Verizon Charges A Fee For NOT Making Long Distance Calls

If you make a long distance call ... that's a charge. If you don't make a long distance call ... that's a charge also.

If your land line is through Verizon you might have some extra charges on your next bill. Verizon is not the only company that has started to do this either.

AP Business:

Phone bills are notorious for rankling customers with fees, taxes, tariffs and other mystery assessments.

Now some phone companies are adding a new line item to monthly bills: a charge for not making long-distance calls.

Verizon snuck the extra $2 charge in last month. Several of their customers were surprised that they were charged two bucks for NOT making long distance calls.

One of Verizon's customers doesn't make long distance calls with his land line because he has a Verizon cell phone. Yeah, he's not going to get another company.

Regulators have now stepped in to prevent phone companies from charging for not using service, but there is a fee for that as well.

Regulators require phone companies to provide basic local-phone service. The phone companies have to give customers a way out of the new monthly fee _ but they will charge another fee to eliminate the first fee. For instance, if Bius pays a $6.75 charge to have his long-distance access disconnected, Verizon will end the monthly $2 fee, but block his outgoing long-distance calls.

Verizon's response to all of this is sickening.

Verizon officials say the monthly charge is no different than paying a monthly bill for a home-phone connection and not making phone calls.

I hate that company with a passion. I used to have my cell with them, but I fired them because my bill was never correct. I never thought about it until now, but they used to put a $2-3 charge on my bill but they were never able to tell me what it was. I would have to file a complaint every month to have it removed. I wonder if I was a part of a case study to see if there would be a public outcry for sneaking a $2 charge into my bill.