Rate Hikes in Sheep's Clothing

Ah, deception; how sweet you are.

(who needs competition anyhow?)

Not a fan of either, but at least last time Comcast gave me the shiv, they put a little flier in my bill and called it what it was, a rate hike.

A rate hike by any other name is...
a fee or tax

Why did I switch to VoIP again? Now I remember... Keep up the good work AT&T.

VoIP has recently been adding these fees as well.

*Skype* is the answer....

With SkypeOut/SkypeIN and efax I have absolutely no use for AT&T. (I work from my home.)

I didn't cancel, didn't have a handset connected either for about 4 months. (I mean, you gotta have a landline,right?? No, Joe, you don't. ) Didn't have the need for the local telco once. bye, bye, SBC

Oh, my cell phone is my primary contact for customers. They're using my SkypeIn number more and more since I forward to the cell when I'm on the road.

Joe

Packet8 is a straight shooter. $20 for service. No hidden fees and no problem with the service.

I believe Packet8 added a "regulatory recovery fee" last spring, did they not?

They also add a 911 fee of $1.99

Looks like I will have to look in got VOIP and see, but what if your internet access is through the Telcos?

Ok this is a "metro" number -- that magically rises from a ~$49 base rate -- to $72. Amazing (too bad my wife is afraid of change -- otherwise I'd dump 'em.

Same sort of thing here, although we get charged .75 for touchtone.

Whadda racket. No wonder the mafia has largely dissapeared: the smart ones went to work for the incumbents.

Oh, and that $4.00 "fee"? Sounds like some executive's baby needs a new pair of shoes. If I was an AT&T customer, I would make some noise to regulatory officials.

No wonder people switch to VOIP services. I thought $40/month with BellSouth was too much. No way would I pay $70/month for a residential phone line.

All I can say is you're getting raped pretty good there friend.

With absolutely no Vaseline.

I don't even know what half those charges are.

Verizon offers that *plus* unlimited nationwide LD for about $20 less out the door here in PA. No VOIP B.S. Course, it took competition to make it happen

Comcast on a side note is hilarious. See it everyday "Comcast digital voice as low as $39.99/month.

Do they even know their competitions pricing?

And they have called me no less than 6 times in 8 days.

That comcast price aint "Out the door pricing either"

They know their competition well. It's not VoIP providers - it's the incumbent telcos charging $70/mth for local access like shown above. Compared to that, $40/mth for unlimited local and LD with a decent selection of features is a great deal.

The majority of the users out there don't know or care about VoIP. The cable cos aren't worried about 'pure play' voip providers - they're just trying to steal customers from the telcos.

Yep, you and me both left for the crappy insane fees they charge!

Look at the recent "fees" and installation charges on a Bellsouth line. They have links to describe the fees, but half of them don't even work.



"Dual Party Relay", "FCC Authorized Charge for Network Access", "Line Connection Charge", WTF?

Our cost for local connections is approx $4 dollars. Since we want your flat rate as pure profit we are billing you for our cost separately.

Next, we will start billing you for our customer service. We will call it ... Customer Service recovery fee.

Next fee is the Power Recovery Fee. This fee is used to recover the cost of providing power to the POTS line. Rates will very from month to month.

Surprised they haven't added it already.

a lobbyist (sp?) fee.

They are just passing along the buck from the massive amounts of money their lobbyists spend on a monthly basis.

I'm glad I don't have SBC (AT&T), and I feel sorry for those that do.

How about an Excuses to Raise your Rates Fee
and a Loss of Income to Competition Fee

Yeah, I dropped AT&T a little over a month ago and i'm glad I did

IMO, every surcharge on phone bills should be identified with the government statute than authorizes the collection of the fee, or the above disclaimer.The solution in that case is simple: don't subscribe to telephone service where the "carrier" really isn't the carrier.

- Dan

Federal Universal service charge ==> Spanish American War Tax of 1898!

Also, somewhere hidden among those fees and taxes (not split apart even) is the E-rate tax ==> Al Gore's great idea to wire all the schools in the country, which everyone knows has been corrupted to the point that millions of dollars of equipment is just sitting in warehouses. Real nice.

The sad thing is that every time they add a fee/tax they never, ever seem to go away even if its supposed to be temporary as noted above regarding the Spanish American War. Its 2006, hmmmmm, 108 year old tax!

Anyone else have any specifics about others?

Federal Universal service charge ==> Spanish American War Tax of 1898!

Isn't the Federal Excise Tax the Spanish American War Tax?

Yes it is, but don't bother him...he's on a roll.

Yeah. This kills me. I have a company that has to surcharge my clients for the calls I return to them so I can have their business!
So AT&T wants to have customers outside its range of competition, but then hits its customers there with an extra charge to use them.
Bendover.

The right hand washes the left, there should be no charge if they are recouping their costs through charging MCI back. Just another excuse to make $$$. I am so glad I dumped my Verizon land line for VOIP

Looks like we are going to be paying for it anyway.

At least Comcast lets you know they want more money straight up.

Hey, that actually means quite a bit to me. I would much rather a business "call a spade a spade" than be dishonest about the bill. I'm still irritated, but at least I don't feel duped.

I'm still amazed by my $7/mo metered rate line costing over $14 a month due to fees. Shouldn't those fees be considered a cost of business, and included in the basic rate? (I keep a POTS line for 911, power outages and Vonage "funkiness")

A shame everyone is doing it now. I used to get irritated when the university I was attending raised fees - because they weren't covered by scholarships. (which was probably the point)

As many of us have long known, it's not in a monopocorps best interest to have an educated customer. They engage in a psychological war against all people, in their quest to eliminate democracy.

They start by calling them 'consumers' instead of 'customers', because that makes it easier to justify taking their money. Next they work their hardest to ensure that people are NOT educated. An educated customer (as most BBR users are) is their worst nightmare. For 90% of the people here (except for the paid astroturfers), if you can change, you usually will. You are willing to adjust your habits based upon the actions of the monopocorp, but for the rest of the country, ESPECIALLY as the median age rises, that's not the case.

The solution is to do what they do in that *gasp* socialist Europe. When I purchase a sim card for my phone in germany, I get EXACTLY the valueofcard/costpermin minutes. No hidden 'connection charges' for each call. What I paid for is what I get. That's what the US needs to require, otherwise you can never compare Plan A to Plan B, cause you don't know the fees. Time to revamp the FCC and the Commerce committee, because they've obviously failed at what they are tasked to do.

>If we're concerned with honesty, why not include the "fee" in >the above-the-line charge?
Because they're not concerned about honesty?

After looking at the posters telephone bill from Texas, I can't believe that SBC still charges for touch-tone service and WOW...$4.95 for a non-published number? Here in California in the Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T territory it's .28c, while at Verizon it's $1.50. To me, California isn't so bad after all, just very regulated when it comes to telephone service. That's good for consumers in this state.

Here's my recent bill from Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T

Monthly Service - Mar 1 thru Mar 31
1-02 Universal Lifeline Measured Rate 2.85
Line Sharing Basis
1-03 Call Forwarding 3.23
1-04 Caller ID Complete Blocking .00
1-05 ULTS CR for FED Sub Line Charge 4.38-
1-06 Your Listing Is Not Published .28

Total Monthly Service 1.98

Local Usage
Local Calls
If you subscribe to a voicemail service and/or the Call Forwarding feature,
local usage charges apply when retrieving mailbox messages and/or each
time the Call Forwarding feature is activated.
Item
No. Description
7 Call(s) placed
7 Call Allowance ( 60 maximum allowance)
1-07 0 Call(s) at $.08 each .00
Total Local Usage .00

Surcharges and Other Fees
1-08 Federal Subscriber Line Charge 4.38
1-09 Rate Surcharge .08-
1-10 State Regulatory Fee .01

Total Surcharges and Other Fees 4.31

Government Fees and Taxes
1-11 CA High Cost Fund Surcharge - A: .01
1-12 CA High Cost Fund Surcharge - B: .07
1-13 California Teleconnect Fund Surcharge .00
1-14 Universal Lifeline Telephone Service Surcharge .04
1-15 CA Relay Service and Communications Devices Fund .01
1-16 9-1-1 Emergency System .02
1-17 Federal .20
1-18 Local .44

Total Government Fees and Taxes .79

Total Plans and Services 7.08

"We're the phone company" -Lily Thomlin.

what if a subscriber disagree with the current hikes he/she just received in the mail? Can someone just cancel services due to breach of contract?

but they already thought of that unfortunately. I think theres provisions (under the table REVISIONS) of their own laws of contract that state they can charge whatever they want, whenever they want, change it again by under whatever logic they subscribe to at the time, etc. etc...Plus, they'd eat you alive if you took it to court. All is lost...

...is what I wouldve thought a while back. Now I absorb the politricking machines garbage, regurtitate, and spit right back at 'em. Dont use any of the major telco's services at all, 'f' a cell phone, got pay phones everywhere, on every block in my 'hood. (the 2 phone stand types, with built in Thug-Protection, talk til your hearts content knowing "big black male" syndrome that guy opposite you "gives off" will drive away any an all telco evil do'ers)

Net, heh, you broadcast onto my property unprotected, your giving up your right to say "get the $#@%# off my line!"...TV, over the air, better quality programming, with built in "fuzz" and "snow" features to hide the hideos faces of up-start Model Reality shows...man, life is good!

This is an AT&T, Verizon thang...
Reciprocacy for "interconnect" fees on a PER MINUTE basis are what keeps a minor telco feud alive... since they can't go ahead and SURCHARGE on UNLIMTIED plans, everyone gets screwed! Good job! This should create a NEW WAVE of subscribers FLOODING to VOIP!

GOOD! I can't wait until this backfires on American Tax and Tarrif Company, and they lose MILLIONS! Vonage, you might want to hire a few more people!

we constantly are getting more and more bent over and rammed. hell i would explanation of what the charges are..