TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee

Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee

Bart Z. Lederman (lederman@star.enet.dec.DISABLE-JUNK-EMAIL.com)
Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:56:42 GMT

I don't disagree with the comments that have been made, but I should
have included an additional explanation about checkoffs, rather than
depending on people finding out what it means.

Farmers and producers of certain agricultural products are REQUIRED by
the government to contribute to a checkoff fund, which produces
advertising campaigns, over which the contributor generally has no
control. Any farmer that wants out of the program because they don't
think they benefit, or because they disagree with the messages from
the campaign, have to fight a long up-hill battle with the government,
and risk serious retaliation.

A lot of people question whether it's really necessary to advertise
milk, for example. Would the country stop drinking milk if there were
fewer advertisements for it? Is it really necessary to have a general
"Got Milk" campaign, when the individual dairies have their own
campaigns?

This is much closer to some of the many added fees that are being
tacked onto telecommunications services, such as the 911 fee, the
internet access fee (which also seems to be largely a government
boondoggle), the FCC Line Access fee, and all of the others. The
difference is that at least they have to tell you, at one time or
another, about all of the telecommunications fees. You're paying a
lot of other government fees and taxes that you probably don't know
about.

I do agree that the advertised price should be the 'final' price,
though.

B. Z. Lederman Personal Opinions Only

Posting to a News group does NOT give anyone permission
to send me advertising by E-mail or put me on a mailing
list of any kind.

Please remove the "DISABLE-JUNK-EMAIL" if you have a
legitimate reason to E-mail a response to this post.

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