ICE Attempts To
Collect Unpaid Bills
Some 1 million customers
of the Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) -
state monopoly telecom -
owe the institution ˘2.5
billion colones (us$5
million dollars) in
unpaid cellular phone
bills.
But, it is not their
fault, as ICE
experienced problems
with their billing on
the introduction of the
600.000 GSM lines that
went into service in
December 2006 and was
unable to bill customers
correctly.
The billing problem
continued well into
2007, allowing users to
rack up services without
being billed.
Now ICE wants to cover
its losses and collect
unpaid bills or cut off
customers, a hard line
that seen customers
getting bills every 15
days instead of the
usual monthly, as ICE
spreads out the back
bills over several
billing periods.
However, some customers
cannot afford to pay the
additional bills and are
finding their service
cut.
A spokesperson for ICE
says the institution
understands the problem
and is willing to work
with its customers,
saying that it will help
out customers by
spreading the repayments
over a longer period to
those customer who
cannot afford to pay the
back bills in the time
established.
However, customers have
to take the initiative
and visit an ICE agency
and enter into a
repayment agreement.
Those customers who do
not and do not pay their
bills on time will be
suspended and possibly
lose their line.
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