Attention All Those Familiar With Accounts Billable

[Hack]

In today’s mail I received an invoice from a store with which I do more than just a fair amount of business. At the moment, I’m caught up on what I owe them.

The invoice I received today indicated that I had a balance due of $0.00 and I must remit this payment on or before the due date of 03/30/09

Why do companies invoice their customers for 0 balances?

I don’t want to hear about computer generated billing runs. I don’t know what language their billing system is written in, but I’d be apt to wager a shekel or two that the language has an IF function.

[kleinma]

Because someone will call and complain that they didn't get their statement that month

Just because you are reasonable, and don't want a 0 balance statement, doesn't mean everyone else is

I have actually gotten most of my invoices off of paper and just pay online, for the few that don't, I can use my banks website, and they will issue checks to whatever companies I want to pay.

[Hack]

Because someone will call and complain that they didn't get their statement that month

OMG - how anal would you have to be to need a 0 balance statement? *runs shrieking from the room*

[kleinma]

Well if one does not know they have a 0 balance (I know I can't always remember each credit card I may have used in a month, and I only have 3) then how are they supposed to know if they simply had a 0 balance, or if somehow the statement just didn't get to them properly?

I mean, normal people like you and me would just go online, but there are plenty of people who either don't know how, or are scared to do anything financial online.


I know if not getting a statement was a sign you didn't owe anything, I would make sure I never saw any of my bills

[crptcblade]

OMG - how anal would you have to be to need a 0 balance statement? *runs shrieking from the room*

You need to work for more psychotically OCD'ed out people. It's the bestest experience ever.

[BillGeek]

I'de love to get bills where it says my amount due is '0'.

[MaximilianMayrhofer]

Yea my bills all have positive numbers on them.

[techgnome]

you need to call some one and get it resolved. reminds me of an urban legend from waaaaayback... some guy got a bill for $0.00 ..... which he dismissed..... so they sent him to a creditor... who then hounded him... so he wrote a check for 0.00 ..... which the creditor then deposited..... and his bank bounced - declared it an invalid transaction.... for which he then had to pay the bank $15, and the creditor $10..... not sure how or if it ever got resolved.


As some one who used to work on a system that had an A/R component.... it's actually quite easy if the developer isn't paying attention...in our first go around, we had a lot of over due 0.00 accounts showing up.... had to do with a rounding issue in the original invoices where there was a half penny unaccounted for. Oh, yeah, sure using the currency data type sounded like a good idea at the time, but it still goes out to 4 decimals.... which needed to be accounted for. That was also when we discovered that SQL Rounding and VB Rounding operate differently.

-tg

[JuggaloBrotha]

I remember hearing a story (don't know if it's true or not) about a guy back when credit cards were new who'd gotten one for emergencies and the first month he never used it so when the CC company sent him a CC statement that showed a balance of $0 spent he dismissed it, but the next month (which he still hadn't used the CC) he got a statement for $0 and they never received a $0 payment from the previous month and that he had 30 days to make the total payment or it would be sent to a collection agency. The guy then wrote a check for $0 and mailed it in, couple of days later he got a response from the CC company saying thanks for the payment, but the next day he got a letter from his bank saying the $0 check bounced and caused the bank system to crash when they processed his $0 check and a couple of days later he got a letter from the CC company telling him the check didn't go through and he had 30 days to make the $0 payment.

The guy canceled the credit card and closed his bank account, he was thinking of getting his wife a computer but he got her a typewriter instead.