Can I afford it?

[vilakins]

This is part of an e-mail I got today from my ISP. (Orcon, you know who you are.)

Your current account balance is $0.00.

This balance needs to be paid within 10 days of the invoice date.

You can see how this balance is made up and see a complete breakdown of invoices and receipts online at our website.

They go on to give a snail-mail address to which I can post a cheque.

Comments

[trixieleitz]

Oh, dear, we were with them until we got DSL. Their brain-dead tech support completely failed to address anything relevant to the FC posting problem I was having.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Who do you use now?

[trixieleitz]

ihug. I think they were best value at the time, and we know several others who use them.

We got a special rate by switching our tolls to them - they seem cheap, but we hardly ever make toll calls.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'd send the cheque at once. Who knows what might happen otherwise... a final warning?

[trixieleitz]

Gah, shades of my nt-hell!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But I'll have to pay a cheque fee! And if I hold off, they'll only whack 10% on.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Trouble is, they might put you on a bad debtors list if they don't receive the cheque.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[rolls eyes] I really thought modern software could handle this sort of thing.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, but modern programmers can't. 8-P

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But whether an amount's in credit or debit or is zero is pretty basic.

I love your icon for having some female geeks.

[kerravonsen]

But whether an amount's in credit or debit or is zero is pretty basic.
So was the Y2K bug...

I love your icon for having some female geeks.
Actually only one female geek. The long-curly-haired person is actually male. 8-/
But I'm glad that we at least do have Samantha Carter as a representative of female geekdom. 8-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And there's Kaylee from Firefly!

[kerravonsen]

Yes, but I'd never seen Firefly when I made that icon. Still haven't seen more than about an episode yet, though I have the DVDs -- I've been sucked into House-watching.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Argh, hit 'enter' by mistake. Who's the guy then?

[kerravonsen]

Blair Sandburg from The Sentinel. He's an Anthropology geek.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

And if I hold off, they'll only whack 10% on.

JAYNE: Ten percent of nuthin' is...hold on, let me do the math...nuthin' times nuthin', carry the nuthin'...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

ROTFL!

[executrix.livejournal.com]

The two accepted tactics in that situation are:
1. For nice people: send them a cheque for $0.00.
2. For not-so-nice people: send them a cheque for $0.01 and make them spent $5.00 to issue you a refund.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

LOL. Greg suggested I offer to pay it off half each month, but I said it would take forever.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

WARNING: Politically incorrect

The Polish national lottery: the top prize is a million dollars...a dollar a year for a million year.

[veritykindle.livejournal.com]

Hee! This is almost as bad as when my former University kept sending me a bill for -$42 (yes, that's *negative* 42 dollars *g*) I kept wondering if I should write them a check, too. ;)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm in credit with my long-distance provider due to an overpayment in error and they keep telling me I'll get a 10% discount if I pay on time. :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You could bill them for it to clear the balance but then you could be in my situation.

[veritykindle.livejournal.com]

I don't remember what I did, actually... They stopped sending the bills after a while, and I was just so happy to stop getting them that I sort of forgot about the fact that they still owed me money. I should really check what happened to that $42 they owed me, though, now that I think about it. *g*

Honestly, I'm not sure you even have to send a check, expecially if you have to pay a fee for it. It sounds like an automated message that they send to everybody. I can't imagine that they would expect you to actually *send* a check for 0 dollars!

Would you get a 10% discount of *this* payment if you are early, or of the next one? Because as someone above mentioned 10% of nothing is... not all that good a discount. But if it's 10% of the next one, then I think you should call them and ask about it...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's 10% of the current payment, and it's not this crowd but my utilities who do that.

If it was a while ago, I suppose your $42 is gone. :-(

What's your icon from? It looks a little like a baby Totoro.

[veritykindle.livejournal.com]

It might not be gone, actually. I think my university keeps track of these things for quite a while after we graduate. I'll have to check. :)

What's your icon from? It looks a little like a baby Totoro.

Close! It's the baby turned tiny hippo (or hampster, as most people seem to call him...) from Spirited Away, which I consider sort of a sequel in spirit to Totoro. I'm very fond of this icon -- it's one of the first ones I made, and one of the few from that period that I still use regularly. :D

And I think you should call them about the bill. If only to listen to their reaction to the weird amount of money you owe. ;)