42 per cent interest on overdue Yellow Pages advertising payments?

Two days ago, Alec Caldwell of CARAHS (Canadian Association of Renovators and Home Services) reported here that one of his contractor members had complained about Bell Canada “automatically” renewing his phone service for an additional 3 year contract, without his approval.  The cancellation fee would be half of the monthly base billing amount for three years!  And the late payment charges, as reported by Alec’s member, apparently, were going to be 42 per cent per year! 

We asked for further comments on Bell Canada’s billing.  We got this comment from Kevin Smith, who points out that, since Bell Canada and Yellow Pages are corporately related companies, this 42 per cent interest rate per year also applies to contractors’ ads in the Yellow Pages – which appear on Bell bills.

Here’s what Kevin wrote:

“What about (that) expensive Yellow Pages advertising. In most cases the cost of Yellow Pages advertising is billed on your Bell Canada bill. So if your cash flow is tight and you’re late paying, Bell charges 42 per cent interest on the cost of the advertising. This is wrong, as it clearly states on the contract you sign with Yellow Pages that the late payment interest charge is 1.5% per month. Have to wonder how many millions and millions of dollars Bell Canada has overcharged and don’t care that they have.”

“A lot of companies were paying tens of thousands of dollars each year in Yellow Pages advertising and I’m sure all over Canada there were those that may have paid their bill just over 30 days, triggering interest charges. In a way, it is some sort of justice seeing Yellow Pages books shrink to a fraction of the size they used to be.”

Posted by Kevin Smith