Each floor in his building had to provide manpower on a monthly roster to, firstly, read all the various meters in each apartment, then calculate the usage, multiply that by the cost per unit, collect the money and pay it to the busybody in the glass spy-box downstairs.

Calculators in those days were a rarity and if the monthly metre-reading honour was bestowed on a somewhat less brilliant arithmetician, well, mistakes were made that were difficult to sort out.

Besides, fun and games awaited those who led itinerant lives; it would be anybody's guess when they would be home and frequent door knocking often went unanswered.

Those were, indeed, NOT "the good old days".

Things in Shanghai are somewhat different now. In Pudong, we get every month crisply enveloped telephone bills as well as bills for water and electricity and even gas consumption. So far so good.

Woe, however, betide those expats and itinerant Chinese alike who have not been in residence for a few weeks and who miss the bill-paying cycle.

They will NOT be able to pay at the local Post Office, even if they try to push the money down the throats of those behind the counter there. "No Sir, very sorry Sir, you will have to make a separate trip to the Power Company and the Telephone Company and the Mobile Company and the Gas and Water guys."

These chores do not leave much change out of a morning's running around. Besides costing a bomb in taxi fares.

Practical? Certainly not!

I have been trying to find out WHY the Post Office cannot accept late payments and it appears to have something to do with the computer storage capacity. A lame excuse in this day and age of giga-storage facilities.

Now I should like to make a trail-blazing suggestion: how about all those utility guys NOT making out a "One month only" bill but using a running balance, as is common in most computer business accounting packages that include monthly statements and aged debtor analysis.

In this way, there will never be multiple bills outstanding or unpaid as it is now quite possible that if a monthly bill goes missing, it may remain unpaid without the knowledge of the householder.

With the progressive balance system as is practised almost everywhere in the world (except Shanghai), unpaid items are easily revealed to the customer.

There is also NO extra storage capacity required for the Post office computer network and they will never have to refuse a customer who begs to part with his cash but who is refused.

The advantage: fewer problems in sorting out overdue amounts, especially from undelivered bills.

Improved cash flow from the utilities as payments can now be accepted by the Post Office while otherwise the consumer may not bother to pay or simply does not have the time or inclination to make the trek to five different utility offices

More commission for the Post Office too and, as a bonus, a happier consumer. After all, it was not his or her fault that they had to travel overseas.

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