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Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd

Premium Member

These fees should be illegal.

If you are going to charge people for something it should be in the price of the product.

When I buy a steak at the supermarket there is no "slicing fee" "refrigeration fee" "Checkout scanning fee". No all of that is simply a cost of their operation and is in one way or another part of the list price. The only additional charge is sales tax on non food items and odds are state law requires that to be listed separately rather than rolled into price.

If the telecom industry ran a food store, steaks would be 39 cents a pound and your receipt would be 10ft long listing the various fees that in the end make it cost the same as any other store.
Paxio
Premium Member
join:2011-02-23
Santa Clara, CA

3 recommendations

Paxio

Premium Member

It's worse than you think!

Most of the "fees" have nothing whatever to do with actual government taxes. They are just pure profit added "below the line" to claim a lower "advertised price".

We separate the actual taxes on our bills because it's not fair to make people in one city pay the city broadband tax for another. But the telecom taxes account for only a tiny percentage of the bill -- less than 2-3% in most of our territory.

Our openness puts us at a marketing disadvantage when someone calls and demands we match price with one of the "biggies" -- because they compare their advertised price (without the extra profit) with our actual price (which includes all profit).

Bottom line: there is a huge push in our industry to price services deceptively, like the big guys, because otherwise you lose the business of low-information customers who make uninformed price comparisons.

It sucks, but there it is. Because the big guys get away with it on their customers, more and more small providers have to play the same game.
Expand your moderator at work
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103 to Paxio

Member

to Paxio

Re: These fees should be illegal.

I agree... at some point, it will be 'free TV' service - requires at $69/month equipment charge as well as last mile service charge (local MSO) of $35/month.

Kind of like how Socal Edison breaks down their bill between 'power generation' and 'power transmission' - TV providers should perform a breakout of their utilities.

Fine print
@comcast.net

Fine print

Anon

Some of these fees ARE illegal.

"US FTC regulations state that unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce are unlawful. (15 USC § 45 (a)) In relevant part, they state that contingent conditions and obligations of an offer must be set forth clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer, and that disclosure of the terms of the offer set forth in a footnote of an advertisement to which reference is made by an asterisk or other symbol placed next to the offer, is not regarded as making disclosure at the outset. (16 CFR 251.1)"