Yet ANOTHER d*** fee tacked onto my bill!!!

Posts: 208 · Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:57 pm Post subject:

mundy5 wrote:

Residential Basic 500 Plan for 1-(xxx)-xxx-xxxx (26/Jan-25/Feb) $14.99
Regulatory Recovery Fee $0.99
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $0.99
Sales Tax $1.11
Federal Universal Service Fee $0.92
Total Amount $19.00

These are my fees and taxes. Apparently, their fees are different depending on whether you are on the limited or unlimited plan.

compare you 1.98 to my .99 recovery fee for example

It's a per-line fee. This user has 2 lines because it's .99 cents per line for RRF.

Posts: 81 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 81

Quote:

Keep in mind that these two charges are NOT mandated by any government entity:

Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.98
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery $1.98

Vonage charges these simply because they can, not because they have to. That's an extra $4 to your bill every month just because Vonage feels like it. Why not just include this in the monthly rate instead of tacking it on the end? That's what I hate about telephone companies. A $24.99 plan works out to more like $37 after all the taxes and other crap is done.

Vonage is required to provide the service. Under the mandate to provide the service Vonage (and every other telecom provider) is permitted to recover the cost of providing the service. The accepted industry wide practice is to list these recovered fees separately rather than lump them into the base service fee. Is is slightly deceptive? Maybe. Does it suck? Yes. But you'll have the very same fees from every other provider broken out in the very same fashion.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

The main reason that these fees are listed separately by most telecom services is that the government controls what they charge for their basic service. They can only collect fees that are permitted, so they list them separately. Vonage has complete control over what they charge for their service, and that's why I find it repugnant that they choose to hide rate increases under the label of fees.

Posts: 72 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 15, 2006 Posts: 72

UMP25 wrote:

My county, state, and federal government do not have forums on which I can vent, though.

Actually, they all do. It is called a voting booth. This may be a foreign concept to most people, but (remember California's Proposition 13) it really works.

Posts: 274 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 274

Citing California isn't a very good example. Propositions are the most ridiculous things there are. That state is one messed up joint. Is it any wonder its own constitution is the size of a phone book?