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The zero dollar bill phenomenon

If there's one indication that customer relationship management (CRM) systems at telcos are screwed, it's got to be the phenomenon of the 'zero dollar' bill. This typically occurs when a customer changes suppliers, but the telco's computerised billing system doesn't quite know what to do...
Written by Renai LeMay, Contributor

If there's one indication that customer relationship management (CRM) systems at telcos are screwed, it's got to be the phenomenon of the 'zero dollar' bill.

This typically occurs when a customer changes suppliers, but the telco's computerised billing system doesn't quite know what to do... so it keeps on billing them, but without any actual charges.

      a zero dollar bill

The image you see here is one example of a mobile phone bill from Optus, but I've seen them from just about every telco out there, particularly the ones that have been around for a while -- like Telstra.

Of course it's well known that most of Australia's major telcos are doing heavy construction work on their billing systems, and with all the industry consolidation going on I doubt things are going to get easier.

I guess at the end of the day this is an example of an interaction between humans and technology that is currently failing. Hopefully as CRM systems become more sophisticated they will pick up more errors like this.

On the lighter side of things ... although with bills like this it's a waste of time even opening the envelope, at least you don't have to get out your credit card!

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