It’s a strange feeling living here in the UK. There’s a strange sense that almost everywhere you turn, someone is trying to rip you off. Not in
a “gimme all your money or I’ll stab you” type way — although in some neighbourhoods perhaps that’s the case. It’s more in a “thanks for being a customer, by
the way, may we steal your money?” kind of way. Tonight we received our water bill from Thames water. “Please pay £254.65.” Yep, that’s right — Thames
Water has decided to stop billing in six-months in advance (!) cycles, and has now decided it would be better for everyone (i.e. them) if we were billed yearly. So much
for saving water — apparently Thames Water already know how much we’ll use.
I thought the whole BT bill pay three months in advance thing was rude; this reaches new heights. (Just to explain to British readers, in Australia you get billed
for what you’ve used; you aren’t expected to basically extend credit to large companies. Or at least all the companies I dealt with were like that.) British Gas bills
you in arrears (they have to, it’s actually user-pays; half the time it’s based on an “estimate” of course), but says “pay now” — there’s no “please pay by X” type
arrangement. Just “pay up little-person, we’re here to screw you!”
Anyway, my immediate reaction was to call up and ask if we could get a bill for less
than a year in advance; the only way was to get a Post Office payment booklet. So we’ll be doing that; I’m sure it costs Thames Water far more than billing us
every three months ever could. Non-violent protest and all that; I’m sure Thames Water will be impacted massively (or not). Is there an open market for water in the UK — I wonder
how I switch water provider?
Just to make my point more clear: big companies should never ask for money in advance; and the least often they should bill is quarterly. They should be easily able to absorb the cost of billing people for services
they’ve used. I like my money to stay in my account; if I wanted to invest in big companies, I’d buy shares.
