Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!dptcdc!sickkids!mark
From: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Mail from Europe (was Re: American magazines in Canada)
Message-ID: <274@sickkids.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jun 89 11:22:06 GMT
References: <1989Jun19.162903.21776@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt)
Distribution: can
Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Lines: 45

In article <1989Jun19.162903.21776@eci386.uucp>
clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:

>                                                     UNIX Review
> is just being stupid - either ignorant of geography (Canada's probably
> in Europe somewhere)  [ ... ]

I realize that I'm resurrecting an old topic here, but what the hell ...

It's surprising how many companies lump Canada in with their "rest of the
world" category.  One of the sillier examples of this is Citibank.  I have
a Citibank (US) Visa card.  Their billing centre is in North Dakota (maybe
South Dakota; I forget), and for years their bills were mailed from there.
Around the end of last year, the bills started arriving from Europe.  Not
even from the same place:  Sometimes from the Netherlands, sometimes from
Denmark.  I'm sure that my bills are enjoying their European vacation, but
it does slow down delivery a lot.

I presume that what's happening here is that Citibank transmits the data
electronically to Europe, where the bills are printed and mailed.  This
makes sense for bills sent to European customers, but is a really stupid
thing to do when the bills are going to Canada.  It's not only slower, but
the postage is higher as well.

[  The mail-from-Europe syndrome affects even organizations which you'd
   expect would know better:  For a (short) while last year, Canadian
   members of Usenix were getting their copies of ;login: mailed from
   Europe.  Fortunately, in this case the solution was easy:  A quick
   e-mail note to Peter Salus fixed things.  ]

Because of postal delays, I've had a number of these bills arrive after the
due date, and others so close to the due date that it wouldn't be feasible
to get the payment to them on time (unless I used an air courier service!).
I've written to them explaining that I have no intention of paying any late
fees or interest charges resulting from the tardy delivery of their bills.
I haven't gotten a reply yet.

Curiously, since this started happening, I haven't been charged any sort
of late fee or interest charge, even when the bill (and, therefore, the
payment) arrived well past the due date.  I wonder whether they silently
extend the due date for their international customers ...

Mark Bartelt                          UUCP: {utzoo,decvax}!sickkids!mark
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto   BITNET: mark@sickkids.utoronto
416/598-6442                          INTERNET: mark@sickkids.toronto.edu