Aug 2, 2013:

Active Retirement Ireland criticises 'aggressive' paperless billing campaigns

Active Retirement Ireland (ARI), the country's largest community-based older people's organisation has today (02/08/13) called on ComReg to act in consumer's interests and to direct Irish telecommunications companies to inform subscribers of their rights to paper billing.  A spokesperson today said "Paperless billing is a clean, environmentally-friendly solution for companies, but we can't gloss over the fact that this doesn't suit everyone.  Many older people are not comfortable enough with technology to fully accept paperless billing, and with less than half of all older people regular internet users, the move towards online-only billing will negatively affect thousands of subscribers and customers."

Meteor and Eircom are among the companies making what ARI has labelled an "aggressive" move towards paperless billing.

"It's a basic consumer right to have access to a bill," said the spokesperson, "And in allowing providers to aggressively drive consumers towards paperless billing, even in cases where this would leave people without access to their bills, ComReg is not acting in the best interests of the customer."

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