You know how much I love reporting about billing stories from around the world. Sadly they are usually about ‘bill shock’ which seems to fascinate the world press. Occasionally, something turns up that makes you realize how interesting billing really can be.
This latest snippet, originally reported in the Toronto Star, will either make you laugh or cry.
A woman is suing Rogers Wireless in Canada, claiming that its decision to consolidate invoices for several services on one bill led to her divorce and indirectly the loss of her job.
In the lawsuit, Gabriella Nagy says that her then husband upgraded various services at their home, Rogers Wireless added her cell phone service, which was still in her maiden name, to the consolidated invoice for the whole house. Her husband later noticed a series of suspicious hour-long phone calls on the bill originating from her cell phone, investigated them and subsequently discovered that his wife was having an affair with another man.
The subsequent divorce depressed her to the point that she says she lost her job. She is seeking C$600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract.
For its part, although Rogers Wireless accepts that it consolidated the various services onto a single bill, this was part of the tariff the husband had signed up to. Rogers obviously says it is not responsible for the couple’s breakup, which its lawyer claims would have happened “regardless of the form in which the plaintiff and her husband received their invoices.”
Of course not having an affair would be a nice way to avoid your husband finding out you’re having an affair. Who said billing was boring?