F...Hidden Costs, Fees and Magic Numbers

[MTK]

Cell phone companies are horrible with all their hidden fees. A monthly plan that they advertise as $39.99 per month with an added line at $9.99 actually ends up costing about $65 per month once they're done with all the fees and taxes.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Cell phone companies are horrible with all their hidden fees. A monthly plan that they advertise as $39.99 per month with an added line at $9.99 actually ends up costing about $65 per month once they're done with all the fees and taxes.

Ever take a look at a home phone line? My cell isn't that bad with extra fees, but my home phone is horrible.
I happen to be paying my home phone bill right now, here are all the fees / taxes...seriously:
From the basic service:
1- Federal tax
2- state tax
3- city sales tax
4- Municipal franchise fee
5- county tax
6- telecommunications relay service
7- 911 fee implimentation
8- 911 fee maintenance
9- FCC USF charge
From the optional service:
10- Telecommunications relay service (again)
11- federal excise tax
12- state tax (again)
13- city sales tax (again)
14- county tax (again)
15- non published number (totally worth the $2.30 a month)
16- residence line
17- call forward fee
18- interstate subscriber line change
19- call block
20- caller id
21- call waiting
22- call return
Those were actually taken directly off my bill.
So even though I have no long distance on this line, what should cost me $25.18, actually costs me $40.13 a month. Horrible!