[MayflowerMadam]

We had the same problem. We pay the bills online when we receive them, but in the last year the PO didn’t deliver an Exxon bill and an AT&T bill. They didn’t get paid. Got an extremely thuggish nastygram from Exxon.

I figure someone else got our bills ‘cause we get other people’s mail all the time. One day, I was sticking an incorrect envelope in the slot with “please re-deliver; sent to wrong address” written on it. The mail lady was there and SHE yelled at ME because what I had writtn would get her into trouble.

[muawiyah]

Someday go take a look at how things are done in the billing centers. During normal production of your bills (and I've been in a couple of the places that do phone company items ~ mostly on contract these days but once all AT&T) things happen ~ and bills turn into pieces of paper ~ tiny ones, and sometimes crushed into little blocks of what looks like wood, thoroughly soaked with ink.

There are procdures in place to "recover" from such losses.

Now tell me, do you think the employees at the phone company give a damned? What about their contractors?

If it weren't for postal audit procedures a lot of that sort of thing would be "swept under the line" and forgotten.