I wish I could get $36 DSL. I live out in the boonies where none of the big companies service, so all we have is the local telephone company that only recently (about 4 or 5 years ago) got DSL and that still offer dial-up connections. My 256K DSL connection costs me $60/month, but there is no other alternative where I live.

*sigh*

Still, at least the customer service is great, and they could tell me that before I signed up.

In general, I believe DSL service is taxed less than cable, but I'm not sure. I have verizon DSL in massachusetts and there are NO additional fees or taxes.

I had many billing problems with Verizon when I first signed up, but their retentions department was able to keep me a customer (I got free DSL for 6 months out of it).

I tried using the online form during my problems in August. I finally received a response in October, long after it had been resolved. Ironically, the response contained incorrect information.

...at least you got Verizon to admit naked DSL exists. That's further than I ever got with them. I was flat-out told by multiple reps that it was impossible to have DSL with a land line.

Which is why I ended up going with Speakeasy.net.

Here in NYC I pay $29.99 per month to Verizon for my DSL and I have been under the impression for the past few years that I need my landline for it. It is a one-year contract price. From what I see in my one-bill bundle, it's just the 29.99. Of course, the VZW cell phone and my Verizon landline all have the taxes & surcharges that make a loanshark look like simple-interest calculation. Although a little off-topic, a verizon door-to-door saleskid came by today to tell me that FIOS was now available in my neck of the woods. He even had bright red Verizon jacket and Verizon ID card dangling from his neck. Anyway, right now, the whole FIOS package is too expensive for me. Plus I don't want to go through the hassle of the install procedure.

Call your city's utility liason and tell them this story. When dealing with the person who can recommend to the city council that they terminate Verizon's franchise agreement, the answer will magically appear.

I find it astounding OP is making such a gargantuan deal about what will ostensibly be maybe $2-5 per month. Do you know the tax rate in your zip code? Multiply by the monthly charge, and add on maybe a dollar for surcharges. 7% tax rate you're looking at about $2 per month. Add on a buck or two for estimated surcharges and there you go. An educated estimate should be more than enough to make a decision on the service. And if your finances are so tight that an extra $3 per month is a deal-breaker, well you probably shouldn't be signing up for luxuries like internet access. Don't mean to troll, just trying to be realistic.

@rubyfrog: While I think it would be nice to know a final price, I don't think it's about that as much as Verizon is saying that no one could ever know what the answer is unless he signs up.

Regardless, 2-5 bucks on $30 is anywhere from 6.67% to 16.67%. It's not a small number, it's quite large.

I have ordered services from AT&T and after taxes, fees, and more fees the price was double!

If you are trying to decide which service to purchase it is important to be able to compare.

AT&T (or A Fee and Fee) adds lots of fees, Time Warner road runner adds sales tax, and only on the amount over $25/mo.

Its a big deal.

To be far to A Fee and Fee, last time they were able to give me the exact number, and I use their services now.

@nybiker: And the possible fires (Now standard in all FiOS installations. Ask for it today!)

@ohenry: I have a couple farmer-friends who live out in the sticks whose only option is dial-up or satellite. The speed isn't all that bad, but the latency is awful, and because of this they can not use their connections to game (it would suck, but the company actually blocks those ports).

Anywho, since the cost of what we pay for in the city ($20) is tripled for them we discovered it would more cost effective to get a wireless network service. So I helped one of them discontinue his service, and set up a 3G connection through his wireless carrier. The price is roughly the same, but he can use it for gaming, and there are also wireless routers that exist with special card slots for certain wireless network cards which is perfect for his wide one-story house.

Basically, if you're paying that much for shitty DSL service right now, check out 3G in your area. Someone you know might have a 3G enabled phone with your same wireless carrier that you can check out in your home to see if it gets a strong enough signal and use something similar.

The only real downside is the download cap they place on those services even though they are "unlimited", but that wasn't a problem for my friend as the most he uses his internet for now is COD4/5.

@AustinTXProgrammer:
I will say this for them.. I have "DSL Direct" with
them and my bill is $47.95 a month. Which is
exactly what it's listed on the website.
[www.bellsouth.com]

@AustinTXProgrammer: Do some states/localities levy taxes on DSL? I pay $25 a month for 6Mbps dryloop/naked/DSL Direct and have no taxes whatsoever.

I have had Verizon dry-loop DSL now for two months, and I'm very happy with the service (we had Roadrunner and screw you Time Warner, the speeds were a third what you promised). BUT, and it's kind of a big but, it took three reps to sign up for it. I think Verizon deliberately does not educate their sales reps that this service exists anywhere there are phone lines. So I would get a rep who said no they don't offer that service in my area and I would say thank you and hang up and call right back. Yeah, it's a little Soviet, but what are you gonna do? For some reason, it's a service that they have to send a tech out to set up, and they're not making a lot off it, so they aren't going out of their way to advertise that it's available.

The tax problem, I wish I had an answer for. I haven't been charged any taxes on my service yet. I'm in NYC, so there are definitely taxes owed--they just haven't figured it out yet. We'll probably get a bill including back taxes at some point. I think it SHOULD be against the law to not tell people what they'll be paying in taxes, but I'm just happy to have the speed they promise and not have two or more outages in my Internet every freaking week. Did I already say screw you Time Warner?

This happened to me, too -- but it was even worse. A rep promised me a $99 package that included DSL, DirecTV, and phone service. When I asked for confirmation of the price, she said that it would come in a confirmation email. The email stated NOTHING about the price, except that it was a 2-year commitment. After several calls, nobody would confirm the price -- NOT EVEN THE BASE (PRE-TAX) FEE!!!

Who in the hell would commit for two years at a mystery price?

Apparently, lots of people, because this is how Verizon does business. I said "no thanks" and canceled the deal.

The title is misleading, Verizon knows how much their DSL service costs, it costs $29.99. What they don't want to figure out is how much the customer ends up paying to various government bodies.

It doesn't surprise me that Verizon doesn't want to figure this out either. The tax situation has to be a logistical nightmare. I'm not saying Verizon shouldn't be bothered, but with the various federal, state and county taxes and regulations to consider, I'm sure it's confusing even for them.

$29.99 + tax from Verizon should be roughly the same as $29.99 + tax from any other vendor. It's not like you're going to shop around and find a break on taxes.

After six months of ads for Verion's FIOS triple play, I finally called to see what it would actually cost with HBO, etc. No one knew. I even tried writing to the "Vice President" who had signed the ad and never got a response. Finally, while changing my son's cell phone at a Verizon Wireless store, we noticed a kiosk for FIOS. The representative was able to walk us through the charges to the penny. We actually wound up saving about $40 a month over our old service. Verizon has the information. I just don't know why they make is so difficult to obtain.

@ohenry:

there is another alternative. its called moving.

@nybiker: Naked DSL is $5 more. So the $29.99 would be $34.99 if you want to drop the landline.

@MustyBuckets: Blame the government, not Verizon.

The representative then reiterated that nobody could provide the information, and suggested I contact my county government for local tax information.

While I know it is not the 'best' answer, but it is a good one.

What do you ask when you ask when get a quote to work on you vehicle? Rarely, taxes is included with any quote.

@rubyfrog:
Agreed. I suspect that the only way Verizon's system will pull up the tax rate is by creating an order. Why would the CSR's have a binder or spreadsheet full of hundreds of different local tax rates? Anyway, you're right. Using basic logic and common sense could come up with an approximate number, which should be close enough. This guy is making a huge deal out of nothing, just so he can know if his service will be $34.55 or $34.56.

@sven.kirk: Part of the problem, though, is that there are a number of uncommon or specific taxes, as well as (sometimes, although it doesn't look so in this case) "fees" that aren't even government-based. If you write how-many-odd contracts per day for this service, at an advertised price-point, there should be someone at the company who can at least fake a bill, or check the billing of all the other people who have the same rate, to find the number.

I got the same runaround from Qwest. I was trying to figure out if switching would pay off in the long run but nobody could tell me what the final monthly cost would be, they could only give a ballpark number. I still saved money, but not as much as I thought I would.

@rubyfrog: I find it astounding that people are so careless about their money that they are willing to say "Sure, Verizon, just charge me whatever."

$2-$5 a month is $24-$60 per year. If you really have $25-$60 bucks that you would rather not use, I'll be happy to give you an address and you can send it to me.

@Squeezer99: Yeah, we all know that leaving a home in an area where you have a job to move closer to a large town, where you don't have a job, is what we should do.

I live in an area where we have two options for internet, local phone company or satellite. And 3G probably wont' EVER be in our area. Heck, we only got cell phone service 7 months ago when a tower was put up.

This is a govt problem. Their is no reason why the computer systems for these companies can't generate this kind of info. All the info has to be in their systems to generate bills.

On the bright side, that is the part of the bill that they don't get to keep, what bugs me is the price for their services. Or more precisely that they consistently raise prices, with no real change in service. It isn't an improvement in service when (insert name of your favorite utility here) they bundle useless, irrelevant and annoying services in the price of basic or some package.

@mythago:
He knows there is going to be taxes. I think it's fair to assume that via logic and common sense, one can conclude approximately what those taxes will be. It has nothing to do with being careless, it has to do with being reasonable and not wasting your time to nail down, to the penny, how much the bill will be.

@FLEB:
I'm sure there is someone in the company who could do this. However, they probably don't want to waste their time doing it. I don't blame them.

I know its a seemingly small issue...sure its probably $2-$4 a month.

However, if Verizon can prepare a bill once you have installed the service, then they are fully aware of the tax scheme for any zip code. This is just a matter of making the data set used for billing available to sales.

@sarahq:

Speakeasy is great. I eventually switched from them to cable because the phone lines in my area were horrible and no one could solve the issues, but that was clearly a Verizon problem; Speakeasy was always helpful, always willing to try reprovisioning or whatever on their end, etc.

@TrueBlue63:

All the info has to be in their BILLING system, which I always imagine as some huge old mainframe programmed with punch cards. There's no reason to expect it to be in the system being used by sales reps.

I live in Pittsburgh and have Verizon's naked DSL. Not sure what the service was called when I got the deal, I just called up and ordered a dry-loop. I pay $28.99 a month, it just increased from $25.99. I'm not sure how it breaks down, but any taxes and surcharges are included in that flat rate. When I did the research before I signed up, a land line would have cost $11.99 (plus tax and other random crap) and DSL on top of that would have been $19.99, so $35-ish altogether. I'm guessing that's increased by now as well.

@sarahq: "Naked" DSL is unknown to Verizon. They call it "Dry Loop" DSL. I have it, 3megs, works great, much cheaper then Cable, and faster constantly (Comcast can go suck it)

Funny how it's too hard to figure out the cost until AFTER he signs the contract, thus obligating him to agree to whatever number they pull out their ass...

@Pylon83:

Verizon can't type in a simple ZIP code and come up with an out the door price?

@Pylon83:

Verizon can't type in a simple ZIP code and come up with an out the door price?

@Pylon83:

Would you buy a new car with that same mode of
thinking? Just approximate the cost?

The phone companies are trying to screw you just like new car dealers, just on a lesser scale.

@Pylon83:

Would you buy a new car with that same mode of
thinking? Just approximate the cost?

The phone companies are trying to screw you just like new car dealers, just on a lesser scale.

@Blueskylaw:
When you negotiate the price of the car, they don't get into how much the taxes are going to be. That's all done on the back end when you actually pay. You wouldn't (or shouldn't) expect the sales rep to make/accept your offer and immediately calculate how much you'll owe in taxes. The suggestion that he call his local taxing authority was reasonable.

@goodcow: Actually, OP is probably not wanting to be surprised with $5-10 or made up fees and taxes imposed by Verizon that have nothing to do with any goverment body. In this day and age, the Corporation is more often the problem.

@Pylon83: I do

Really, they don't know unless they looked at a bill from his area. If the billing is automated and the csr has no access to that information then they don't know. He is one state talking to a front line person with a specific set of tools. Anything beyond that is out of their reach and designed that way on purpose. A giant company serving customers cant possibly be bothered to promote the actual cost. So don't get dsl. Get two cans and stretch them out between the houses. [en.wikipedia.org]
or short wave radios.
[tinyurl.com]
The key word with talking to companies is hide, disguise,confuse and frustrate us consumers until we are like I will just pay it. I lost my point somewhere in the second sentence. I am no augusten burroughs.
[en.wikipedia.org]
That guy can write. He was an ad guy.

@pmcpa2: Ah Verizon.

My fiancé and I recently spent 4 weeks trying to get a Dry Loop DSL connection with them. After calling their Customer Service number 3 times and getting transferred to some sort of phone sex place (I'm not kidding.) I finally was able to get a hold of a rep. I asked her if they offered anything faster than 3megs in my area and she said I could get a 7meg Dry Loop connection. She scheduled everything and said we would have the 7meg connection in 7 days. The 7 days came and went and nothing happened. We then spent an entire week just trying to talk to someone who could tell us WHY it hadn't been changed. Finally someone told us I needed to provide more billing information. I called the next day and spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to figure out what information they needed. A nice rep said he fixed everything and I received an e-mail conf I'd never received when I first asked for the change so I assumed this time it would go through. A week later after my fiancé dealing with their "tech support" fixes, they sent a technician to our house who told us he had no idea why they had even offered 7megs to us because it was physically impossible...so we, once again, spent 45 minutes on hold to go back to what we had before.

Moral of the story - Verizon can be quite incompetent.

/rant

one would think in this day and age that someone who would like to know his total bill would be lauded not picked on.the average person could easily save at least a $1000 a year from all this little piddling few dollers here and there.why should we not get total transparency from this mutli milliondoller company? it is easy to tease some one who save pennies and admire someone who spends greatly. imagine if you checked all your bills and argued against the useless chaff?

I had this exact situation when I signed up (and EVENTUALLY received) Verizon Dry Loop DSL. I was also concerned with the total cost, not necessarily because I was terribly concerned with the AMOUNT of money, but rather because the only way I could sign up for DSL was to give them a credit card. And the only credit card I've got is my Check Card. I for one, like to balance my checkbook, and to do that I'd need an exact amount. That was unacceptable, and after going up through the ranks for a few HOURS, I finally just bit the bullet.

On a side note- after only one month we ended up canceling the DSL service because the speed dropped to about 1/4 of what we were paying for (about 500K/sec according to Speakeasy compared to the 5MB/sec we're currently getting with Comcast). It took another two months to get them to refund the 40 dollars they direct-debited out of my account without my permission. I was never told that in order to get my rate I would have to authorize direct debit. I knew that I didn't give them permission because I don't allow anyone access to my checking account. I had to threaten legal action in order to get someone to send me a paper bill that I could pay with a check (and keep as a record of my payment). It was such a nightmare, I'll never deal with Verizon Land Service ever again!

I used to have the $19.99 1 year contract. Service was alright, but it kept cutting out and they had to send techs out all the damn time. See my comments on a recent post on how I was made to wait all day for them.. All in all they sucked - all of their 1st and 2nd level support people were outsourced to india - it made for a pretty horrible year, internet wise.

Anyways, to the OP, whats the big deal? It is going to be a few bucks more. Err on the side of caution and budget $40 a month for their service and move on dude!

@rubyfrog: I find it interesting that you defend verizon. They are the company that will be billing him. It's absurd to think they cannot give him the amount he will actually be billed. If they can't give that info to him, how will he ever be billed correctly?

@Pylon83: I think it's fair to assume that via logic and common sense, Verizon is at some point going to be able to figure out those taxes and send a customer a bill for them. Unless you think that every month, Verizon's billing department says "Oh shit, we can never figure this out...uh....just put $2, that sounds right."

If it's wasting your time to calculate how much a business is going to charge you, I would very much like to do business with you. Please sign this blank invoice for me.

@FarfallaEuropa: And yet, every month Verizon heroically struggles through this confusion and manages to bill me for fees and taxes on top of charging me a fixed sum for my monthly plan. I doubt that some miracle of comprehension happened between the time I became a customer and the time they first sent me a bill. They can figure this out, they just don't want to.