Bank Of America Ethics?

I've been waiting for a LONG time to get a bill from Bank of America, and I finally called them to ask when my first bill was due. It turns out it's due on September 16th.

Here's the basic gist of my conversation with the customer service rep, who was very nice, and very understanding, and very limited as to what she was able to say, obviously.

Me: Excuse me? The 16th? But where is my bill?

CS: We processed that yesterday, it should be in the mail today.

Me: But...

CS: We suggest you mail the bill 10 business days before it's due.

Me: But... if you guys figure it takes 5 business days for the bill to show up, that means it lands in my mailbox on Monday. If I'm supposed to take into account the 10 business days, I would have to mail it out that day. In fact, [pulls up a calendar] that won't even work! I would have to mail it out the day before I get the bill for it to make it to you on time.

CS: I would be happy to give you the mailing address and minimum payment over the phone.

Me: But...

I'm sure it's just on the edge of legal, but it grates on my nerves. Here's what is running through the heads of the penny pushers at Bank of America:
1.) Give the payee as little time as possible to get their bill in, so they get more money from late fees and increased interest rates.
2.) Make the bill due right after the 15th, because that's when people get paid. If they do this, they get a lot of people who wait until the very last minute, and then have to pay by phone, which I assume costs $15-$20 a transaction.

Again, I'm not going to be a victim anymore! I acted proactively and called the company, I got the payment details and sent out a check (via Bill Pay). However, I'm not impressed with Bank of America's number crunching. It smells nefarious.

Anyway!

No news today concerning the mass firing (I blogged yesterday about how my company has announced a "head count reduction," you can read about it here). I'm sure we'll get information by the end of the week. People are keeping pretty cool about it, right now. There's a new kid who sits across from me who's worried, however. I talked to him for a while and tried to assure him he probably wouldn't land on any list. He works hard, he's young, and he does crucial work. He's being groomed to be the new model for writers in our area--I actually spend a good deal of time with my management discussing what we can do to build his skills, and he rises to every challenge we give him.

So, no news is good news? We'll see!