Everything was set up. After some initial problems with the bum modem they sent us, we got everything going. There is still problems of course, because the speed will fluctuate or drop down to almost dial-up but for the most part it has been better. The first thing we did was upgrade the operating system. It is as far as we can go now. The next step is an Intel iMac. Tiger is annoying. It has all kinds of weird quirks that annoy me. Panther was much better. But we couldn't upgrade the browsers any farther with Panther. Next came browser upgrades, as far as we could go without having an Intel iMac. It actually made a difference for a short while, a couple of months. It was smooth sailing on the internet. Then at the beginning of this month, websites started to lag again and we started to get stop scripts again. Despite the actual internet speed, the website pages are getting slow to load again. They just keep writing out older operating systems and browsers. Apple totally forgot about us. They could have at least kept Safari going for us. Yeah, I hope you read that Apple executive who was on my blog. Nathan has no such problems with his PS3. So he has been happy with playing games online. I get to listen to it every night. You know, guys can be really immature on there.
Anyway, we got the first bill and it was over $200. Ouch! Can anyone tell me why you can't just get the exact services you want instead of being forced into paying for a lump of services which you don't want just to get that one thing? I wanted caller id. In order to get it we have to pay for 13 other services we don't want. Why? I just want local, long distance, and caller id. It's that simple. But no! They force you into a bunch of crap you'll never use or want.
They charged a fee of $31.20 to do the central office line connect. Why exactly did it cost that much? Was it that strenuous of a job? Seriously. Then they charged $37.95 to mail the bum modem to us. That was expensive shipping. Then there was a plethora of Virginia state sales taxes multiple times, Federal Excise taxes multiple times, county taxes multiple times. Taxes, taxes, taxes. And our Founding Fathers thought they were taxed to death! The majority of the bill was the telephone company's inflated set-up fees (and Nathan set-up the internet himself, not them- that would have cost a lot more) and government taxes and fees. Without us making a long-distance call, the phone bill is $86 a month. A total rip-off. It costs that much for us to connect our phone and computer to the outside world. Ridiculous. It's not like they had to come and install telephone lines or anything. These phone lines have been here for years. So why does it cost so much?
Let's look at some of these charges on a phone bill. First there is the Universal Service Fund Surcharge. It started out as a fee made up by the FCC to provide schools, doctors, and such with connection services. In the future it is supposedly going to go into funds to expand broadband internet across America. From what I read, the telephone companies themselves are supposed to pay the fees, not consumers. So instead of the phone companies taking it out of their profits, they charge all of us to pay for it. But aren't we already paying taxes to do these things? The Virginia state budget has a funding of $13.2 billion dollars. They can't pay for phone and internet out of that? Can't doctor offices pay for their own services? A single doctor makes a hell of a lot more than my family, so why do I have to pay for the doctor to have phone and internet services? It makes no sense.
Then there is the 911 tax. Here is the thing. The 911 tax does not actually go towards paying for the 911 centers. In the state of Virginia, the money collected goes first towards government administrative salaries. After that, money goes to the Virginia Relay Centers for the hearing impaired (that's fine). Any leftovers get handed out to towns, cities, and counties for whatever undisclosed purposes. Not one penny goes towards 911. A Big Fat Lie. Yet citizens never question the lie or even look into it to find out that they are being scammed by the government.
Then there are the multiple right-of-way fees. I have found two explanations for this charge. One is that it is charged for you to access the network. Isn't that what you are already paying for in the subscriber line charge- to have access to the network? Why do we have to pay twice for the same thing? The other explanation has to do with phone lines on properties. But instead of you paying the phone company, shouldn't they be paying you for putting poles up on your property? Why are we being charged for poles and lines which have been up for many years anyway? How many generations are going to have to pay for the same exact crap? It sounds like another bullshit charge to me.
Then there are the multiple 'Non-Telecom Services Surcharges' with no explanation whatsoever. Just made up charges the phone company can't give you a straight answer on. What is this shit? Really.
Next is the carrier cost recovery fee. It is a total bullshit charge. The phone companies charge it for really no reason. They say it is for state-to-state or international calls, but you are charged this fee even if you do not make such calls. Again, aren't you already paying a fee for those long-distance calls when you make them? Some also say the fee is to pay for accounting services and national regulatory fees. Shouldn't that be coming out of the phone company's profits instead of being charged to consumers? Basically this fee is just there to bring in extra profit for the company.
Coming this summer will be another charge! An Access Recovery Charge. Can you guess what their explanation is for this one? Another charge for access to the network! How many fees are for the same thing now? Three? Subscriber Line Charge, Right-of-Way Fee, and now also the Access Recovery Fee. Yes, three.
The Federal Excise Tax is paid to the IRS, just like income taxes. Except they put it into effect during times of war or economic downturn. Let's slam citizens even more during rough times. That makes perfect sense. If you are poor, you can get a good bit of your income taxes back. So why can't you get a refund on the Excise taxes you paid?
There is also a large part consisting of various sales taxes. Sales taxes in Virginia, for the most part, go into funding VDOT. I totally disagree with paying sales taxes to fund VDOT. If you have been reading my blog, you already know why I feel this way. Why should I want to fund VDOT to make my family, or anyone else, homeless for road expansions? It is like paying them to take away my home. Why should I have to pay sales taxes?
Speaking of sales taxes, they also charge you for sales tax on long-distance calls. But if you don't make one single long-distance call and the balance is zero, you still get charged sales tax. How do they get a 70 cent tax on a zero amount? Or are they charging you taxes on the Carrier Cost Recovery Fee which is under long distance? Are they charging a tax on a fee? That doesn't make sense at all.
Phone bills are full of bullshit charges and fees. All these things are just 'legal' scams to get more money out of consumers.
Why aren't Americans doing anything about it?
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