We rarely use our home phones to make long distance phone calls, we've got cell phones that include long distance with the minutes. One of my friends worked for our local phone company and she asked us to sign up for a long distance plan with the company. She would get something just for signing us up.
The plan's minutes were a bit more than what is advertised but there was no monthly service charge. You just pay for the minutes you use. So we signed up and it has been several months of no charges. On our latest bills that came today, I noticed a charge of 3.28 on each bill for long distance. So I called to ask why I was being billed for long distance even though I haven't used it. I was told it is an access fee to have long distance available to us. It is not a charge, it a fee. Is there a difference? So after going around and around with them about fees and charges, I said to drop the long distance with them, we don't use it anyway so what is the sense of paying an access fee for something you never access.
So she said ok and said she would take long distance off our accounts and our next bill will reflect a 4.00 fee for dropping their long distance and a 12.00 fee for making a change on our service(on each line).
I find it rediculous that companies can just charge you fees for providing you with nothing.
tell them if they want to charge your for dropping the service; you will drop them and find another phone company . And be prepared to do that if they do not back down.
All these competitive companies are forgetting that it is all about "service" and if you do not get it, you should go elsewhere.
I've had long distance companies 'say' that I approved a long distance carrier change when in fact I knew nothing about it... So not only was my carrier changed w/o my permission but I was charged for the process. Fortunately I caught it on my bill. I called to ask what was up and they credited me that charge and put it back. I then put a hold on my account that I had to be the one to change my long distance carrier personally.
Currently I have unlimited long distance through my telephone service and it is only $20 a month. No surprises about charges and I can budget for how much it is each month easily.
Frank wrote:"tell them if they want to charge your for dropping the service; you will drop them and find another phone company . And be prepared to do that if they do not back down."
I would love to, unfortunately part of living in small town America is that you are very limited on phone service choices. This is our local phone company and their service is terrible. Everyone hates them. We have our cell phones with a nation wide company and are satified with them. Our cell phones have just about eliminated the need for land line phones, but we still need them for a few things.
Lately it seems in this area, every utility company has started charging fees. Electric, Gas, Water, they all have fees that are tacked on the bill. We've complained and have written to govt. agencies that are supposed to look after these guys but when they are the only game in town they get away with a lot.
Frank wrote:"tell them if they want to charge your for dropping the service; you will drop them and find another phone company . And be prepared to do that if they do not back down."
You may also consider pulling up to their front door in a large van and start screaming "Infidels, Infidels."
You will see that they will take your requests more seriously.
That is so TRUE! When you live in rural America, you get shafted big time because there *is* no competition! Our trash company consistently fails at least once a month to pick up our trash, and waiting another week for the next round of trash pickup is horrible, because we have so many animals and there is lots of waste, in addition to our own. Calls bring a week's credit added to our bill, but there are no apologies, and no attempt to improve service. There are other trash collection agencies, but we've heard they are way worse on customer service! Yikes! We've changed our phone over to a smaller, cheaper company than the Bell system, and our bill has literally been cut in half, but some of our county neighbors have only one company to pick from, and they are the ones that tack on all those fees. However, the Bell company calls our phone at least twice a week trying to get our service back, and harasses us! Gawl.. it's all so Crrrrrrazy!
