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Clearer bills on the way
21/10/2005 16:08:00
A new billing standard has been produced to simplify the bills for consumer services.
The British Standards Institute (BSI) said that the new scheme aims to help customers' understand clearly the process of billing, whilst setting out provision for better accuracy. It also wants companies to provide more sophisticated data on how much of a service is being used, in order to promote choice.
The standard also suggests ways in which providers can present important details without causing ambiguity. However, the BSI said that it avoided a "prescriptive" approach, allowing companies to customise their procedures.
Brian Such, British standards committee manager of BSI, said that it had "produced this best practice guidance to provide a practical framework for addressing the billing concerns of businesses and consumers, offering potential cost savings through the reduction of errors and misunderstanding."
Consumer groups supported the move. Allan Asher, chief executive of the utility watchdog energywatch, said: "We support this BSI Standard because it gives consumers, for the first time, a real prospect of getting an accurate and timely picture of their energy use."
His comments were echoed by Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com. She said that the changes were "long overdue", and that consumers "need to understand their bills if they are to be able to shop around".
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