[aasarava]

Agreed. The late 90s really presented an opportunity to the USPS, in that the postal service could have launched an ISP service to profit off the mail that was beginning to be sent online.

Today, most of the companies that send me bills or statements encourage me to get e-statements instead of paper statements, which saves the companies money -- money that used to go to USPS. If the postal service had innovated and come up with smart business solutions for sending secure, certified email to customers, they'd still be capturing that money (and possibly more.)

[hexis]

This happens regularly in business. The established players completely miss huge opportunities that later overtake the market. This is also why businesses must be allowed to fail and new enterprises must be allowed to be formed.

[cookiecaper]

It's dubious to rely on a company's electronic records for your statements imo. They can delete or change anything they want. They can easily make an accusation that your e-mailed statement was forged. It'd be harder to make the same accusation on mailed statements, especially since most use paper with special watermarks or letterheads.

I still get paper statements because it makes things less scary!

[hga]

And I've never ever gotten such an offer that also includes a discount to recognize their savings and the problems you point out.

Well, come to think of it my account with Consumer Cellular is 100% paperless, that's probably their default and I'd probably have to pay to get paper from them.

(They're a great AT&T reseller for people who spend very little time using their cell phones.)