ISP automatic forums » Cavalier Telephone → Raising rates here in Baltimore, MD...

Just when you thought you were getting a good deal,
here come the rate hikes (they like to call them misc. fee's...). Comcast Cable loves to do this crap, which is why I dropped them.

I opened my Cavalier bill today to find a nice surprise, my bill has increased from $65.92 to $69.92 . Hmm lets
see why :

$1.77 End User Access FEE added.
$2.00 Data Service Recovery FEE added.

These 2 fee's then inturn raise the taxes :

+$.06 Federal Excise Tax
+$.04 Statutory Gross Rcpt
+$.16 Utility Users Tax

For an additional $.26 .

Sure... Sure... I know your only talking about a few bucks
but hey, this is the exact way cable did it. My Comcast bill started out at $29.99, a few years later and a couple
of non-premium channels they added and I'm paying $60 for basically the same service.

Oh well life goes on,

John

That really stinks, they should have to provide these hidden fees up front before you place your order.

When I ordered I was paying $45 for cable internet and $20 for phone service. Cavtel was offering both for $49.99. Phone bill comes and it's $66+ Gee thanks for saving me a whole lot of nothing.

Yeah, I think I was going to save a bunch at $74.99/month for DSL and phone service. It really comes out to $95ish after fees and taxes, really only saving me about $7 for lackluster customer service. I think I'm going to switch back to Verizon for their 3Mbps service as soon as it rolls out everywhere.

Cavalier didn't even send a notice about these fees. It's bogus.

I went with Phonom Total Call + DSL (Cavalier does the DSL) because it's only $65/mo. That includes unlimited calling to the USA and Canada and ADSL service that has given me 6700/820 bps rock solid speeds. I added $1/mo for having an unlisted number, and another $3/mo to have 911 deliver my home address automatically. How do you guys get up to $95 per month with a regular POTS line? Is it all due to telecom taxes and fees?

This is some BS. How do you go from %74.99 to $101.48?

Taxes & Fees:
Federal Excise Tax - 2.53
USF Line Charge - .70
LNP Surcharge - .23
Statutory Gross Rcpt - 1.67
State 911 Charge - .25
Relay Surcharge - .20
End User Access Fee - 1.77
Utility Users Tax - $10.03
Emerg. 911 Surcharge - .47

Total - 17.85

Services:
Data Service Recovery Charge - 2.00
End User Common Line Charge - 6.68
Unlimited DSL - $74.95

Total - $83.63

I'm done with Cavalier, the service isn't even that great, and customer support is clueless. The benefit of a cheaper phone/dsl bill is almost non-exsistent now. I'm going back to Verizon.

My bill is truly $66.xx prior to my adding the $3 emergency service. (That charge hasn't shown up yet.) No other taxes or fees.

how odd.. im sitting at $65 still. Just got the bill in last night. Thats with taxes and everything.

I just looked at mine. I have the $69.95 package that includes DSL, POTS, all options and unlimited LD and after taxxes mine is only $84.

Is that the Unlimited Long Distance Plan, or just unlimited local, $.05 Long Distance plan?

ahh yes.. forgot I dont have the unlimited plan. Sorry about that. Just the regular plan. I dont call that many people on my home phone.

Guess I'm lucky. I got a $19 phone and DSL bill! No, I'm not kidding. Looks like the salesmen at Cavtel can't add.

Just wanted to chime in and agree that the taxes and fee's with cavalier are ridiculous. Got my 2nd bill the other day and it is 71.11. I signed up for the 49.99 phone/dsl plan so that's over 20 dollars in taxes. Not to mention all i'm getting is 384/384.

So much for my saving anything.

I'll go back to comcast internet and verizon phone service.

said by gwhunt23:

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Guess I'm lucky. I got a $19 phone and DSL bill! No, I'm not kidding. Looks like the salesmen at Cavtel can't add.

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It's probably pro-rated for a partial month, wait until you get your full month bill.

All the phone companies are going to charge you the same taxes and fees. They are going to charge the max amount the FCC will let them get away with. The new taxes are because Cell carriers dont have to pay the local telcos certian fees anymore. Of course you wont see your cell phone bill down!

»www.cavtel.com/support/t ··· fees.pdf

Well, maybe you're right. But the fact that nothing was stated, they simply put the charges onto the bill and put a remark about how everyone else was doing, really doesn't pacify things either.

I put an order in with Phonom, which I know is owned by Cavalier. No taxes, at this point, and I'll probably save $20/month...the customer rep also said I'd be getting between 1-4mbps, which probably means I'm getting a new modem, instead of just 960/960 with this dinky Paradyne.

Here is something I don't understand.
Cavalier is a facilities-based company and here in Pennsylvania my understanding is that facilities-based companies are not suppose to charge taxes and fees (which are probably already built into the cost anyway). As of now I have Covad which is a facilities-based CLEC too and the price they show is the price I pay for the service. I have Broadvox another facilities-based company the price I see for service is what I pay I don't seen any extras.
Im curious if anyone looked into this about Cavalier.

They dont have to charge anything but the federal subscriber fee which is included in the price usually, plus local taxes. Some companies follow in the footsteps of the biggies because they feel they can.

I agree, just called em up and canceled my service and moved back to VZ. Cavalier saved me a whole lot of nothing. They should be forced to disclose all taxes and fees up front, not after you order the service. I had them for Unlimited Local and Long distance = $45.00, last bill= $64 and change. I'm done with them.

I cant get either service for now but that Phonom.com services seems reasonable if you get the top DSL speed like others have reported and VoIP service for $65 total cost.

I argued with Cavtel to get them to switch my existing account to the newer rate/higher speed DSL service - the rep said "oh, yeah, we probably should have told you about those improvements" - sheesh

Went from a paltry 192k combo phone/DSL account for $85 to their alleged 960k for $49.95 offering, but with subtle adjustments in taxes and fees, it only took them 4 months to get my bill back up to $75.

Thanks a heap for all the "service".