WingColors

Yeah that's ridiculous, and those regulatory fees could mean anything..... just like when you buy extended warranties on electronics that's how those stores make their cash, this is how cell phone carriers make their dough too. Oh and airlines do this too. Damn, now I'm pissed off.

Phone companies are notorious for ridiculous fees. Look up the Federal Excise Tax which was recently just done away with.

Funny, immediately after it was removed I had a new vague fee on my phone bill... It's flat out fraud, but they can get away with it because if you really want to dig into the fine print, it's there and you agreed to it (along with dozens of other bend-me-over terms,) when you signed the contract with them.

Just as bad as college fees for things that never get used... I was charged a fee for "music library maintenance" along with everyone else, even though I was a fine art major.

because if you really want to dig into the fine print, it's there and you agreed to it (along with dozens of other bend-me-over terms,) when you signed the contract with them.

Actually, I wonder about that. Most people would agree that if you don't like something about a particular service, then you shouldn't use that service. But then what happens when ALL of the players in one sector act as a block? Sure, you have options in theory, but you certainly don't have options in practice. Signing over your rights that way is sort of like using the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law. For example, suppose I decided I didn't want these cell phone charges. Great, no problem. However, I'm stuck somewhere and need to make a call. Sure, I'll just get to the nearest payphone, and... nearest pay... phone... Hey, anyone seen a payphone around here?

I'm not a big fan of government regulations, but in cases like this I wonder whether the government should indeed step into the role of consumer advocate/protector.

Gnorb, you're exactly right. It's letter of the law vs spirit. The contracts we sign are exploitative. While I do understand why they exist--it's a STUPID reason.

Contracts come about because the cell industry has a horrible business model. They lose a lot of money if they don't retain customers... and the churn rate for cell phone providers is enormous. They can not guarantee quality of service. They advertise it, but in a lot of cases there are just so many factors there is flat out nothing they can do. Thus contracts. Lock people in to stay a customer no matter how bad your service is, or their particular needs. Don't offer flexibility because that increases costs to you. It's completely non-customer centric and really one of the prime examples of what not to do if you want to have a successful business.

There's plenty of reasons for the contracts and fees, the thing is they are all stupid reasons from inside-out thinking and the bureaucratic nightmares that manage these corps.

I'm not sure government regulation is the answer, but I would love to see more public opinion directed at these companies that use this kind of tactic.

In the business management training we give, we constantly use cell phone companies as examples of what's wrong with the world.

You're so right. The fine print makes no consumer sense at all. I accept that it is not at all to protect or even inform the concerned consumer, but to meet the company's legal and financial needs only. When the monthly bill arrives, few people actually read it. Fewer can understand it even if they do read it carefully. Far fewer ever question it. It's similar to 'the law of supply and demand' that I was taught in high school. So I do not leave lights on, I do not have a toasty warm home, I had insulation put in, I calk my windows, I do not just drive around and I combine errands. My electricity and heat bill continues to go up anyway.

Bob Cringely recently wrote an article about how the phone companies screw consumers.

My favorite part, which shows their mentality towards always collecting revenues and never losing a revenue stream once they have one, is this:

As just a small example of the way the phone companies took advantage of ineffectual regulation, they charged an average of $1 per month per customer to run Bellcore, the research organization set up to replace Bell Labs after the 1983 split up of AT&T. But when Bellcore was later sold and the profits from that sale distributed to the telephone companies, not to the customers, ALL BUT ONE RBOC CONTINUED THE $1 CHARGE DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT NO LONGER DIRECTLY SUPPORTED ANYTHING.

AT&T also imposes monthly a Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge of up to $1.25 to help defray costs incurred in complying with State and Federal telecom regulations

The key words are TELCOM REGULATIONS. This has more to do with keeping their equipment in compliance, securing switching stations to state/federal regulations, and stying in compliance with the FCC than it does your taxes. Don't get me wrong, though, this should come out of their pocket, not mine.

Great find, nosidam. Clipped.

mwilsonemt,

Yeah. I don't think anyone is trying to say they don't have ridiculous costs to deal with in maintaining their infrastructure, and upgrading it, etc.

The thing is, they'd have to do the vast majority of that regardless of government regulations--just to provide the service we customers are paying for. It's a cost of doing business in the industry.

So instead we have this bill with our base rate... which is what they use to advertise and acquire customers. Then when you get your actual bill it's anywhere from $10 to $20 higher. Now a lot of industries would be hit with bait and switch, or false advertising lawsuits for a practice like this, but not here because they can break it into all these "miscelaneous," or "regulatory," fees.

Just think if other industries did that? Here's your $7 dinner sir, what a deal. Oh yes, there's a $2 dish washing fee, a $0.50 oven cleaning fee, a $5 wear-and-tear fee for our booths...

There was a great NPR the other day about this. The author of the book Gotcha Capitalism was on there and talked about many of these types of fees. Made me want to check out his book sometime/

By the way, I just noticed that I put this under the Anime category. Can one of the mods, you know, replace it under, say, politics or something?

Thanks.