Funny Picture of The Day

While you and I are smart enough to realize that spending $0.42 to send a bill for $0.42 to someone is a waste of time from the get go, not all companies are that smart. Not counting the postage, just look at the picture below and then factor in the paper, envelope, man-hours and resources it took to process that payment and you can’t help but laugh at a company that sends you a bill like that. Thanks to Izzy R. for this one.

MAN hours to send the bill out (well, print, pack and put in mail carrier's pickup bin).. zero. ITs all automated, even the part of figuring out how much your bill is..

the processing payment recieved is the only man hours spent of these things.

*note* it appears as though it was paid at a local wireless supplier's storefront. that may further reduce the amount of manhours spent on processing (or it may increase it, depends on how quick the clerk is at processing it). Once its entered into a computer, its all automated from there.

oh, it does remind me of when I had to pay a certain Michigan city income tax.. they actually had it listed in the tax forms, if you owed less than 5 bucks (or something similar), dont bother sending money.. its not worth it.. Also, stated if you expected less than the 5 bucks (same figure as previously mentioned), dont look for a refund, you aint getting it.

When my uncle got out of prison in the 80's the state of Ohio sent him a check for 3 cents, the amount left in his prison labor account. He framed it.

Funny, but yea that stuff is all automated. (I did some work at a bank that had a machine, sweet stuff)

I once got a check for $0.15, I never cashed it, still have it to this day.

It’s just a function of accounting and a perfect example of the right hand not talking to the left hand.

Here’s an example: Steve is hit by Kyle’s car that ran a red light. Both parties have insurance on their respective vehicles. Steve’s insurance wants to go ahead and pay for the damages to Steve’s vehicle and then subrogate (that is to say make Kyle’s insurance company pay Steve’s insurance company back for what they paid for Steve’s vehicle repairs since Steve wasn’t at fault in the accident).

Common sense would tell us to just go ahead and let Kyle’s insurance company pay for the damage to Steve’s car in the first place and avoid having this triangle of money changing hands. But most insurance companies consider these types of situations where Kyle’s insurance reimburses Steve’s insurance to be extra money i.e. profit even though they just paid out the same amount they received to Steve for his damages.

It’s just business even though ½ the time, it doesn’t make sense

I like how the info is blocked on the receipt, but the account number on their bill isn't

Yup, its all automated. At my work (a small rural telco) a person runs a program on our system that generates a huge file for the bills, we send it to the company that prints out the bills. There a computer system processes our files, prints the bills, includes any inserts, folds it up, stuffs it into a envolope and seals it. Then off into goes into a large bin to be taken to the post office. Only man hours there are the few minutes it takes the person to start the process on the server and the uploading of the files to the printer. We have it set to pull out any bills that are zero balance and mail them back to us in bulk, however I believe we too would send out a 42 cent bill.

The only way that I can see you ending up with a bill like that anyway is if you overpay and have a negative balance. Since that isn't something that will normally happen you don't normally worry about that case where the person only owes a small amount. You normally only worry about negative or zero balance. Either way you still want to have a copy of a bill somewhere to show the person in the event they want to see their bill.

If anything I am almost surprised that they actually pay 42 cents per item they mail. Most places give you a little less if you mail in bulk and have it sorted. I know that when we do our late notices (which we mail out ourselves instead of using the printing company we use for the normal bills) we only pay something along the lines of 37 cents since we sort the late notices by zip code before we give them to the post office.

Originally Posted by MichiganTeddyBear

MAN hours to send the bill out (well, print, pack and put in mail carrier's pickup bin).. zero. ITs all automated, even the part of figuring out how much your bill is..

the processing payment recieved is the only man hours spent of these things.

*note* it appears as though it was paid at a local wireless supplier's storefront. that may further reduce the amount of manhours spent on processing (or it may increase it, depends on how quick the clerk is at processing it). Once its entered into a computer, its all automated from there.

All that equipment is not free, computers, IT costs, electricity, the mail sorting machines, maintenance, the lease on the building it is in...so on and so forth all cost money. Everything that happens in that building costs money.

The bill being paid in person means that now it is costing the customer too...time, effort, gas, vehicle, etc. etc. to go pay a $0.42 bill.

Also, it had to be paid in person, meaning the store clerk, who is being paid hourly had to process the $0.42 payment because the kiosk doesn't take change or give change.

More money is involved than you think.


The point is, if the bill is equal to or less than the amount of the postage, you might want to think about it.

Originally Posted by Exavior

If anything I am almost surprised that they actually pay 42 cents per item they mail. Most places give you a little less if you mail in bulk and have it sorted. I know that when we do our late notices (which we mail out ourselves instead of using the printing company we use for the normal bills) we only pay something along the lines of 37 cents since we sort the late notices by zip code before we give them to the post office.

I noticed this, too. Most large companies like that use pre-paid postage machines, and they hardly ever require the full $0.42 on a couple sheets of paper in an envelope. Silly AT&T.

Heh.. After retiring a few years ago as an internal auditor my father got bored and decided to work for H&R Block. One of his firts paychecks he received in the mail was for 13 cents...he framed it!

That is absolutely retarded. Sprint won't even mail you a bill if your balance due is less than $4 or so (due to adjustments or overpayments). The amount is simply placed on your next bill, and NO LATE FEE is even applied to the amount.

Diamond Center Mall. The only mall with an ice skating rink in the center of it. 8 stories too if I recall, so nice.

Pepco has been sending my gf bills saying she still owes them $1 (yes one dollar) for what must be at least 6 months now. Strangely they never tack on any late fees either... and yes they send a reminder at least once a month. Brilliant.

Back when I was younger my water bill at my apartment had to be mailed in. Even though I lived right across the street from the water company, I couldn't walk over and hand them cash or a check. I had to mail it in. One month I screwed up and reversed the numbers, instead of $68.12 I sent them a check for $86.12 or something like that. Three days later I got a check for the $18 back in an envelope with a stamp on it (back when stamps were like 30-32 cents).

I told my neighbor about it, he started overpaying his bill by .05 or so every month. Every time he did it, he got a check back from them for .05 with a 30 cent stamp attached to the envelope.

He figured it was like cutting their profits a little bit every month.

Ha, I got a FIVE CENT bill from Pacific Bell when I closed my phone (moved). I called them and complained. "But you owe us 5 cents!" Ugh.

So, I mailed them a DIME taped to the bill.

They sent me a refund check for FIVE CENTS, which I saved for a while on my wall at work. I might have tossed it a few months back finally though.

Whoops, I found the check... I owed them four cents and mailed them a nickel, and got a $0.01 check -- even better! lol

He blurred out the phone number to the store, but kinda missed blurring out his account number on the bill. lol

My mother used to do medical billing for a bunch of stuck-up Radiologists. They would get in $0.01 refund checks in all the time to mail out to customers. Yes, one-penny. Cost like $0.25 for a stamp back then, envelope, etc. Funny as hell.

Steve - while you have a point about the equipment that is used in the mailing costing money, you could also argue that the equipment costs less per bill if you send out the $.42 bill. It all comes down to how you account for it... personally, I'd side with you on this one (more on it below).

As for the postage amount- they could have paid $.324 cents if it was part of a mailing of 500 pieces (minimum for presorting). However, that would require them to either be sending out 500 bills, or to pay a commercial mail service a fee to presort their mail along with other people's mail to achieve the discount. In the end, may not be worth it. I'm going to guess that since it was mailed from Anchorage and paid in Anchorage, it was probably done by an individual store, and not a bulk billing.

As an individual store, they may not have the ability (or common sense) to cancel out a $.42 charge. If it's not paid, it could incur fees for the user, meaning it has to be sent out.

All in all, someone wasted their money on this one, but there is probably a logical explanation to it too :P

(insert "The More You Know" picture here)