The World is Going to Hell... The End

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Brock N Meeks <bmeeks () cox net>
> Date: April 25, 2008 8:21:39 AM PDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: The World is Going to Hell... The End

> Having been a reporter for twenty-plus years, I shouldn't be surprised
> by anything; maybe I'm just stupid.
>
> A column out now from MSNBC.com's Bob Sullivan chronicles a story
> wherein a woman was charged a fee when she went into the AT&T phone
> center to pay her bill in cash.  Wanna pay your bill, in cash?  No
> problem, that'll be $5 extra please...
>
> Here's the beginning of Bob's column; URL at end of excerpt:
>
> Rhonda Payne went to an AT&T Wireless store in Calhoun, Ga., recently
> to pay her phone bill in cash. She'd been hit by ID theft and was
> forced to close her checking account, so she was worried she wouldn 
> ’t
> be able to mail a check on time. But when she arrived at the store,
> she was in for a surprise.
>
> Paying in person, she was told, costs extra -- $2 extra.
>
> Payne objected to the "administrative charge" that was added to her
> bill but got no sympathy. Instead, she said, she was told she should
> consider herself lucky because the fee was about to go up to $5.
>
> "I was told that it was a courtesy to take cash,” she said. “I sai 
> d,
> ‘Are you kidding me?'”
>
> It’s no joke. Beginning earlier this year, AT&T Wireless began to
> charge customers who pay their bills in their stores.
>
> "It is a way of saving money ... it helps us keep our costs lower,"
> said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. "We want our associates to spend
> their time helping customers as they are thinking about their wireless
> plans or looking at phones."
>
> [snip]
>
> http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/04/paying-cash-at.html#posts

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