Alright, I've been paying my phone bill as an automatic thing for a while now...and for some reason, I was inspired to actually look at the charges tonight and I'm a bit confused.... I have 2 lines (1 fax, 1 reg) which comes as a package thing for $38.95 So I'm a bit bewildered why my bill is $60.93...which DOES NOT include any long distance (I use a seperate billing for that which has nothing to do with Qwest). Now of all the 'extra' charges the biggest one is the FEDERAL ACCESS CHARGE which is $13.09. Um, WTF? I went to the FCC website and according to them that is a charge which has been around since the 1984 when AT&T...yada yada yada...and there is a CAP of how much can be charged. Well I can't find that CAP amount...anyone know where I can see such a number? And here are the 9 extra charges: Federal Excise Tax State Tax City Tax County Tax Federal Universal Service Fund Arizona Universal Service Fund Telecom Services Excise Tax 911 Excise Tax and of course the Federal Access Charge Um....ok.....so maybe I just haven't been paying attention, which appears to be the case, but am I the only one that thinks Qwest is raping me here? If I am, then I guess I'm just venting....so thanks
It's sick, twisted and demented! And to think you're the only who complained on et. Most of us just pay it blindly... Here's a link though that shows how long it's been itemized w/o any results! http://wirelessreview.com/ar/wireless_tax_wars/
It isn't Qwest that's screwing you - it's all the taxing agencies (city, county, state, and 5-6 different federal "chuck you farleys") - they've got their damn noses stuck deep in your pocket as usual. Try finding a breakdown of why a gallon of gas costs $2.25/gallon - it's really about $1.38 base cost, about another 12 cents factored in for transportation and delivery and about 75 cents from various taxes that everyone from the city to the fed tacks on to feed their insatiable spending fervor. Why should your phone bill be any different?
Exactly! Why should you pay$10-15 in taxes for a hotel when you're from out of state either? The thing that kills me is that the majority of Americans like paying these taxes. Why O why O why?
Well that's what I thought too, but of the $20.28 that I'm paying in extra charges....: $5.61 goes to the state, county, federal...etc, etc.. $0.42 goes to pay for the services for the hearing impaired $1.16 goes to..and I quote "Because telephones provide a vital link to emergency services, to government services and to surrounding communities, it has been our nationâs policy to promote telephone service to all households since this service began in the 1930s. The USF helps to make phone service affordable and available to all Americans, including consumers with low incomes, those living in areas where the costs of providing telephone service is high, schools and libraries and rural health care providers. Congress has mandated that all telephone companies providing interstate service must contribute to the USF. Although not required to do so by the government, many carriers choose to pass their contribution costs on to their customers in the form of a line item, often called the "Federal Universal Service Fee" or "Universal Connectivity Fee." and $13.09 goes...."to cover the costs of the local phone network. " and then in bold letters it says This is not a government charge or tax, and it does not end up in the governmentâs treasury... guess they wanted to make that clear..... So it appears the bulk of the extra charges is NOT going to the government. Not that I appreciate the amount that does, but fighting the government about taxes is nothing new and certainly nothing unique to the communications industry.... Its the +70% NOT going to the government that is pissing me off
Isn't it amazing? There are so many additional charges placed on a telephone. I don't understand how the feds, state and country can tax the same phone number. I'm surprised our home owner's association hasn't found some way to ride this gravy train.
Read that one of the line items on the bill is in whole or part a tax to finance the Spanish American War. Thought we paid that war off. Geo.
Well compared to the amount of taxes, surcharges and other inflated charges on our cable bill, it can't put much of a dent.