction, go outside, and bang our heads against the wall.   

[#7]

Wasn't suggesting that they should be random dates -just a thought that the payable calls should be allowed to mount up to a "sensible" amount and then collected on a normal payment date. Surely it costs PN to raise the DD -so for 27p???

The indirect access provider that I use for daytime calls, collects the money on roughly the same date -but sometimes 3,4 or 5 months apart,dependent on how many chargeable calls I've made.