dipswich
Premium
join:2003-06-27
Raleigh, NC
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·VoicePulse for Bus..
·ViaTalk
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to ConfusedinNY
Re: The taxes are everywhere
They do tell you about the fees now, but they are being deceptive about the "government enforced" part.
•The government does not require any fees to be passed onto the consumer.
•E911 was already offered by Viatalk without the extra fee, and it is still listed as an included feature (without mention of an extra fee) on the features page.
•"Regulatory recovery" is not a transparent disclosure of the source of the fees. These could be costs generally accepted as costs of doing business, although legal requirements, that are rightly built into product pricing.
Further,
•USF, the presumable primary source of "regulatory recovery fees," is paid based on a percentage of revenues (not net expenses). Viatalk gets its revenue up front on long-term commitments, so why charge a monthly recovery fee? The monthly collection problem on contracts is exacerbated since Viatalk charges the fee during "free" periods. Even in the accounting department there is no revenue during that time. Hence, Viatalk has a glaring disconnect between what's charged and what it's based upon. Yet another problem is that the fee is a fixed amount vs. a percentage of the equivalent monthly cost. This isn't how Viatalk is charged.
•Viatalk continued their offers after their USF liabilities were announced. That was the proper time to implement pass-through billing. |
