I used to work for a third party benefits administrator, not a big company but a fairly big player in the area and privately owned.
Shortly before I left, management announced to us account administrators that they would no longer print or mail copies of our premium bills but they would only be available via email but if a customer wanted a paper bill, they’d be charged something ridiculous like $20 a month.
Many of us who worked with the clients on a daily pointed out that some of our clients were small mom and pop businesses and some (believe it or not) didn’t even have computers or were not particularly computer savy. And what we heard most often from our bigger clients, was not the desire for electronic billing but for electronic bill paying – something that was not being offered. Someone pointed out the lunacy of telling customers that they had to have their bill delivered electronically but telling them they still had to pay by check. She was basically told to sit down and shut up and it wasn’t her job to question but just to inform the clients of the change.
Oh and of course the bills would be delivered via our secure encrypted email system that most of our clients hated and were constantly being locked out of.
Yea, stupid idea and it isn’t always big companies who have them.
Too many people think about what makes life easier for them with little regard for how it impacts their customer.
I hate it when our 3rd party benefits company sends me these things, I never read them. I sent a notice back to them telling them if they want us to read the notifications, then they had to send them in a format that didn't require 5 background checks and a blood sample to open! :-)
Encrypted email? It exists, but, as far as I know, it never caught on (PGP and all that).
Why wouldn't they just post the bills on an HTTPS web site that requires a login? And send a short email to the effect that your bill is ready, please check your account.
That's what the credit card companies do. It's as secure as encrypted email but much easier to use, since all the browsers support it.