Verizon: Long Distance minimum "Shortfall" (non-use) charges...

dant

The Living Force
Well, it must be one of the "Protocols of Zion", where if you
do not use a product or service, you will be charged a minimum
non-use fee especially if you did not OPT OUT in a narrowly defined
length of time.

Did you get that?

As of April 2007, Verizon has posted (in fine print), that there
will be a minimum charge for Long distance charges of $2.00
plus tax ($0.20) for "Shortfall" usage. This is part of their opt-out
strategy whereas if you do not respond, charges will be automatically
accrued on a per-month basis.

If you can get though billing on your call, then you will be forwarded
to several departments (> 1 hour) and finally you will be asked
a series of questions and finally telling them to REMOVE VERIZON or
ANY LD CARRIER from your account, you will be charged a one time
fee of $9.43 to have a LINE ENTRY removed from your account.

Since when we first noticed the $2.20 charge in our April bills, we
at first unsuccessful being able to get a hold of a representative,
and there was initially confusion as to what it was we were complaining
about and to which department the "complaint" was to be forwarded to
and we were on the phone for several hours with no resolutions.

So, we ended up calling our local PUC (Public Utility Commission) to be
told NOT to pay for the $2.20 charges until after their investigations.

Several weeks later, we received a call from an investigator checking
into "slamming". he said that since LD carriers are NOT REGULATED
(De-regulated) and this type of charges did not meet the definition of
"slamming", we were told that Verizon adamantly refused to credit us
(because they claimed that they gave due notice and was in line with
policy disclosure), and we would have to not only pay the $2.20 charges
for the month of April 2007 but also a one time LD removal fee of $9.43
and once removed, LD calls in/out CANNOT be made on our land lines,
which is fine for us, since we never make such calls and we have an
Internet connection anyway.

Anyway, it is strange and getting stranger that we will probably in the
future be getting into such "scams" by deregulations - and I can see
it: If you don't use a product or it's services, you will be required to
pay for the non-use of such product of services. The PTB will create
trumped up charges and will most likely "get away with it" especially
if it is of a national level as opposed to a state level government, but
lets not fool ourselves.

Oh what a ponerized society we live in. I am thinking about calling my
state rep and give him an ear or two... but what's the use of talking to
a psychopath anyway?
 
Hi Dant,

Not sure if you're aware of it or not, but in most states, BellSouth charges a non-usage charge for their LD carriers as well. In Florida, for instance, the phone carrier is largely BellSouth. But the long distance calls went through the carrier of your choice. I had a dedicated line for my computer at the time and still had to pay a $5.00 LD non-usage fee for AT&T, and if I didn't choose my LD carrier, they'd choose it for me.

No matter how much I argued that it was a dedicted line for a computer, it didn't matter to them.

There are also other taxes added to your phone bill (not cell phones) that cover 911 and other such services. They're spelled out in fine, light blue print (hard to read) somewhere on the backs of the bill.

Since I have Vonage now, I don't have these issues.

Peg
 
dant said:
Anyway, it is strange and getting stranger that we will probably in the
future be getting into such "scams" by deregulations - and I can see
it: If you don't use a product or it's services, you will be required to
pay for the non-use of such product of services.
Ya, we have to pay NOT to have long distance service, which seems completely backwards to how it should be. Plus we have to pay for a non-listed number. And even then one would think that since we pay for a non-listed number that the phone company wouldn't sell knowledge of that number to their "partners" (as they like to refer to solicitors who buy such info), but that's not always the case as I found out. Before I had ever given anybody my new unlisted phone number the local newspaper started calling me every day (they knew my name too!) asking me to buy their paper, and even though I refused they kept calling back! Morons, and I'm being nice with that label.

Now about every 3 months they start delivering the paper - without asking me or charging me - and actually expect me to throw it away for them. It's their trash, not mine! I called and told them to come get their trash out of my driveway and never leave it there again. They came and got it, but sure enough they started dumping it there again. Sheesh. I can hardly believe it. Where I live we have to pay for trash pickup. So it costs me money if I throw it out. So now what I do is take the newpapers over to their little curbside box where they sell newpapers and put them on top so people can have them free, and keep their money.

OK, I'm done ranting about stupid animals.
 
Hi Mark,

That's sequential dialing for ya! You're in a computer.

I had asked the Sun Sentinal to stop calling me every year for 17 years. I had a non-published number, and they had it in their computer.

The sales calls finally stopped when I wrote to the paper's CEO, and any other official office they have, and explained that how, after 17 years of me asking them not to call my non-published number, that I was considering it harassment. They refused to flag my number when asked 17 times.


Peg
 
This is sort of off topic, but not. ;)

Here where I live in the state of Washington, there has been talk of charging people for not using city water. Like if you have a well. They want to charge a tax to these people because they aren't paying the city for water. Let's not think about the fact that well user's pay for the electricity to run the well pump. I guess they aren't making enough money with that.

This has a few people a little up tight about it. And, yes, I'm on a well.
 
This happens in other states too. In most places, garbage disposal is calculated according to the percentage of water you use, if you don't use any city water, they have no way of figuring the charge of your garbage pick up.

Some people here recycle their garbage, compost, taking things to the dump, but there is no way to dispose of some things easily, as I have found out for myself. And living in the city makes burning difficult. So I guess those on wells will have to deal with the water company.

Peg
 
dant said:
Well, it must be one of the "Protocols of Zion", where if you
do not use a product or service, you will be charged a minimum
non-use fee especially if you did not OPT OUT in a narrowly defined
length of time.
yup! Protocol 4
cassiopedia.org said:
Protocol 4 discusses the destruction of spiritual life, and the corruption of values into materialism. This is to be fueled by the growth of international industry and the purely materialistic profit motive. The world view is impoverished to the point that all actions in society are reduced to a matter of 'economics', whereas spiritual motives or matters of conscience are completely disregarded. This is well illustrated by game theory, a modern highly respected yet entirely materialistic psychopathic model of reality.
Plus there is the general theme which runs through several of the protocols, of crushing the people beneath petty but 'immovable' bureaucracy. More and more, this role seems to be carried out by the corporates, as well as the system of government/judiciary - it all adds up to one big pathocracy.
 
Hidden fees have been the trend for boosting profits and soaking money from taxpayers for several years now. Check your bill next time you rent a car. Banks and credit-card companies are notorious for fees, and they're never included in the advertised price of things. An acquaintance just paid, I think $128, for pre-paid mobile-phone plan that was advertised at $100. Back in 1989 I bought a new car (last time I did that) and made a final offer to the salesman of $9000 and no additional fees of any kind (I said this because I knew they had a ton of them). Somehow, it still cost me $9028.

Interestingly, Mitt Romney, when governor of Massachusetts, balanced the state budget largely by instituting and raising fees of all sorts. That way, they didn't have to be called taxes, even though they are effectively hidden taxes. As a ruthless business tycoon, I'm sure he became familiar with all the tricks of maximizing cash flow by slippery means.
 
mudrabbit said:
This happens in other states too. In most places, garbage disposal is calculated according to the percentage of water you use, if you don't use any city water, they have no way of figuring the charge of your garbage pick up.

Some people here recycle their garbage, compost, taking things to the dump, but there is no way to dispose of some things easily, as I have found out for myself. And living in the city makes burning difficult. So I guess those on wells will have to deal with the water company.

Peg
Actually, I have heard that even if you do not use water (not ONE drop), you are still required to pay a minimum fee. This is also true of electricity (and maybe gas) usage. This was was pointed out to me from a friend I met over the Internet that lives in the UK.

If you can, test this theory, see what happens when you turn off the water at the meter for X months so that you can see the billing results during this billing period while getting your water from some other source. Make sure that you record the meter reading at the time you shut off the service so that you can compare and see if they still somehow show an increase of usage where there should be none and still try to give you a bill. Some municipalities charge over X months per billing period and the results (a graph maybe) should be shown. You could try the same for electricity and gas. I'd bet the results might be surprising.
 
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