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What they're not telling
you
37 Items that should be of interest
These tactics and fees are common operating procedures at
some of the major carriers. While not all carriers use all
of them, let the buyer beware.
Be very aware.
Please contact us with other examples so we can keep the
list current.
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| Privacy |
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| Did you know your
Phone Bills are for Sale? |
Business and consumers'
privacy is for sale again. The Federal Communications Commission
issued consumer-protection rules containing so many loopholes
that telephone companies now routinely sell customer records
with few obstacles.
Unless customers wade through complex instructions on how
to say no, mass marketers could buy information from local,
long-distance and cellular companies about the recipients
of consumers' call and the times and lengths of their calls.
In the near future, even the locations of cellphone users
when they make calls may be up for sale.
Our Privacy Disclosure is straightforward:
We never have and never will sell or rent our customer information
- Period! end of Privacy Disclosure.
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| Tax and Surcharge
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| USF Tax Markup |
Most carriers add a
big markup to the fees charged for Universal Service Fund. Insist
that you only pay the actual fee, currently around 6%, not the
11% that some ask for. |
| PICC fees |
Do not pay a marked up fee. It's
a $1.50 per line. |
| Property Tax Surcharge |
Can you imagine, they want you to
pay their property tax?
Look for all sorts of hidden attempts to separate you from your
money. should be $0. |
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| Monthly Fees |
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| Minimum Monthly Fee |
Minimum dollars required to get
the rates offered. If you don't make the minimum, some charge
it to you anyway. Others, charge you a completely different
rate. The minimum should be $0. |
| Monthly Recurring
Fees |
Just more money out of your pocket.
Should be $0. |
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| Volume & Commitments |
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| Volume Commitments |
Often to get the best rates you
have to make a big volume commitment. If you don't hit your
required usage (sometimes on a monthly basis) you will be charged
(see below).
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| Under Utilization
Penalties |
Windfalls paid to carriers for not
meeting your commitments. These can be assessed monthly, yearly
or at the end of the contract term. Temporarily releasing you
from these handcuffs, is a common tactic in preventing you from
working with another carrier. These can be much bigger than
anticipated, because they are often computed on a special penalty
rate schedule. |
| Sub—Commitments |
There may be specific requirements
for certain types of calls.
For example, international. |
| Excluded Services
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Not all services count toward your
minimums. |
| Long Term Commitments |
These will keep you locked in for
years to come. |
| Termination Fees |
There can be fees to leave. |
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| Promotions &
Discounts |
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| Timed Credits |
Credits can be effective for only
specified dates. |
| Specific Credits |
Credits can be applied only to very
specified products. |
| Cross Credits |
Credits are only applicable if certain
other products are used. |
| Promotional Rates
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Rates can exist only for a specific
time frame, or range of minutes. |
| Direct Billing Rates |
Only effective if you allow credit
card or direct bank access. If things go wrong, you may have
to spend months trying to get the money put back in your checking
account. |
| Bundling |
To get a service (or rate) sometimes
you have to buy another service. For example if you want a good
long distance rate you have to buy local. |
| RBOC Surcharge |
Rates are only effective for calls
originated from an RBOC. |
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| Per Call |
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| Initial Period |
Initial roundup can be as long as
3 minutes. Look for a short period such as 6 seconds. One carrier
actually advertises a 1010 "dial around" service with
a 20 minute period. Domestic and international calls may have
different periods. This is especially important to call centers
or others with lots of short calls. |
| Incremental Period |
Incremental rounding can also be
up to 3 minutes. |
| Off Net Surcharges |
Different rates for calls not on
the carriers direct network. |
| Payphone Surcharges |
Some mark it up, Should be 26 cents
per call. |
Call Setup/
Connect charges |
Additional costs to
initiate a call. Why ? |
| Expensive Dir. Assistance
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Often as high as $1.99 each. Wow! |
| High international
rates |
Be careful. |
| City Surcharged Rates
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Country based prices are promoted,
but rates may only be effective for major cities. Smaller cities
can be a surprise. |
| International cellular/
mobile |
Often a large surprise (can be 10
times the country price) to call an international cell phone. |
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| Quality |
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| Poor Quality Connections |
Some carriers use low quality termination
partners as a result, the quality of the call can suffer greatly. |
| Long Setup Times |
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| Dropped calls |
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| Mis-billed calls |
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| Poor SLAs |
Service Level Agreements can vary
widely, read them carefully! |
| Voice over Internet
(VoIP) |
Calls placed this way often are
inferior to circuit switched calls. |
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| Fluctuating Rates |
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| Discount Based Rates |
Rates can be based as a percentage
of some base rate.
If the base rate goes up (as they often do), so does your price. |
| Multiple Discount
Structure |
There can be discounts on discounts,
which can make it almost impossible to determine actual call
cost. |
| Obtained Rates |
Rates / discount levels are based
on usage in a given category, and can change each month. |
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| Conference Calls |
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| Longest duration billing |
Some vendors use the longest duration
of the call to calculate charges rather than the actual charge
of each participant. |
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Two 6 second calls, each at 6 cents per
minute:
11% USF with 60 second initial costs 6.66 cents
6% USF with 6 second initial costs 0.63 cents.
This is 10 times the price!
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| Bottom Line |
Ask to see the rates you are paying,
and the accompanying terms and conditions in writing. Don't
be comforted by claims, that it's all 'just boilerplate".
The "good stuff" is often hidden behind complex disclosure
documents.
So if you don't know what you're paying - call us and we
will help you figure it out. Our specialists are trained in
reverse engineering invoices and contracts to get to the real
bottom line.
Don't get taken for a ride.
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