TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Net Telephone Fees Have Users Fuming

Re: Net Telephone Fees Have Users Fuming

Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@withheld)
Thu, 27 Jan 2005 00:18:45 -0500

At 04:45 PM 1/26/2005 -0500, Scott V wrote:

> Isn't this just someone bitching because they didn't remember to include
> taxes?

That's just the problem, these aren't taxes -- at least not any that
these companies are required to add to their bills. Every company has
to pay taxes, and many pay additional fees (such as tariffs on
imports, license fees, permit fees, etc.) but they cannot just tack
some arbitrary amount onto their advertised price to cover such
things. And it is an arbitrary amount - no one knows how they
actually come up with the monthly charge, nor for that matter, what
they are actually spending it on. "Regulatory recovery fee" really
tells you very little; there are lots of things that could be
associated with government regulation in some form or another.

What boggles my mind is that companies in the telecommunications
industry seem to get away with something that would not be allowed
almost any other industry, and that is quoting one price to a
customer, then actually charging a higher one. And again, I emphasize
that these fees are not taxes that the government requires these
companies to collect from end users. They are just an arbitrary fee
that these companies decide to add on, so they can keep their
advertised price artificially low in relation to their
competitors. But this makes it very difficult for potential customers
to fairly compare the actual monthly rate they will pay from any
provider under consideration.

How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home:
http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html

If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/

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