Wellington, Feb 2 NZPA - Phone company Vodafone has apologised to customers for trying to charge them $1.50 a month if they want to continue receiving a hard copy of their bill by mail.

It said a trial group of customers liked the idea, which it promoted as being environmentally friendly and convenient. But customers reacted poorly to the plan to start charging a fee for a hard-copy bill in the next few months.

"That's where the wheels came off," spokesman Paul Brislen said today.

"They quite like the idea of online billing but they hate, hate, hate the idea of being charged to receive a paper bill."

The company announced today that customers can carry on getting email or TXT alerts about their bill, or an electronic copy of the bill sent by e-mail, as well as having to posted to them by "snail mail".

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