My wife and I were away for almost six weeks, and we had the post held by post office until our return. In that package were a number of bills from various sources.
I paid some of them within the next day or two, even though the pay by date had passed.
This week I’ve had three ‘Rappels’ asking for payment and adding 20-50 francs for administrative costs.
Yes I admit I am responsible for late payment,.
But what do I do now? Should I pay the fees on their new pink slips, ignore them as I’ve already paid or wait and see what they do?
I’d call them, indicate the payments were made and ask if you are obliged to pay the supplement charges (30/50 CHF seems a high for a 1st rappel).
Legally non-payment past the due date can break a contract so it’s in your interest to make sure you sort it out, especially private healthcare for instance.
It happened to me few times and I always did as Sky is advising. I wrote a letter, explaining that I was away and ask if they expect me to pay the fees. They always said it is not needed.
It all depends on who sends the bills. If they're still reminders of the utility company (electricity, internet, etc), I'll wait.
If they're reminders of the Betreibungsamt/Office de Pursuits, it means the company already sent the bills to the collections office and better contact them before the problem escalates.
If your post is witheld then the delivery date is the day you receive them, regardless of what the due date is on the bill. Call the company and explain you were away, if necessary provide evidence of the witheld post order, and it should be fine.
I think you could also in future likely use a little of your own initiative to speak to the billing companies first without needing to be told to.
20-50 CHF extra charges for the first reminder is "grey zone", and unless you're regularely late with payments, I'd let them know you paid on date X immediately after your return you'll not be paying them. Any company having half reasonable complaints department will waive the (grey area anyway) charges immediately.
Companies giving you a (fake) 30 days period for payment, dating the bill on the 1st, sending it actually out on the 12th by B Post so you'll receive it anytime between 15th and 18th and have only about 2 weeks of payment time are unfortunately quite common in Switzerland. Including health insurance companies, telecom companies (worst one clearly Salt).. the only one's that I personally found to apply reasonable "real" 30 day periods are the local utilitity bill companies. Most others are now having intense extra charges for "late" payment (which they'll usually revoke unless you're SERIOUSLY late with paying - they know the area they're claiming them on is heavily grey) and just generally charge for the privilige of receiving the bill by snail mail. (much more than it costs them - guess they hope/know that ebills are more often forgotten, so that they can charge their "late fees" more often)
Well it happened with me twice over the years and I told them I didn't see or receive the mail until I got back and they were fine about it. I guess it depends what type of payment it is... eg: a regular periodic one (which you should anyway pay automatically) or a one-off payment. Mine were one-off payments.
PS: I am not saying the OP has any legal standing either way.
Most of my bills are sent directly to E-bill and I settled them on-line while I was away. 2 of the three invoices were for medical treatments from their collective and one was from the Canton.
Tried to call the Canton but quickly got lost in voicemail hell, until the calls disconnected. The collective said they only took calls in the morning between 0730 and 0900.
I think I am just going to wait and see. Never received a rappel before, in 35+ years.
I had a similar situation but with 1 bill only. I missed the deadline to pay for my Halbtax from sbb. I paid for the old bill and after that received a new bill. I wrote an e-mail to sbb describing the situation and they answered to ignore the new bill.
I agree with the others not to just wait and see. In my experience things don't usually just go away, even if you meant no default.
However, don't waste any more of your time with call-centres. Put it in a letter, including all the proof.
Your payment merely put you on the next step of their automated programme (= status: payment but with a delay) whereas a letter means a human will have to deal with it.
With DD you have to intervene on time, otherwise you'll have to claim back your own funds. If the other side refuses, it's you who has to prove the claim rather than them with ordinary payment.