| 50%+ Taxes and Fees? I think somebody's getting cheated I have ViaTalk's Unlimited Lite package they are currently selling for $10.95/month. However, I just looked at my credit card statement and they're actually charging me between $16.45 and $17.05 per month!
This means that the taxes and fees that ViaTalk charges are in excess of 50% of the monthly service charge. I can't believe that these charges are in any way fully legitimate.
The taxes and fees on my Comcast phone line are less than half the taxes and fees that ViaTalk's charging. If a company as sleazy as Comcast charges less than half the fees of ViaTalk, what does that make ViaTalk? |
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 unknvoipRIP goosePremium
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
kudos:1
 ·ViaTalk
| Could you tell us the breakdown of these charges from the Transactions page in your CP?
I am on a pre-paid plan, when I add my monthly charges for the Reg. Recovery Fee, E911 and E911 Cost Recovery and add it to the one time charges pro-rated on a monthly basis for Excise Tax, Sales Tax, FUSF and FCC Reg. Fee, my pro-rated monthly amount of added Tax/fees is $4.54.
I am curious about the range you cite, does the amount change from month to month? Occasionally on my bill, one my charges very occasionally misses on billing cycle, so it will show up twice on the next. Is this what is happening on yours? |
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Reviews:
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·ViaTalk
| reply to Snap2It
Mine breaks down to $4.68 in taxes. (about 59% increase for taxes) On my 2 year $189 deal.
So far I have never seen any carry over on bill. Always billed every month. The taxes bill data has slowly been moving forward every month. About a day every few months. My bill date is 25th when they started monthly taxes back on 5-25-2009. Last bill was processed on 5-15-2011. 30 day cycle maybe. |
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| reply to Snap2It
I just looked at my credit card statements for the first 5 months of the year and ViaTalk has charged me a total of $82.37 for my "$10.95" plan. That works out to a per month rate of $16.474/month or $5.524 per month in taxes and fees for a total tax/fee rate of 50.44%. My total Comcast Voice charge for taxes/fees is $2.98. I can't believe I'm saying this, but ViaTalk looks a LOT slimier than Comcast. |
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| reply to Snap2It
From my May on-line invoice, it shows charges as follows:
Renewed package [59512 - VT_Unlimited Lite] - 1 Month $10.95
Sales Tax $0.72
FUSF (VoIP) $1.06
FCC Regulatory Fee (VoIP) $0.02
E911 $1.25
E911 Cost Recovery Fee $0.48
Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.97 |
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k2rjPremium
join:2005-03-24
Cape Canaveral, FL Reviews:
·ViaTalk
| Sales tax is a percentage. The other fees are per line/number per month and vary with location. When I moved from Portage County, OH to Brevard County, FL, my fees decreased about $2 per month. You can thank all of the "crybabies" of 5 years ago or so who complained to the FCC about number porting and E911 issues. They increased the VOIP carriers' visibility within the FCC and state PUC's. The fees were added at that time. |
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unknvoipRIP goosePremium
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
kudos:1 Reviews:
·ViaTalk
| said by k2rj:You can thank all of the "crybabies" of 5 years ago or so who complained to the FCC about ....
Rest assured, crybabies or not, they would have found out about the ability to extract money from those fleeing POTS to VoIP. |
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| reply to k2rj
said by k2rj:Sales tax is a percentage. The other fees are per line/number per month and vary with location. When I moved from Portage County, OH to Brevard County, FL, my fees decreased about $2 per month. You can thank all of the "crybabies" of 5 years ago or so who complained to the FCC about number porting and E911 issues. They increased the VOIP carriers' visibility within the FCC and state PUC's. The fees were added at that time. I'm afraid the math just isn't working for me. Comcast, which charges me 50% MORE per month for my service charges me 50% LESS in taxes and fees. This means that ViaTalk's tax/fee rate is 4 times higher than Comcast. And we all know Comcast's reputation for customer service and integrity.
I also love how ViaTalk charges me at 3 different times (approx. 10 days apart) during the month - all for the same phone number! It almost appears they're doing this to disguise their outrageous fee structure by spreading the charges out over the entire month. |
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unknvoipRIP goosePremium
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
kudos:1 Reviews:
·ViaTalk
| Are there three separate CC transactions? I have 3 items charged at two separate times in the moth, but only one CC transaction.
If charging on different days is an attempt to disguise a fee structure, I would say it is an ineffective one. All you have to do is look at the transactions on your account. |
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| said by unknvoip:Are there three separate CC transactions? I have 3 items charged at two separate times in the moth, but only one CC transaction. Yep. 3 separate credit card transactions spaced approx. 10 days apart.
said by unknvoip:If charging on different days is an attempt to disguise a fee structure, I would say it is an ineffective one. All you have to do is look at the transactions on your account. If you have 50-75 transactions in a month, it's very easy for them to be overlooked (as in my case). Especially, when 2 of them are around $3. The only reason I caught it this month was that they combined 2 of the charges and I noticed it was larger than normal. After investigating, I noticed that every month for the past 6 months they've been charging me 3 times. |
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Reviews:
·ViaTalk
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Snap2It
I am on a yearly plan and all I get charged monthly is $1.97 for Regulatory Recovery Fee and $.48 for E911 Cost Recovery Fee. Not sure where or why you are getting charged $1.25 for E911.
Viatalk has never really been all that upfront IMO about increases in fees or the fees they charge. |
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Reviews:
·Cox HSI
·ViaTalk
| reply to Snap2It
These are my normal monthly fees,
Regulatory Recovery Fee $-1.97 $-1.97
E911 Cost Recovery Fee $-0.48 $-2.45
Payment $2.45 $0.00
but I did have an additional $36 in taxes charged this month, I just renewed my unlimited last month so not sure on if that would of been why... (contacting support) |
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Reviews:
·ViaTalk
·Verizon Online DSL
1 edit | said by huntermcdole:These are my normal monthly fees,
Regulatory Recovery Fee $-1.97 $-1.97
E911 Cost Recovery Fee $-0.48 $-2.45
Payment $2.45 $0.00
but I did have an additional $36 in taxes charged this month, I just renewed my unlimited last month so not sure on if that would of been why... (contacting support)
Yes, when you renew you pay any state sales tax, etc. See this thread for a further breakdown: »$199 Renewal ACTUALLY $229 |
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| Yeah they got back to me with that, kind of sneaky though. I only received an email about the $2.45 and not the $36. Fro a second I thought it was a new monthly tax charge. |
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Reviews:
·ViaTalk
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by huntermcdole:Yeah they got back to me with that, kind of sneaky though. I only received an email about the $2.45 and not the $36. Fro a second I thought it was a new monthly tax charge.
Yep. That is one of my main complaints with ViaTalk. Nothing is upfront. My analogy is that your insurance company sends you an invoice before your renewal date with the quoted price. Here you only have a rough idea of what you are going to pay and you don't have the final figure until after the fact. Sneaky. Yep IMO. |
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 crazyk4952Premium
join:2002-02-04
united state
kudos:1
·Charter
·voip.ms
| reply to Snap2It
said by Snap2It:I'm afraid the math just isn't working for me. Comcast, which charges me 50% MORE per month for my service charges me 50% LESS in taxes and fees. This means that ViaTalk's tax/fee rate is 4 times higher than Comcast. And we all know Comcast's reputation for customer service and integrity.
Most of these below-the-line charges are FEEs and NOT taxes! They are completely arbitrary. Carriers set these as they seem fit (and most people incorrectly just assume they are taxes and beyond the control of the carrier). Unfortunately, these carriers are allowed to add these cost-of-doing-business fees as additional costs so that they can advertise a lower cost per month.
If this practice bothers you, then vote with your wallet! There are many voip providers that DO NOT do this!
These fees really bother me, so I choose not to support providers that do this (neither my voip provider or my cell phone provider add additional fees to my bill)! |
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| said by crazyk4952:Most of these below-the-line charges are FEEs and NOT taxes! They are completely arbitrary. Carriers set these as they seem fit (and most people incorrectly just assume they are taxes and beyond the control of the carrier). Unfortunately, these carriers are allowed to add these cost-of-doing-business fees as additional costs so that they can advertise a lower cost per month.
If this practice bothers you, then vote with your wallet! There are many voip providers that DO NOT do this!
These fees really bother me, so I choose not to support providers that do this (neither my voip provider or my cell phone provider add additional fees to my bill)! I'm quite aware of this practice of 'sleazebag' fees. It's one of the reasons I walked away from Vonage. I've been really torn between doing business with a sleazeball, full-featured VOIP company (like ViaTalk) and an honest, up-front VOIP company.
I think I've decided to switch my business to a more honest company than ViaTalk, even if the total cost is slightly higher. If we don't send a message to companies like ViaTalk who employ these semi-dishonest practices, then we, as consumers, only serve to perpetuate the sleaze. |
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| "I think I've decided to switch my business to a more honest company than ViaTalk, even if the total cost is slightly higher. If we don't send a message to companies like ViaTalk who employ these semi-dishonest practices, then we, as consumers, only serve to perpetuate the sleaze."
I fully share your sentiment. "sleazy" Companies need to rethink their practices and an excellent way of showing our displeasure is to take our businesses elsewhere. I am thinking of moving to voip.ms once my contract with my current voip runs out. |
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