Warning to pay ’phone accounts

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32879, 30 March 1972, Page 12

Warning to pay ’phone accounts

The Post Office has sent out notices to 3500 telephone subscribers telling them that they will risk losing their service if they do not pay overdue accounts by April 7.

The Chief Postmaster (Mr M. T. Reedy), said yesterday that although the subscribers had been told in a letter to pay up by March 29, he personally had instructed that the time for payment be extended to April 7. Subscribers who risk losing service are those who have so far failed to pay their accounts due on February 21 for the rental period January 24 to March 23. This means that the accounts are now five weeks overdue. The Post Office sent out 45,000 accounts for this period.

The problem of non-pay-ment partly arose because the Post Office did not observe its usual practice of sending out a reminder notice three weeks after sending the original account. Mr Reedy said more and more people were delaying payment of their rental accounts until receipt of the reminder notice. “This makes it more difficult for the Post Office to effect cut-off action,” he said. Mr Reedy pointed out that for every batch of telephone accounts that went out about 300 subscribers forfeited service by failing to pay their accounts.

He said the extension of time for payment of the overdue accounts was intended to compensate subscribers concerned for not receiving reminder notices. The Post Office does not intend to discontinue the practice of sending out reminder notices to subscribers who have failed to pay on receipt of accounts. Its decision not to send out reminder notices for the period in question arose from the handling of zone telephone accounts, the extra work arising from rate increases last year, and the intervention of Christmas. The Post Office in Christchurch sends out all telephone accounts and toll ac-

counts for the South Island. The overdue accounts refer to subscribers in Christchurch only.