"Well, that didn't work, did it?"
That's the first line of a press release from Vodafone today announcing a U-turn on its drive to force people to use electronic billing -- or pay for the dubious privilege of receiving a paper bill.
Vodafone was planning to charge $1.50 per month for customers still wanting a paper bill, starting some time in the first half of this year. And that, as the statement says, is "where the wheels came off".
"Our customers have told us they quite like the idea of online billing but they hate, hate, HATE the idea of being charged to receive a paper bill," the statement says.
As a result, Vodafone has backed down. Customers can opt to carry on getting email or TXT alerts, a paper bill posted to them or they can chose to get their bill emailed in PDF format, Vodafone says.