Read your phone bills!!!

[ScrappyDoo]

OK so this may sound ridiculous to some that I am upset by this but it is more the principle of the thing that gets me.

I recently made a change to my phone service (removing voicemail) and was looking on my bill to make sure the change had been implemented. I noticed while browsing my bill that there was a "change fee" of $5.25 added to my bill. When I called to ask about this the representative told me that any time you make any change to your bill you get charged this fee but it usually gets waived if you ask. Now what kind of shenanigans are they pulling here? "We will charge a fee but if you ask we will waive it". How about not charging the fee in the first place!!!!!!

I wonder how many other charges I haven't noticed and paid without batting an eye?

STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!!!!!!


YAY!!! Capitalism at its best!!!!

[wookin]

What company is this? We have vonage and love it.

[Cynthiabutterfly]

This is good advice, on ALL your bills. You never know when terms will change, or charges will be added. It only takes me 3 minutes to pay my bills online, so I spend another 10 minutes looking over them, and reading them. Longer if the charges are more or less than what they usually are, or if I have a new company, or I made any changes to my service.

I also spend a few minutes every 6 months or so to look for better deals on electricity, tv, cell phone, etc.

[zoeys_mom]

Yep, as Cynthiabutterfly says, it is a good idea to view all your bills for random added charges. I especially pay close attention to those on autobill pay as those are the ones that they might assume don't get viewed and they might try to sneak in charges.

[Shy2481]

I always check my bills. I have a $10.00 charge added on to my phone bill 2 times in the last year for some random thing they said i had added, um no, i didn't add anything. I caught it both times and had them remove it. I have sprint.

[MaryMary]

OK so this may sound ridiculous to some that I am upset by this but it is more the principle of the thing that gets me.

I recently made a change to my phone service (removing voicemail) and was looking on my bill to make sure the change had been implemented. I noticed while browsing my bill that there was a "change fee" of $5.25 added to my bill. When I called to ask about this the representative told me that any time you make any change to your bill you get charged this fee but it usually gets waived if you ask. Now what kind of shenanigans are they pulling here? "We will charge a fee but if you ask we will waive it". How about not charging the fee in the first place!!!!!!

I wonder how many other charges I haven't noticed and paid without batting an eye?

STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!!!!!!


YAY!!! Capitalism at its best!!!!

The fee is targeted for someone who tend to change their mind frequently, in and out of various sevices and add-ons often, as it is takes time and resources for company to make these switches. The waiver is a 1 time courtesy to the customer. Just like when paying credit card bill late for a couple days, once in a long time of a good record, they could waive that late fee for you.

[manders13]

Cincinnati Bell does this, To add or disconnect a service.

Not sure about other companies.

[Macaela25]

I have a coworker who has Verizon TV service. She finally noticed that she'd been charged for an adult premium subscription channel she knew nothing about. When she questioned her boyfriend, he told her that he'd accessed free adult "previews", but had done nothing that would cost money. When she called Verizon, the CS person verified that he hadn't ordered anything...but if you access the free "preview" on any channel (adult, HBO, Cinemax, etc) too many times, Verizon automatically subscribes you to that channel without any type of notification. She'd paid over $20 a month for 6 months since she didn't read her bill carefully.

I guess free isn't really free anymore.

[ladyspl]

I got charged $3 to change my maiden name to my married name! WTF! I called them on it and it was waived, but nonetheless!
I agree that it is a service provided issue, they have to pay their people. However, I also believe it is a "if they catch it, we'll apologize and credit it, but if not, then we just made more money" kinda thing.
My wireless provider charged me megabyte usage every time you hit the up arrow on the phone and it opened the option for internet (that is another story, nice how they make phones that if you breathe the wrong way and its in your purse, the phone will access the internet) I called them on that too. Did that 3 months in a row, until they were called on it in a national news article! HMMMM kinda makes ya wonder...

[bali1228]

This is why I have MagicJack, no more bogus fees , I pay a smidge more for my internet, but without all the tacked on fees it's actually half of what the double bundle was.